Los Jornaleros del Norte is a musical group organized through the Day Laborer project of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). Here, Pablo Alvarado offers some reflections on art and culture at and beyond the street corner.

People see us struggle for a living on the street corners of big cities, in front of construction stores, on the sidewalks, in parks and parking lots. Some of us are tall, short, skinny, fat, young, and old. We are the workers who are commonly called esquineros (corner keepers), day laborers, day workers, or street workers. We do not come from the same country and we do not have the same customs, or manners of speech. Some of us had the opportunity of some formal education and others of us cannot even read or write in our own language. We day laborers are all different, but alike at the same time. Pedro, Juan, and Miguel all want the same thing: an employer that arrives at the corner or at the formal hiring sites to give us work. What do we day laborers do while we wait for a job at the corner or at the hiring sites? We have no choice but to interact and learn to co-exist with each other; even though many times we are forced to compete for work. Up to now, we day laborers have co-existed among jokes, stories, legends, words, expressions, heckling, nicknames, fights, work, music, and soccer games. But we have to understand that it is not only about surviving together; it’s also about sharing and organizing ourselves in sync with our happiness, struggles, and sorrows created and recreated by popular culture. The goal of the Jornaleros del Norte is to promote this celebration and struggle in order to strengthen the base for an organized, harmonious, peaceful, and intentional co-existence.

Los Jornaleros del Norte, first, is dedicated to recovering the cultural elements that emerge from the social interaction of our peoples. Then, we return these elements in a more ordered and critical form to the same people so that they can digest them and consciously begin to create a culture of liberation, a truly popular culture that addresses their daily needs and problems. These are the principles that guide the day laborer band’s work.

For Los Jornaleros del Norte, this popular culture materializes in the capacity to organize, denounce, raise consciousness and mobilize. Los Jornaleros del Norte has substituted songs for the common, boring and pretentious speeches that attempt to intellectually interpret the reality of the day laborer. For example, instead of saying “concrete thought is more concrete than the concrete itself,” we say:

The life of a day laborer is difficult. Once on the street, we day laborers are exposed to situations of oppression, exploitation, discrimination, and to every kind of injustice you can imagine. However, we do not want compassion. After all, we are strong and behind the weathered faces and calloused hands, we have not only strength to do the heavy and dirty work, but also to create and recreate art, as expressed in music and poetry, and also to struggle and to love. With this understanding, and without reluctance, we set out to find day laborers who could sing or play an instrument to form part of the group. This is the beginning of our story.

The group was born in 1996, on a rainy winter morning. A mobile clinic was administering HIV tests and about forty day laborers were waiting in line. Finally it was Omar Sierra’s turn. He sat down and the nurse began to draw blood. Suddenly, the day laborers waiting in line scattered in fear and ran every which way when INS agents came and raided the site. Without knowing what was happening, Omar ripped out the needle and with his trusty legs, ran away like the rest.

Some of the compañeros were detained by the INS. Fortunately, Omar was able to save himself. He returned home quite sad and, so as to never forget the experience, he decided to narrate the incident in a ballad entitled, “El corrido de Industry.” Three days later, on his own initiative, Omar brought his own guitar to the corner and played and sang for his fellow day laborers. The corrido narrates the episode in detail and at the same time denounces the abuses that were committed during the raid. For the day laborers of the City of Industry and for others, it is easy to identify with the song’s lyrics and melody. By the time new members joined the group, a second song was composed, “La frasesita” (The Little Phrase). Later the group created songs like “La paliza” (The Beating), “Aguilares” (a town), “Sí se puede” (Yes We Can), “Las redadas” (The Raids), and others. Little by little, Los Jornaleros del Norte has made itself known to grassroots groups and community organizations which frequently invite us to cultural events, celebrations, anniversaries, marches, and other activities. We have performed at “Working Lives: Songs of the L. A. Immigrant Community,” held at the Central Library, NNIRR’s “ The Challenge for Human Rights” Enforcement Conference, and the California Day Laborer Exchange. The Jornaleros del Norte has had an impact not only on day laborers, but also on a myriad of audiences. At one event, a member of the audience dedicated a poem to the group:

With firm and harmonious notes of hope The day laborers from the south sing in the north. Living testimony that we left to the north Without ever having to stop being from the south.

The members of the group are: Omar Sierra (Honduras), Jesús Rivas (El Salvador), Julio César Bautista (Guatemala), Paula de la Cruz (Mexico), John García (Honduras), Omar García (El Salvador), and Pablo Alvarado (El Salvador). We all share similar histories. We have humble upbringings as campesinos and today most of us continue to work as day laborers. It has not been easy to maintain and consolidate the musical group. As day laborers, what comes first is finding work every day. But with a lot of sacrifice we continue to succeed, even when we have to postpone rehearsals because we have to work. We also have dreams and aspirations: we want to record a CD, we want to have our own sound equipment, good instruments, and a good income that would allow us to improve our lives and to dedicate more time to music and to our educational/organizing work.

Besides the musical group, the day laborers have also organized a soccer league, a theater group, a union training school, and an editorial collective. Los Jornaleros del Norte is not organizing in a vacuum; it is part of larger effort to organize a Day Laborers’ Union which would serve as a vehicle to fight for our own human and civil rights. The Union is an emerging reality that responds to the needs and problems that arise with the daily search for work at street corners and day laborer centers, as well as to influence public policy affecting us as workers and immigrants. The musicians of Los Jornaleros del Norte feel honored to be part of this effort.

Our music makes workers feel proud of being workers and helps restore the humanity we’ve lost through so much suffering. The artistic spirit of Los Jornaleros del Norte accompanies the leadership and members of the Day Laborers’ Union wherever they may go, especially when they have to negotiate with the police, businesses, bosses, or neighbors. It also accompanies them in organizing at street corners and day laborer centers. The Day Laborer Band has become a symbol for one of the most rejected sectors of society by reflecting the festive spirit and struggle of our Latin American people. We hope that when you see those men of all colors and sizes – in their work clothes, with hardened looks, beaten down by the sun, with faces that project distrust because of the life of poverty and struggle – you don’t think only of the worker. Also think of the artist, the musician, the poet, the soccer player, the actor, the journalist, the comrade, the friend, the father, the grandson, the husband, the grandfather, the brother, the human being.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pablo Alvarado is a former day laborer and currently works as the lead coordinator for CHIRLA’s day laborer project. He also serves as the president of IDEPSCA (Institute of Popular Education of Southern California). Lyrics reprinted here are from original corridos by members of Los Jornaleros del Norte. See resource page for more information on a video by the group. This article was translated by Arnoldo García.