by Annika S. Hipple
Colors NW Magazine, November 2003
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Three years ago, Bellevue’s María Fuentes, 23, had to make a difficult choice: Leave her home and family in Toluca, Mexico, and make a dangerous trek to the United States in hope of a better life, or stay with her 11-member family and ensure a life of poverty earning a fraction of what she could make in the U.S. Fuentes, like millions before her, chose to risk a new life in the U.S. In doing so, Fuentes’ story in many ways illustrates the controversy about immigration as well as a significant demographic shift in our region.
In Seattle’s Eastside, there is a quiet and momentous change occurring. A steady influx of immigrants from across the nation and around the world is changing the population and enriching the culture of cities such as Bellevue, Redmond, and Kirkland. Over the past two decades, the percentage of the population that is non-White has more than tripled. Among the most visible and vibrant of these groups is the Latino population, now the largest minority in Washington state and a community of increasing importance on the Eastside.
The 2000 U.S. census places the Latino population at 4.7 percent for the Eastside as a whole, and between 5 and 6 percent for urban centers such as Bellevue and Redmond. Kevin Henry, director of Bellevue’s cultural diversity programs, estimates the city’s current Hispanic population at about 7 percent. And despite Washington’s economic woes, the region continues to attract immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America. In King County as a whole, the population of Latinos doubled between the 1990 and 2000 census.
This demographic change has not gone unnoticed. Michael Chiu, public information officer at the Bellevue police department, notes, “The image of Bellevue is very upper-crust White, very Caucasian. But we’re also very diverse. There are over 60 languages spoken in the public schools. The Hispanic/Latino population is the fastest growing population, and we recognize that.”
Bellevue’s cultural diversity program office was created in 1992 to address issues that arose in conjunction with this new ethnic diversity. Numerous other organizations, from labor unions and community activists to counseling services and churches, are working with Eastside Latinos to facilitate their integration and give them a voice in political, community, and job-related affairs.
Justice on the Job
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 6 and its Justice for Janitors program have focused their recent efforts on organizing among Eastside janitors and other building services workers. In contrast to downtown Seattle, where 85 percent of janitors are unionized, only 47 percent of those in the Eastside’s central business district are union members. Wages on the Eastside also tend to be lower than in Seattle.
While SEIU members speak more than 30 different languages, a majority of Eastside janitors are Latinos, primarily from Mexico and Central America. Many are undocumented immigrants. “We represent some of the most disenfranchised folks around,” says Secky Fascione, Justice for Janitors campaign coordinator for the Pacific Northwest.
Justice for Janitors started in Denver in 1985 and is now active in cities across the country. The campaign’s efforts in Los Angeles were dramatized in the 2000 movie Bread and Roses, starring Adrien Brody as a union organizer and Pilar Padilla as an undocumented Mexican janitor. In Washington, the program was originally a small part of the larger union, which includes workers in a variety of service industries. In January 2003, SEIU Local 6 split to have the building services division remain in Local 6 and have the home-care workers become Local 755.
In July, King County janitors successfully negotiated a new contract that will increase their compensation by more than 26 percent through wage increases and health insurance benefits. However, Fascione says that much remains to be done, particularly on the Eastside. The current focus of the Justice for Janitors campaign is Allied Building Services, a major employer of nonunion janitors.
This past February, seven janitors were fired after staging a one-day walkout against Allied. Among the seven was Fuentes, who says that she and her colleagues simply wanted a contract with fair treatment, respect, and basic benefits. Instead, they lost their jobs. Fuentes was without work for three months before she and another worker were rehired by Allied, an outcome she attributes entirely to the efforts of SEIU. The other five janitors obtained union jobs elsewhere.
Frank Wesson, labor attorney for Allied, says that the janitors were inappropriately terminated on a technicality. “This was the first wildcat strike that this employer had ever experienced, and they didn’t know how to react. It was a situation that they hadn’t seen before,” Wesson explains.
Wesson says that Allied is willing to negotiate with SEIU if the union can show results from a secret ballot, certified by the National Labor Relations Board, demonstrating that the union represents a majority of workers. “Being in a union or not being in a union is an employee right. Neither an employer nor a union has a right to dictate how people exercise their rights,” says Wesson, adding that so far SEIU has not proven to the company’s satisfaction that a majority of Allied janitors want unionization.
According to David Ayala, an SEIU Local 6 organizer who works with Latino janitors on the Eastside, many janitors who are undocumented immigrants fear not only losing their jobs, but also deportation. Therefore, Ayala sees the SEIU’s success largely in terms of improved self-esteem and knowledge of employee rights. “In the middle of that mess,” he says, “they could stand up and say, ‘Hey, you can’t mess with me. I have the power. I know the laws of this country, and I know that I can go on strike legally. And the laws of this country protect me, because I’m a worker and I am producing.’ I think that’s the foremost achievement we have got.”
In some cases, the tangible results of organizing can be short-lived. In August, Fuentes was again fired by Allied, together with 93 others, this time over documentation issues. Fuentes is an undocumented immigrant who came to Washington three years ago from the town of Toluca, near Mexico City. According to Wesson, the action was the result of an audit by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “These people ‘dehired’ themselves because they could not lawfully work in the United States of America,” says Wesson. “Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an employer has to cease their employment.”
Only a few years ago, prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the issue of illegal immigration was at the forefront of discussions between the U.S. and Mexican governments. On Sept. 6, 2001, President Bush and his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, met to discuss what Fascione calls “a real positive worker program.” After Sept. 11, that all fell by the wayside. Instead, immigration laws were tightened. “Had those terrorist attacks not occurred, we might be operating this campaign under slightly different conditions,” says Fascione.
Language barriers
Another obstacle for many Latino immigrants is their lack of English-language skills. María Fuentes, who speaks no English, says she’s found it difficult to make contacts with non-Latinos. “The language barrier means so much,” says Fascione. “A simple traffic ticket can be terrifying.”
The city of Bellevue has established a Spanish-language hotline to answer community-related questions and suggest resources for dealing with problems, such as landlord-tenant disputes or job searches. The city has also sponsored focus groups, including one for Latinos last year. “One of the things that came out of the focus groups is that City Hall intimidates people, especially with the language barrier,” says Kevin Henry. “We are trying to alleviate some of that by translating information and providing referrals.” Numerous other organizations also offer community information, tutoring in English, and counseling on legal, mental health, and educational matters to Latinos and other immigrants.
One result of the focus groups was the creation of the Eastside Latino Leadership Forum in March 2002. According to Cecilia Contreras, a member of the Forum’s steering committee, the organization is “about creating leadership among Latinos through networking, education, and also community participation. A strong community network that people knew they could come to and say, ‘I have this issue, I need information.’”
An issue of major importance for Eastside Latinos has been improving relations between the police and the community. The shooting of a Guatemalan immigrant by police officers in Bellevue in 2001 brought this issue to the forefront, since many felt that the language barrier contributed to the tragedy. Together with local Hispanic leaders, the Bellevue police department has worked to improve communication with the Latino population and to educate people about the law and available resources. The police force now includes several Spanish-speaking officers, and the department is taking steps to provide language training, even sending several officers to Guatemala and Mexico for intensive immersion classes.
However, Officer Chiu of the Bellevue police emphasizes that language is not the only barrier to effective communication. He says that many immigrants “are wary of the police, oftentimes because they are worried about immigration issues. We have never actively passed information to the INS. That’s not our job. Also, in the countries they come from, sometimes law enforcement is not the most upright profession. Bridging those gaps is our first endeavor.”
The police department holds regular forums at the St. Louise Catholic Church, a central institution for many Eastside Latinos. Located in Bellevue’s Crossroads neighborhood, home to much of the city’s Latino population, the church has a Hispanic ministry offering Spanish-language services and religious education. “Santa Luisa,” as it is known in Spanish, also serves as a link to Latin America through ceremonies such as the “Viacrusis,” or Stations of the Cross, a procession held on the Friday before Easter to commemorate the last day and suffering of Jesus.
The church provides a cultural reference point that helps many new Latino immigrants navigate the challenges of life in Washington. For Fuentes, the hardest thing has been the distance from her family. In another year or so, despite the dangers involved, she plans to return to Mexico for a six-month visit, then make her way back to the Eastside. About the journey to the U.S., she says, “It’s difficult. You take a lot of risks. But it’s worth it.” Despite her job issues, working conditions are better here than in Mexico. “What I earn here in a day, I earned in fifteen days there,” says Fuentes, who comes from a family of 11 and started working at the age of 10. Most of her earnings go to help support her parents and siblings back in Mexico.
“Undocumented immigrants, with few exceptions, don’t have resources to help them out in the transition to be part of the American dream, or to be part of American society. They have to make their way through with a lot of effort,” says Ayala. However, he adds, “Even though the government didn’t want us here, we are making changes and contributions to the economy, culture, and different ways of life.” Undocumented workers pay taxes, including Social Security, but receive few services in return.
Confronting stereotypes
Even those with proper documentation must often overcome the stereotype that all Latinos are illegal immigrants. Kevin Henry notes, “There’s a lot of contributions that Latino people make that go unnoticed. There’s too much focus on immigration. Some people kind of feed into the stereotype. They think illegal immigrants, Mexicans on welfare. They don’t realize that there are people of different socioeconomic backgrounds.”
The Eastside Latino Leadership Forum provides a counterpoint to the stereotype. “Most of us were either born here or have been here for many many years and have made a commitment to the area,” says Contreras. Forum activists are mainly professionals, working in education, health care, federal agencies, insurance companies, and other businesses.
Forum leaders have spoken at various meetings promoting community involvement, and the group has plans to work with other organizations on youth leadership and educational issues. The group actively supported the bill passed earlier this year granting in-state tuition for higher education to the children of illegal immigrants. “We felt that we were instrumental in having that legislation passed,” says Contreras.
Contreras says the Forum, though still very young, is gaining visibility and recognition as a voice for the Latino community. The group wants to both address serious issues and sponsor cultural programs “so that people see that here’s a community that wants to contribute, that feels good about being here. We want to be an active part of the community and help solve problems that come up, to become part of the decision making.”
Clearly, Eastside Latinos are not content to be a silent minority. As they become increasingly active members of their communities, sharing their cultures and addressing complex issues, the Eastside can only be the richer for it.
