The death of six Latin American construction workers following the collapse this Tuesday of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore once again highlights the importance of migrants in the US workforce, as it did in the covid-19 pandemic in essential sectors such as the food and service industries.
Two Mexicans, two Guatemalans, a Salvadoran and a Honduran were the fatal victims after the accident that occurred early Tuesday on the Baltimore bridge when the freighter Dalí collided with one of the bases of the structure and collapsed them. They are still searching for four bodies in the waters of the Patapsco River.
The bodies of Mexican Alejandro Fernández Fuentes, 35, and Guatemalan Dorlián Castillo Cabrera, 26, were located on Wednesday, the Maryland Police announced at a press conference.
IT MAY INTEREST YOU:
A third Mexican worker is one of the two people rescued from the cold waters who are hospitalized in serious condition, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, reported this Wednesday.
“The majority of people in this country do not realize the magnitude of our work and our contribution. Here they only hear that we live on stamps and government aid, but that is not the case, they are wrong,” Carlos told EFE. Crespo, a Mexican worker from the state of Maryland, where the tragedy occurred.
Crespo is a member of CASA de Maryland, an organization that advocates for immigrants and of which Miguel Luna, the Salvadoran who died in the accident, was a member.
“Sadly we have found that one of the construction workers involved was a long-time member of our CASA family,” Gustavo Torres, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement.
Luna, married with three children, lived in Maryland for 19 years and “left his house at 6:30 on Monday afternoon to work and has not returned,” he added.
Crespo says that the loss of one of his co-defendants has him hurt, but also angry. “Now they complain but when we are fighting for our causes they don’t listen to us, they don’t realize that we are at a disadvantage just because we are Latino immigrants,” he said.
The Mexican questions the working conditions to which Latinos are subjected in the US and uses himself as an example. He says that he misses days of work to be able to take his daughter, who suffers from a disability, to the doctor, because the company where he has worked for almost two decades does not give him family leave benefits.
“The system discriminates against us, we only serve so that they can do politics with us, that’s what always happens,” he added.
He also wonders if the workers had the necessary equipment on hand to have been notified and thus save their lives.
In an audio released this Wednesday from the police, a commanding officer asks to find the person in charge of the workers to “temporarily remove them from the bridge.” About 30 seconds later one of the police officers is heard stating: “The entire bridge just fell!”
For Pomona College History and Latin American Studies professor Miguel Tinker Salas, the accident brings new visibility to the contribution of Latino workers.
“In times that prefer not to see us, this tragedy once again brings to the fore the essentiality of this workforce, something that was forgotten after the pandemic, where a good number of the deceased were brought to bear by this community,” he told EFE the professor.
Hispanics represent 16.2% of the U.S. workforce. But in areas such as construction, an industry with labor shortages, Latinos represent a major source of labor with one in three workers of this sector (31.5%).
The Honduran Maynor Suazo, father of two, is part of the fatal victims, and two Guatemalans, a 26-year-old man from San Luis (Petén) and another 35-year-old man from Camotán (Chiquimula) were part of this workforce and died. . when they were making repairs to the collapsed bridge.
Guatemalans represent 7% of the migrant community in Maryland, where the accident occurred, and one in five workers in that state is an immigrant, with the most common areas of work being construction and services, according to data from the Guatemalan consulate in Maryland, according to EFE.
Both Tinker Salas and Crespo predict that Hispanic workers will be directly or indirectly involved in all this reconstruction, just as they have responded to the disaster zones left by nature.
“Latin American workers, regardless of whether they have papers or not, must be treated with wages, benefits, protections and the rights that anyone else in the country receives,” the professor pointed out.
We invite you to visit us on the new NY1 Noticias channel on WhatsApp. There you will find the most relevant news about what is happening in New York, as well as other coverage about the rest of the country, Latin America and the world. click in this link to access the channel. We thank you in advance if you become one of our followers and express your reaction to what we publish with an emoji.
