I heard a story the other day about a guy I used to work with, a Salvadoran immigrant named David.
David had a heart attack last week. He began experiencing severe chest pains around 11 a.m. David doesn't speak English so he called his daughter and asked her to call his doctor.
The doctor said he should go to the emergency room immediately. Only David interpreted that to mean immediately after work. He finished his work for the day and went to the ER when he got off at 5 p.m.
I heard this from David's employer, a guy I've known since high school and used to work for myself. The guy couldn't believe David continued to work for six hours after having a heart attack.
"I told him if he does it again, I'm gonna fire him," the employer said.
"Now that's dedication," I said.
The employer was distraught; David is lucky he didn't die. But the employer also viewed it as an example of the commitment most Latinos have to getting the job done.
"Anybody who says we should send all those guys back is crazy," he said.
He told me that David had not sustained any permanent damage to his heart and was coming back to work in a few days.
David is a nice guy and was one of my favorite foreman when I worked as a manager at the landscape company where he has been working for about 10 years. David's current position is as a foreman on a crew doing commercial landscape maintenance, primarily mowing.
I've been in the landscape business for about five-and-a-half years now. I'd worked cutting grass in college and went into community journalism after graduation. But, about the time my first son was born I realized working for the local newspaper wasn't going to put food on the table so I got back into the only thing I knew that would.
Over the past few years I've worked with hundreds of Latin American immigrants, most of them from El Salvador. The language barrier is often frustrating, but my Spanish has improved, and some of these men have been become my good friends, people that I would trust with my children.
Driving home the other night, it occurred to me just how much trust I have put in them and how important a role they play in the life of my family. Virtually every meal my children have ever eaten has been earned through the hard work of men like David. They break their backs all day in the heat and cold so I can sit in my living room and type on this computer.
My paycheck comes directly from their labor. Maybe yours doesn't, but chances are--somewhere down the line in your company or a company that yours depends on--there's a guy from El Salvador or Mexico or Guatemala working long hours for little pay. He does it to support his own family, to send checks home or to try and give his children a better life in America. But at the end of the day, you benefit.
I'm not in the habit of taking a position on immigration policy publicly. But I do believe in giving credit where credit is due.
So thanks, David. But next time you have a heart attack, take the rest of the day off.
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