See My Papers

One day sometime after my sister had moved to California, I jokingly asked if she had seen any pickup trucks rolling around with Mexican day laborers loaded into the back. I am not sure what answer I expected, but the question was only partially sincere. I had watched enough television and movies to think that the proliferation of this phenomenon was overstated for dramatic purposes. Moreover, the Mexicans who live in New York are hidden in plain sight, integrated into the city’s rhythm. Many of them work specific kinds of jobs, so to that extent they are easily stereotyped, but they, like so many other groups, are firmly woven into New York’s cultural pastiche. This does not mean that New York isn’t segregated, because it is, and this does not mean that New York is without racial problems, because it isn’t. What I mean is that for various reasons, the general niche that Mexicans have carved out in New York does not fall under everyday scrutiny. Accordingly, I spent so little of my ...