As tens of thousands of undocumented Latino immigrants march for their rights, their energetic battle for legal status obscures the difficulty of their daily lives. From vendors selling paletas (frozen fruit pops) morning until night, to mothers walking the neighborhood selling homemade tacos and enchiladas, to non-licensed dentists treating uninsured fellow immigrants in their garage, undocumented immigrants operate in a vast low-earning, informal economy. Those lucky enough to become union janitors face discharge due to their lack of a valid social security number, while the less fortunate lose their jobs and are deported. Christian Zlolniski’s new book on the lives of undocumented Mexican immigrants in San Jose puts a human face on the current immigration debate, and demonstrates the essential functions carried about by undocumented immigrants in the running of a major American city.

I first saw vendors selling frozen fruit popsicles after I moved to San Francisco’s Mission District in 1979. Buying a popsicle with a piece of fruit inside became a daily need, but until reading Christian Zlolniski’s account of San Jose’s paletas sales persons the economics of this transaction were a mystery to me. Turns out that in 1993, the Delicias de Jalisco corporation had a sweet thing going it selling its products through largely undocumented Mexican immigrants throughout Northern California. The worker had to pay $2.00 a day for the pushcart and ice, and kept only 33 cents of every 75 cent popsicle sold. After working for eight hours in the hot sun, and pushing the cart for five miles, the street peddler on a good day would make $40.00. Arturo, the immigrant whose daily activities are described in the book, could make $200 a week, as much as he was making working for a non-union janitorial company.

To earn this subsistence income, Arturo had to forego eating, as his food would get too cold if stored in the cart and too hot if allowed out in the sun. Bathroom breaks depended on his running into friends who could watch the cart while he ran into their apartments.

As hard as Arturo worked, his income depended heavily on weather conditions and if he got sick, he earned no money. The economic structure of the paleta business led other companies to open, multiplying the number of Arturo’s competitors. Although steady jobs were plentiful at that time in the electronics industry, and Arturo had the skill to be a self-employed operator of an ice cream truck, his undocumented status prevented him from obtaining these positions.

Zlolinski shows how Arturo’s pattern of constant work with no improved economic position typifies the work life of San Jose’s undocumented Mexican population. Some of the real-life characters he profiles, such as Laura who sells homemade food, and Gustavo, whose dentistry degree in Mexico led him to open a clinic in his home, have bursts of success but their lack of legal statues ultimately frustrates hopes of forward progress. This book is not a happy read, but Zlolinski provides the necessary details about the economic plight of undocumented immigrants to win converts to their cause.

The most promising economic ladder for San Jose’s undocumented immigrants in the 1990’s was to secure a unionized janitorial job. Local 1877 helped organize major janitorial subcontractors in the high-tech field during that decade, which often resulted in higher wages and benefits for the newly unionized workers. Unfortunately, employers had a strategy of suddenly demanding social security numbers from more veteran undocumented workers, who would then be discharged and replaced with lower-paid new hires. Since federal law required employers to seek such certification, the union was powerless to intervene.

The book’s discussion of Silicon Valley’s Justice for Janitors campaign, the difficulties Local 1877 initially had in servicing its members, and the union’s response to these difficulties----the union implemented procedures to better serve member needs---represents a rare look at a powerful statewide union in its formative stages. But Zlolniski’s discussion of unionization drives suffers from a problem that hinders much of the entire book: its research and case studies focus on the 1990’s for a book published in 2006.

In the personal profiles this is not a problem, but despite an epilogue designed to bring the book up to date, the reader may not be clear on the current status of undocumented immigrants in Local 1877. Nor is it clear whether the overtly anti-immigrant attitudes of San Jose public schools serving immigrant children have been eliminated---one assumes this, but it is not made clear.

Zlolniski describes how Latino parents circumvented hostile school administrators by using community organizing to win a Homework Center. He focuses on their work with the community group People Acting in Community Together (PACT), part of the nationwide faith-based PICO network.

But San Jose Acorn, which played a major role in organizing Latino families in San Jose during the period covered by the book, is not discussed. Nor is the labor-community coalition that brought major affordable housing victories to the area, and particularly for Latino immigrants.

So while Janitors, Street Vendors and Activists is an indispensable account of the sociology of undocumented immigrants living out these roles in San Jose of the 1990’s, it does not provide a viable historical account of San Jose’s working-class Latino community over the past decade. Given the ups and downs of tech and dot-com booms in the region, some time may have to pass before this more definitive historical account is written.

Zlolniski’s book should become a staple for introductory sociology classes, as his vivid profiles stay in reader’s minds well after completing the book. Perhaps it will even spur a union organizing drive among fruit bar peddlers.

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