It’s not much money, 200 pesos (which translates to about 12 dollars) for a work shift that starts at 7:30am and ends around 1:30pm. Nor is it glamorous, as he spends that time at a local butcher shop, processing and packaging sausage. But hey, it’s 15 year old Jose’s first job, and I’m proud of him for getting it all on his own.
It wasn’t easy, as with labor laws changing in Mexico and the new government handing out nearly 10,000 pesos per month to anyone 18-29 who’s unemployed and claims to want a job, that’s all businesses will “hire” this summer, since they don’t have to pay them anything, with the wage provided completed by the unfortunate people known as actual working taxpayers. (In fact, much of the time, those new “employees” in this government program never even INTEND to work where they apply, instead immediately cutting a deal with the business owner to never show up and split the monthly taxpayer-funded giveaway, month after month after month.
But Jose is no slouch nor does he want something for free. He wanted to work. After getting turned down nearly FIFTY times by every restaurant, store, hotel, or other business in town, he finally met up with a woman running her own business who was willing to take a chance on him. He now comes home from his new summer job, tired but proud of the job he did, with cash in hand to show for his work.
Just like Marcos did at Jose’s age, back when he got his first job in Guaymas. Elsa wasn’t about to allow him to spend all summer on the couch watching TV. After school got out and she witnesses several days of that, she informed him of the following.
“You’re getting your ass out of my house, right now, and you’re not coming back through this door without a job.” She didn’t care if it was selling Chiclets at a busy intersection, she meant it.
Marcos knew it. He came home that night with his first job, working for the equivalent of a dollar an hour at a Burger King. (Yes, they had one in Guaymas!)
We thought he’d do nothing but complain, but the opposite was true. He loved getting up and going to work with a team of other young folks doing the same, back in the days before this new government program took effect and killed that chance for kids here.
I remember visiting him at Burger King, when after a minute or two of conversation, he smiled and said, “Dad, I gotta go, they need me to go clean a toilet”.
At the end of the summer, I told Marcos, “I could have gotten you a job, for more money, working in San Carlos with my connections there. But it was important for YOU to get your own job. Even though it was only for a buck an hour, you’ll NOW never forget what that dollar is worth!” (God help me, I’m beginning to sound like my Dad.)
And Luis? He got his first job at THIRTEEN years old, traveling all the way to Kentucky where labor laws allowed kids that age to work up to 30 hours a week, living with friends there. These days, he still takes advantage of any chance to work, traveling all the way to Alaska to work his summers at a salmon processing plant. Needless to say, it’s long hours and hard work! But he, like Jose and Marcos, does that job with pride and the knowledge that the cash he comes home with is cash he EARNED, not some handout from a fraudulent government program.
Back to Jose. Honestly, he had really hoped someone in the States would hire him this summer. He’s willing to work AND willing to learn, whether it’s in a restaurant, in a hotel, on a farm, wherever. But with summer halfway over, he’ll have to wait for that chance until NEXT year, when he’s sixteen. Any takers? He’s a dual citizen, which means you can hire him legally, just like anyone else. And he’s bilingual, if that helps.
Most of all, he’s a great kid. One that, like my other kids, I’m very proud of.