Casa Latina has been a good connecting place ever since I first came here. They give you a connection with an employer, and if the employer has a lot of work, then it’s up to you to maintain the relationship with the employer. I wanted to have another picture at Casa Latina because it is a place where I come to meet new friends, I come to look for work, and we live here as a community.
This picture reminds me of a woman I had when I lived in California, until we broke up. I’ve been here a few years and I’m still alone, but I’m thinking of maybe making a home again with somebody. But it’s not easy, especially for us here because it’s expensive. It is especially hard in the winter, when there is not a lot of work. You have to pay rent, and you have to pay for food and utilities, electricity and gas, and the phone.
I am proud of myself and of my work. I think we all have pride in our work. Like you, or me, we both have pride in our work, of something that we are, something we do. Because if we don’t have that pride then we cancel ourselves and we are nothing.
Yo estoy orgulloso de mí mismo y de mi trabajo. Creo que todos tenemos orgullo de nuestro trabajo. Como tu o como yo, ambos estamos orgullosos de nuestro trabajo, es algo que somos, algo que hacemos. Porque si no tenemos ese orgullo entonces nos cancelamos a nosotros mismos y no somos nada.
Well, this place, Casa Latina, has been a good connecting place ever since I first came here. They give you a connection with an employer, and then you see how things are, if the employer has a lot of jobs, a lot of work, then it’s up to you to establish a relationship and maintain the relationship with the employer. Here, I’ve had an employer and I’ve worked with him occasionally for the last three years. So I still do work with him. It’s a small business, so there’s not work every day…. Especially now in the winter, it is very slow and not a lot is going on.
I don’t know where that is, but that’s a friend of mine also from the community college and that is his profile picture from WhatsApp.
I know this sculpture is at the University of Washington, didn’t you know?
No, I don’t know where that is.
Yo no sé dónde es esto, pero él es un amigo del Colegio Comunitario también, y ésta es su foto de su perfil en WhatsApp.
Yo sé que esta escultura está en la Universidad de Washington. ¿No sabías?
This is a friend I met at the community college. On that day we went out and we went to have out coffee at Starbucks, and so I took her picture and she’s my friend.
Ésta es una amiga que conocí en el Colegio Comunitario. Ese día salimos y fuimos a tomar un café en Starbucks, así que le tomé esta foto y es mi amiga.
That is a Puerto Rican woman who works in things in different parts of Central America. I don’t know exactly what she does, but she travels and this photo was about a month ago. I went to her home to do some work with concrete and so, she took my phone number and she wanted me to go back to do something else, because the first time I went there was some outdoor work and then she wanted me to do some more work indoors.
So why did you take a picture of her?
I take a lot of pictures on my phone. Most are of job sites: pavers, flagstones, yard work. I like to keep a record of my work. The other day I had an interview with a business and I could show them the pictures. I have my letters of recommendation, but sometimes an employer wants to see evidence that I can do it, so I can show them on my phone: “This is a design that I have done. Do you want it this way, or that way, or how do you want it?”
Well, in reality, sometimes it hasn’t gone well with some employers. Because sometimes they think because if you know how to do something and can work fast, they think that you can do it all very fast. And, here, well you have to measure and you have to calculate the slope and you have to level the ground and all that takes time and it’s not as fast; and it’s not just like digging and moving the dirt around. So, sometimes they want you to do everything really fast.
I like taking pictures of the work I do. Then when I go to another house and they want a referral I can say, “Here, I show you some pictures and you can tell me if you like it or not.” They look at the pictures and they give me the job.
The pictures are good as evidence of the work I can do. Also to have new ideas, because we are always learning.