Demolition Men: Precarity, Illegality, and Masculinity at a Latino Workplace by Guillermo Paez

This research examines how undocumented immigrant men mitigate injuries and death in a high-risk and informal job. In an informal construction workplace, the safety training workers receive to perform work in hazardous conditions and operate heavy machinery is unavailable due to structural constraints. Based on ethnographic data collection, I find that undocumented immigrant men rely on each other to pass information about preventing injury and death through a working-class and gendered dynamic I call cautionary scolding – that is, abrasive and graphic storytelling of previous injuries or deaths. Cautionary scolding has two main components: in situ temporality with on-the-job learning and the use of graphic examples of injury/death involving migrant conocidos (acquaintances). Cautionary scolding is conveyed through rough, abrasive language that reflects working-class culture and serves as a visceral response to the urgency of the risks. This working-class manhood act allows undocumented immigrant workers to practice agency within a country where they have little say about their work options, working conditions, and training/licensing. Unfortunately, it is not always effective in preventing injuries, which are inevitable given the structural constraints under which the men labor.

Keywords:

Working-class masculinity, manhood acts, Latinos, work, construction, undocumented men