Open Letter To Latino Construction Workers: I Can Understand You, Pendejos
6 August 2009, 10:56 AM. By Alex Alvarez
Dear Construction Workers On Prince Street,
Hi, guys. It looks like it’s going to rain in New York today which sucks, I guess, because you guys will probably have to break from work and maybe won’t get paid as much as you could have today. Or it’ll get really hot and the sun beating down on your back will be really painful and annoying. Your job is often not fun. I get it, you know? And I can also get needing some sort of distraction - something fun to as a break, however brief, from doing something mundane.
But, guys. I’ve got to admit - I don’t appreciate being a part of that distraction. And, despite often being mistaken for a gringa, I could totally understand every word you hurled at me as I walked past. I was carrying approximately five million things, trying to rush to the office to avoid being even more late than usual. I was busy, distracted and worried. And, in the midst of all that, I hear, “Check out that white meat!” and watch as all of you turned, looked me up and down in what seemed like slow motion, and smiled with all your rows and rows of dirty, gray teeth.
And you made me feel like, well. Like a piece of meat.
It was so ridiculous that I have to admit I choked on a laugh right as I threw up slightly. (It was unpleasant.) I’m not sure if you’d have said this at all - or as loudly and obviously - if you’d known I understand Spanish. But you’re in New York, guys. A lot of people here understand what you’re saying. And I’ll let you in on a secret: A lot of women can grasp what it is that you’re saying about them, even if they don’t happen to speak the same language. It comes from years and years of being catcalled. And what’s funny about this is that, even though being leered or shouted at isn’t new, it never doesn’t make me feel like a piece of shit.
For some reason, this always feels worse in Spanish. Like you don’t or won’t understand that we’re somehow linked, that you’re doing this to a teammate. And maybe that’s silly, but I can’t help feeling somehow betrayed by what you did. Especially - especially - because you noted our difference in skin color, as if this was somehow proof that I would not be able to understand you, that we were two different species, that we could not possibly have anything in common.
I know you didn’t expect me to turn around and offer you samples from my deli, so to speak. I know that what you said has nothing to do with me as person, as someone’s sister and daughter and friend. I know I’m just a series of body parts - and a particular skin color - walking by in a skirt.
But I’m not. And I wish I had said something, if only to make you realize, even for a brief moment, that this “thing” you were talking about has a voice and a personality. I should have said “Excuse me?” Or “fuck you.” Maybe. I think next time I might just turn around and stare at you all until you apologize or cringe or become angry. I want to make you feel uncomfortable, too. Because I also want you to realize that, yeah, I have the capacity to understand what you’re saying. And to respond.
Cordially,
Alejandra
(22) 
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Bravo! I couldn’t have written this better myself!
Perhaps you need find out who the contractor is and call them.
I work for a construction company and our guys are not even allowed to “look” at another person (who’s not their co workers) while they are working. We rarely get calls anymore of people offended but sure as shit those guys were fired.
Also, just to throw it out there…sometime when they whistle, they MAY not be whistling at you. In the business, there is so much noise, and to get their co workers attention, they will whistle to eachother.
I’m on job sites daily. I know what I’m talkin bout.
Sorry you felt uncomfortable Alex. :(
Wow. If I didn’t know any better, I would think u were standing outside of Fairway (amongst the produce & male workers on the sidewalk) on the UWS last week.
I too have hit it up to here w the disgusting & vile catcalls. I don’t have a problem w the innocent ones were they just say, “que bonita” or something equally unoffensive. However, when a fellow Latino who works at that Fairway passed me, squinted his eyes, did the enhaling of breath thru his teeth (a sound we refer to as “fritando huevos”) & said in the most revolting, sexual predator-like way, “Uuuuuyyy, mamcita, q rrrrrica q esta pa’ comermela”, I flipped the fuck out & even surprised myself. I instantly turned, looked him in the eye & yelled as loud as I could, “Coma mierda, hijuputa, no me hable asi!!!! A mi usted me respeta!!!!!” I got two things I didn’t even know I wanted: to both shame him (he lowered his head, stared at the ground & walked away like a dog w his tail btwn his legs) & to shock the rest of them (mouths opened, eyes widened).
Will it be different when I go back? I don’t know. However, I for one have decided that I will simply not take it any longer. When did the acceptable penalty for being an attractive woman in the eyes of a man become allowing him to make you feel like shit? I not only failed to receive that memo but never agreed to it.
Good for you, Alex!!! No se la deje montar!!
Gosh so true especially the part about them not realizing u speak Spanish it’s especially creepy when it happens n ur like 15 ….those asswipes
Infinitely worse than this incident was the time a drunk man on a plane hit on me AFTER I told him I was 14.
so… diles todo eso en su cara, y en espanol, no en un sitio Web en ingles que sabes que nunca van a leer. Don’t be snobish.
I think the responses before yours show that, when incidents like this happen, it impacts more than than the people immediately involved and this makes them worth sharing and discussing. Don’t be willfully dense.
why do you get defensive with commenters that don’t agree with you?
Calling me a snob is not the same as disagreeing with me.
Yes, that justifies calling your readers dense.
Are you underestimating the fact that as a young woman, maybe sometimes its a bit intimidating to actually respond to a large group of burly men hurling insults your way? The responsibility shouldn’t be on Alex to scold them, they know they’re being assholes…kinda like you must’ve known you were being when you called her a snob. English or Spanish, she has a right to speak her mind, whenever, wherever and to whoemever she decides.
I’ve seen my GF turn around and answer them in Spanish. Once in a while, you’ll see a few surprised or shameful faces. But, usually, they don’t care. Assholes.
Awww . . . I love your squirrel.
i usually just smirk, say “no way, jose” and move on. but occasionally i get chola on those mouth offs…depends on my morning coffee sitch! :)
I agree, let their foreman know the shit his workers are doing. Asswipes!
Pshaw. I’ve been dealing with that crap since about age 8 (I’m so serious, even though I wish I was joking), since I was mobile via bicycle in the various growing suburbs of the larger cities in Texas, and most everyone that works on the houses in the developments I’d visit or ride through spoke Spanish and assumed that due to my paleness, I couldn’t understand anything they were saying. I’ve just learned to flip them off and keep peddling if I feel like riling them up, but otherwise, I just ignore it at this point in life.
Recently I was walking past the subway entrance on First Ave. and Houston, and a man said, “I want you to c#m all over my c*ck,” to me as I passed him. I was so disgusted that I just kept walking to the end of the block. Then I really wanted to do something to address this, but I feared that cursing him out would just give him satisfaction.
I got and idea, got prepared, and walked calmly back to where he was still standing. I put my phone in his face, snapped a photo, and told him firmly, “You don’t know me, so don’t talk to me like that.” Then I walked away.
He ducked when I took the photo (too late) and said “What?” dismissively when I talked to him, but I felt a lot better than I would if I had just absorbed his vulgar comment. I also felt good about keeping my cool.
P.S. Even though the intention might be cat-callish, when strange men on the street say, “Bless you,” it sounds quite nice to me.
There must be something wrong with me…sometimes I reroute my walks just to get those catcalls, either for the ego boost or - if I’m in a foul mood - to sacar mis unas at a bunch of strangers
I feel you Alex! I hate. HATE this. I have a nopal on my forhead so those fuckers know I understand them!
and because of the big lolas it seems to happen all the time to me not just from construction workers.
A couple months ago, I was on the lightrail, listening to my ipod. this guys starts saying things to me, disgusting things. He thought I couldn’t hear him, but of course I could. Then when I had enough, I said to him “Can you please shut the fuck up. Do you think you are going to get some ass by talking to women that way? You are a fucking idiot.” One other girl on the train clapped and the other people on the train started laughing at him, even his friend. It was nice.
In college there was a building that was under construction and I passed it every day on my walk to class. The workers were cat-calling every college girl that walked by, including me. The other girls and I would flip them off or yell back at them. It didn’t stop so we decided to ignore them. That didn’t work either.
I mentioned this to my brother and he got all kinds of mad and demanded to follow me to class the next day. My brother and I are physically complete opposites - I’m short and resemble a 12-year-old while he could be Shaq’s bodyguard. My brother confronted the construction workers the very second he heard the cat-calls.
And it never happened again. To any of the girls. I was grateful that it stopped. But I found it particularly aggravating that the ladies, no matter what we did, could not change the workers’ bad behavior. But once a big guy stepped up to them, they never made another comment. Ugh…
penedejos pobrecitos, pero pendejos
*Willfully dense.