Performing the Good Worker

Abstract

Mainstream America regularly perceives Latino/a immigrants—and day laborers in particular—as a faceless mass of unskilled Spanish speakers. Locally and nationally constructed discourses that denigrate Latino/a immigrant workers reinforce their subordinate socioeconomic status. Yet, members of the Day Labor Center (DLC) demonstrated agency in the ways they responded to these ideologies through performances of the good worker in their everyday interactions. By performing certain aspects of their identities, such as speaking English or having particular trade skills, day laborers strategically positioned themselves within the local employment hierarchy. Workers not only performed social identities that highlighted their job skills for potential employers in fast-paced job negotiations but also preemptively directed performances at other day laborers and volunteers at the DLC as a means of differentiating themselves from their peers.