‘People Have Been Misinformed’ : Workers would not jeopardize their right to stand on a corner by exhibiting poor behavior, says a day laborer who helped institute internal rules of conduct.

I’m one of the new ones at this corner, but I have friends who have been here four or five years. It’s very difficult to change what’s become part of your life and move to another corner. We prefer to remain because we’re trying to achieve some stability in our work.

Right now it’s very, very difficult to get work. And we have people who know us at that corner. It would be very difficult for us to move from that area, especially if it’s just because of an absurd and stupid law. That’s why it’s difficult for us to say, “OK, pass the law, kick us out of here and we’ll leave.”

No, we have to fight, because this is how we support ourselves. Being at that corner is how we pay our bills; it’s how we survive. And we’re not doing it in a way that’s illegal.

Our life is very, very hard. Even people who have a stable income are struggling, and that life is very different from ours. Sometimes we make good money. I’m not going to say we always get just the minimum wage. But most of the time, the most we’re going to get in a day is $50. And we have to work very, very hard for that.

If you work three times in a week, that’s $150, and with that $150 you have a family to support, rent to pay, bills to pay.

We know how to save and we know how to take care of the little money we make.

But if we have to go to another corner, where there’s a lot more people and a lot less work, the amount of money we’ll be able to make will be reduced drastically. So you can see we have a real problem.

In my opinion, the dispute with the residents has been caused by a combination of discrimination and ignorance.

The racism comes in because there are people who only and simply see what they want to see there. And ignorance because people have been misinformed.

We’ve been accused of lots of silly things. They’ve accused us of taking care of our “necessities” in their yards. If I did that in front of their house, you’re going to call the police!

They accuse us of abusing children with our actions. But many of us have children and wives, and we can’t act like that.

Many of us are educated and we’re trying to act like civilized people. This really bothers me that they’ve taken this outlook toward us. It offends us.

When all the problems started, we knew we had to take drastic measures among ourselves to make everyone understand that we are not delinquents nor people who have no morals. We’re good people.

So we talked among ourselves and came up with some rules of conduct. Whether you like them or not, whoever comes to the corner has to accept them because they are our rules of conduct and we will enforce them.

We’ve said it is prohibited to drink beer there. It’s prohibited to gamble. Showing a lack of respect for women is prohibited. It’s prohibited to litter. Anything that would be bad for the community is prohibited among us.

This was our idea and it’s been a reaction to the situation. We’re ready to reach an agreement with the residents.

I think this is becoming a national problem. There are a lot more corners where people go looking for work now than there were before.

As long as the economy is terrible, there are going to be people seeking work on the street corners. That’s why we’re there.

But it’s better that people go looking for work on the street corners rather than going on welfare or taking food stamps.

We’re not a burden on this society. The country, the United States, the government, doesn’t give us welfare.

It doesn’t pay our rent. It doesn’t pay our bills. We have to look for ways to do that ourselves. I’m not going to go and sell drugs.

I’m not going to do anything against my moral principles. We prefer to work--even if it’s only for $30 or $40 a day--rather than stealing. But that must be what the people want us to do because I don’t know how we’re going to work with this new law.

This area, Ladera Heights, is a good area to get work. We don’t want to bother anybody with our presence there; it’s just a place to find work. Nothing else. We’re not creating disorder.

The solution is easy. All we have to do is really talk it out and see what everyone’s needs are.