Fast Tests Strength of Gardeners

They came to Los Angeles from small villages and large towns in Mexico to find one simple thing: work.

But here, these immigrants have been drawn into a complex debate over how to strike a balance between one group’s pursuit of economic opportunity and another’s desire to protect what its members call their quality of life. It is a debate that has transformed gardeners into unlikely activists on the front lines of civic politics.

Convinced their cause is just, eight men are fasting on the steps of City Hall, protesting the city’s decision to ban the gasoline-powered leaf blowers the gardeners say they need to make a living. Some of the hunger strikers have been gardeners for decades, their backs bent and their skin bronzed from years of working under the sun. Others are younger men, fresh with the vigor and pride that comes with a first job.

All are members of the year-old Assn. of Latin American Gardeners, a group that was formed to fight the leaf blower ban and ended up unionizing almost 1,000 gardeners.

Jesus Sandoval, 18, thinks about his parents back home in Jalisco, Mexico, and hopes they will understand why he will send them less money this month. Juan Marquez, 39, wants to take a stand for the poor and voiceless. And Robert Cabrera, 27, holds his 5-year-old son on his lap and hopes he won’t have to orphan him to prove his point.

They have had only water and sports drinks since Friday. One man had to go home Tuesday night after doctors said his blood pressure was dangerously low. Two more would go home Wednesday for the same reason. Their remaining comrades worried about a predicted rainstorm that could make their vigil even more difficult.

*

But on the fifth day of their hunger strike, the men were losing energy, not resolve.

“This is the only way to get them to listen to us,” Cabrera said. “We have to show them the poor have hearts. We need the tools for our jobs.”

The gardeners hope Mayor Richard Riordan will veto the controversial ban, which was approved after Westside homeowners complained about the noise caused by the machines.

But in a meeting with organizers Wednesday, the mayor said vetoing the law would put into effect an earlier version of the ban, one that would jail offenders.

“I cannot in good conscience put something on the books that sends gardeners to jail,” Riordan said when he met with two of the fasting organizers. The hunger strikers talked with the mayor as he quickly finished his own hamburger lunch.

Despite Riordan’s reservations, the gardeners have not given up hope of changing his mind.

On the grass in front of Parker Center, one of the strikers demonstrated a new, quieter leaf blower they hope to use. Riordan listened to the machine and agreed to help persuade the City Council to consider a less restrictive law. He promised to meet with the strikers again today, along with some City Council members and a manufacturer of the new leaf blower.

Meanwhile, the gardeners braced themselves for another cold night of waiting.

“I want to set a good example for my family,” said Sandoval, who lives with four friends in a house in Canoga Park. “In unity, we have strength. We will make it.”

Sandoval has only been in the United States two years. A friend taught him gardening, and he has been sending most of the money he makes back home to his parents and three brothers in Jalisco. He’s afraid to tell them what he is doing, especially since his older brother here disapproves.

“He thinks I’m crazy,” Sandoval said, smiling slightly. “He thinks I’m going to die. But I know everything is going to be OK.” Ultimately, the gardeners hope their organization will help them get group medical insurance, a workers’ cooperative and a formal group to fight employer exploitation.

Adrian Alvarez, an organizer who helped form the group, said the strike is about more than a ban on leaf blowers.

“We’re on hunger strike for the right to earn a living wage,” said Alvarez, who became an activist as a student at UCLA in the late 1980s. In 1987, he and others fasted for nine days to pressure the administration to continue financial aid for undocumented students.

“Presently, the leaf blower is the only viable alternative for gardeners, but if they came up with something else, we would use it,” he said. “This current law is not a Solomonic piece of legislation. Hopefully, we can come up with a wise solution.”

This is the first political action for the others. But when the group looked for volunteers to go on a hunger strike, none of them hesitated.

*

Jaime Perez, 29, arrived back in Los Angeles from Mexico only 15 days ago. During the past decade, he has come every other year to earn money for his family in Jalisco. This year, he decided to join the protesters with his friend Pedro Gonzalez, 34, whose wife did not want him to fast. Perez’s wife, back in Jalisco, does not know.

The two men sat next to each other and offered murmurs of support.

“I’ll stay out here as long as I can,” Gonzalez said. “They need to know they can’t just take away our blowers. It’s like cutting off our finger. It’s an injustice.”

Later in the afternoon, a doctor told Gonzalez that his blood pressure was dangerously low. Organizers sent him home, assuring him there were enough people to carry on.

While they waited, the other strikers sat in patio chairs in front of City Hall wearing green caps. Three small tents have been erected on the lawn under a big black sign that says “HUNGER STRIKE.”

Many of the men have beards several days old and dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep. While they rested, young children raced up and down the white steps, mothers and wives huddled in small groups nearby, and other gardeners stood by to lend support.

Marquez leaned back in a folding chair and closed his eyes. For 14 years, the North Hollywood gardener has cut grass and trimmed bushes. Now he sits idly and feels the strength flow from his body. He thinks about his 6-year-old daughter at home, terrified that her father is going to die.

“I know this is dangerous, but I don’t have another way to buy food for my kids without using the blower,” said Marquez, a native of Zacatecas, Mexico, and father of six. “That’s how I earn my living. Do they want my family to be homeless?”

Many of the men said their work will take at least twice as long without the assistance of the motorized blowers. Their customers are not willing to pay more for slower work, they said.

*

Maria Cabrera sat next to her husband Roberto while their 6-month-old son wriggled on her lap. She brings her three children to City Hall every morning. They stay until midnight, when they catch the bus back to their home in Hollywood.

“I’m so worried about him,” she said softly. “I’m afraid of the consequences of what could happen to him. But the cause is important. It’s worth it.”

Dressed in pajamas, their 5-year-old son curled up in Roberto’s lap. Roberto Cabrera has been preparing for the strike for several weeks, slowly eating less and less.

“We’re willing to die to defend our people,” he said. “In Mexico, we don’t have a voice. There, it is dangerous to speak out. But this country is free. We can talk about injustice and protest it. We’re going to win.”