(Baltimore) Every day, on his way to work, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera made a detour to buy chicharrones at Los Primos, which sells the best in East Baltimore, and maybe all of Maryland.
“Look, it’s him,” Suany Rosales, the boss, told me, handing me her phone. She recognized his photo Wednesday on the region’s Latino news site.
PHOTO YVES BOISVERT, THE PRESS
The death of Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera was reported by local Latino media.
The 26-year-old Guatemalan was one of eight workers repairing the roadway of the Francis Scott Key Bridge when a container ship rammed into one of its pillars and caused it to collapse on Tuesday night. Two of the workers were rescued shortly after the accident. Dorlian’s body was found in a construction company truck with that of his colleague, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, a father of three children. We’re still looking for the other four.
Six workers, all Latin American immigrants. Their story resembles that of Suany, and that of millions of others who came from the South to start a new life in this country: work, work, work, family, family, family.
“My mother died when I was 13, and a month later my father was killed. I’m not sure how, maybe there was a fight, maybe he said something too much. »
It was time to leave Honduras. At 16, she walked north alone. With her quick fingers, she imitates a walker. Guatemala. Then Mexico. And like millions of others, she crossed the Rio Grande to El Paso. And from Texas, she came to join Hondurans in Baltimore.
“At first, I was embarrassed to work, I hid. » But she got a permit. She saved. And with her husband, she bought this Latin grocery-deli from a Dominican, and changed the menu. She still does not have her nationality. “They asked me for my fingerprints, but I haven’t heard back. » She had five children in the meantime.
PHOTO KAITLIN NEWMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Baltimore residents came to pay tribute to a gathering in memory of the victims of the accident organized at the Patterson Park observatory in the center of the city.
I point out to him the thickness of the Plexiglas that separates us.
In 2019, three days before Christmas, the owner of Kim’s Deli and Grocery, two blocks from here, was murdered in front of her four children during a heist. Her name was Carmen Rodriguez and she had arrived from Mexico eight years earlier. She also spent 16 hours a day running her business before being killed by two men from Baltimore for a few dollars.
Last year, Baltimore “celebrated” a 20% drop in homicides, but the homicide rate there is still the second highest in the United States (around 50 per 100,000 inhabitants; it’s 1. 5 in Montreal). And it’s not the fault of the “foreigners”.
But in this election year, it is the migrants accused of crimes who gain political traction, not those who die on the job.
Several politicians publish on social networks the horror stories of criminals from Mexico, Venezuela or elsewhere. Donald Trump speaks of these “millions” who cross the border and “poison the blood of our country”. Yet studies show that immigrants, regardless of their status, are much less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.1.
It’s only 8 a.m., and already the dishes are steaming at the tiny counter of Los Primos (the cousins). Rice, fried plantain, tortillas, yuca, roast chicken… Another Honduran, Angelita, is the cook. There will be customers all day long, coming to rediscover the flavors of their childhood.
PHOTO YVES BOISVERT, THE PRESS
Angelita Hernandez and Suany Rosales, at Los Primos
A stone’s throw from Los Primos, workers begin to arrive at CASA, an organization helping migrants. We help them find work. We offer English courses. We organize activities.
Two of the workers missing in the accident, one from El Salvador, the other from Honduras, were members of CASA. Of the 334,000 construction workers in the region (Washington and Baltimore), 39% are first-generation immigrants. Immigrants who, very often, started out as “illegal” before becoming an essential workforce.
PHOTO MARK SCHIEFELBEIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Honduran construction worker speaks at a vigil organized by CASA in memory of the victims of the bridge collapse in Baltimore.
This disaster will weigh heavily on morale and the economy of Baltimore, which is already not exactly the happiest city in the country. CBS estimates that there are more than 15,000 direct jobs and 140,000 indirect jobs linked to the port, the ninth largest in the United States. Emergency aid has been promised by the state, but before the bridge is rebuilt and the port resumes normal operations, it will be years.
In this giant accident there is an American summary of 2024. This bridge, well built five decades ago for the ships of the time, and in good condition, was not adapted to the new maritime monsters which are one of the symbols of the globalized economy: 80% of what is in commerce is transported by sea. In 20 years, the volume of goods has doubled.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge was safe considering the ships of the time. It was no longer so for those of today. This is far from being the only aging or maladaptive infrastructure in the United States.
The country is no longer new and it watches itself age, with the conviction that “it was better before”. Entering the era of major repairs is much less exciting than experiencing the era of new construction.
And in this aging country, the new workforce comes from the South. One-third of construction workers in the United States are immigrants.
They are the ones who will rebuild the country, not destroy it. Like Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrer, Miguel Luna, Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, Jose Mynor Lopez, Carlos Hernández, from El Salvador, from Guatemala, from Mexico, died in the immense crash of steel of this unsuitable bridge that they repaired.
A very American story. A History of the Americas.
1. Read “Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than US-born Americans, studies find”