Los Pobres -Richard Rodriguez
In this autobiographical story, the writer
expresses his own experience as a construction worker. In order to experience
the pain and pleasure of the ‘real work’, he joins the summer work
but he is unable to feel the real experience of “Los Pobres” i.e poor and
powerless. Only after seeing the pathetic condition of the Mexican Migrant
workers, he realizes the real condition as well as exploitation of Los Pobres.
In this autobiographical story, the writer
speaks for the rights of Los Pobres i.e the poor and powerless people. Although
this story is related with the writer himself, there is a great empathy with
the working class people for the writer himself tried to feel the real
experience of the hard work. Besides, the writer, in the beginning thought that
the workers were different from what his mother told him about but later
he realized that the real workers were truly poor and powerless.
During his graduation, the writer was in
search of the summer job and one of his friends suggested him that he should
get a job as a worker. In fact, the writer would like to experience the
suffering of the ‘real work’ because he would like to show his father that he
even had the experience of it. During his interview with the contractor, the
writer aid that he had the experience of physical labor though he had never
worked physically in his life. Undoubtedly the people have told him that the physical
the physical labour was beyond his capacity but he enjoyed the work very much.
Moreover, unlike his expectations, he found the workers not being ‘Los Pobres’
but being middle class as well as like himself. He was ever surprise that the
workers were not of similar interest and skills even though they were daily
wage labours. They had diverse interest and skills for example some of them
were abstract painters where as some others were poet and the writers.
The writer, in the beginning felt that he had
got the experience of the ‘real work’ but later he realized that an educated
person could never feel the real experience of the Mexican Migrant work as made
him realized that they lack public identity remain completely and they were the
people falling apart. Due to the lack of proper communication and the language,
problem they were acting like the puppet in the command of their contractor.
Moreover, they were unaware of the minimum human rights and consequently they
were victimized rudely. Their quietness was the indication of how helpless they
were in the foreign land. Their sweating face and the hard harsh body really
invited the sympathy from the writer. He obviously got the answer which he was
searching for from his childhood. He clearly knew that he could never be the
‘Los Pobres’.
This story is very powerful not only in
depicting the life of the poor and powerless but also in advocating for their
rights. Indirectly, the writer speaks for the poor and the powerless people
and against their exploitation by the employers. Despite being an
autobiographical story, this story is able to generalize the common experience
of the working people. Similarly this story changes the perspective of the
people towards the working class people. Instead of heretic and mockery, they
deserve love and respect.