Janitors, Street Vendors, and Activists: The Lives of Mexican Immigrants in Silicon Valley [Paperback]

Christian Zlolniski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 7, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0520246438 | ISBN-13: 978-0520246430 | Edition: 1

This highly accessible, engagingly written book exposes the underbelly of California's Silicon Valley, the most successful high-technology region in the world, in a vivid ethnographic study of Mexican immigrants employed in Silicon Valley's low-wage jobs. Christian Zlolniski's on-the-ground investigation demonstrates how global forces have incorporated these workers as an integral part of the economy through subcontracting and other flexible labor practices and explores how these labor practices have in turn affected working conditions and workers' daily lives. In Zlolniski's analysis, these immigrants do not emerge merely as victims of a harsh economy; despite the obstacles they face, they are transforming labor and community politics, infusing new blood into labor unions, and challenging exclusionary notions of civic and political membership. This richly textured and complex portrait of one community opens a window onto the future of Mexican and other Latino immigrants in the new U.S. economy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Zlolniski makes a critical contribution to our understanding of the underside of advanced capitalism. He shows us its complexities: It is not only about misery, it is also about shaping subjective and political possibilities. If there is one concept that comes to mind it is the complexity of powerlessness." - Saskia Sassen, author of Guests and Aliens "In a time when we have great need to understand Mexican immigrants and their place in U.S. society, Zlolniski offers a superior analysis of why and how advanced capitalist economies employ undocumented workers. After reading his book, we will never think again of immigration as something that exclusively comes from outside. The immigrants, too, have agency in his account, as he narrates and analyzes an important case of unionization, pointing to significant new possibilities in American life." - Josiah Heyman, Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso"

From the Inside Flap

"In a time when we have great need to understand Mexican immigrants and their place in U.S. society, Zlolniski offers a superior analysis of why and how advanced capitalist economies employ undocumented workers. After reading his book, we will never think again of immigration as something that exclusively comes from outside. The immigrants, too, have agency in his account, as he narrates and analyzes an important case of unionization, pointing to significant new possibilities in American life."--Josiah Heyman, Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso

"Zlolniski makes a critical contribution to our understanding of the underside of advanced capitalism. He shows us its complexities: It is not only about misery, it is also about shaping subjective and political possibilities. If there is one concept that comes to mind it is the complexity of powerlessness."--Saskia Sassen, author of Guests and Aliens

"This is a well-written and accessible ethnography of Mexican immigrants in Silicon Valley, the working poor who live in the shadow of affluence. Zlolniski presents a nuanced analysis of the thin line between formal and informal work, how families strategize and cope with the myriad challenges wrought by poverty, and the structural limitations to human agency. Zlolniski's perceptive ethnography illuminates hidden social worlds and struggles for dignity through collective action."--Patricia Zavella, author of Women's Work and Chicano Families: Cannery Workers of the Santa Clara Valley

"Stringing together multiple livelihoods, moving among wage labor, the informal economy, and political activism, the immigrants Zlolniski profiles refuse to submit completely to the structural cards stacked against them. In this important and carefully situated study, Zlolniski engages internationally relevant debates over the changing nature of work, the abandonment of employer liability, and the propensity for the media to construct myths that simplify and underestimate the hard work of immigrant families in Silicon Valley."--David Griffith, author of Fishers at Work, Workers at Sea: a Puerto Rican Journey through Labor and Refuge

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 262 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (February 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520246438
• ISBN-13: 978-0520246430
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #654,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A great insight into the lives of immigrants from Mexico, October 17, 2011

By 

Colleen @ Les Livres - See all my reviews

This review is from: Janitors, Street Vendors, and Activists: The Lives of Mexican Immigrants in Silicon Valley (Paperback)

"... There are a lot of stereotypes and generalizations made about Mexican immigrants coming into the United States - Janitors, Street Vendors, and Activists is an excellent book because it gives a look into what some of their experience is actually like, and of course many of the things people think of are way off mark. I am sure that just like with any group of people, there are some Mexican immigrants who will be lazy or stupid. But those two words also describe a large number of US citizens, so I'm not really sure how "lazy" came to be associated with the immigrants from Mexico. After reading this book, I was even more confused on that point, because the people whose stories were featured work harder than most people I know - certainly they work harder than I do! They struggle to make ends meet (and make do when they cannot make ends meet). They put up with a lot while at work - things that any of us would be going to Human Resources to file a complaint about. Many immigrants were trained professionals in Mexico, but cannot find jobs in their fields in the United States because their credentials aren't recognized - so they take work in lower-wage jobs that we tend to look down on in a way (fast food, janitorial services, street vending, etc.). ..."

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