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The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez

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Justice shall you pursue. This is Jimmy Breslin at his best, it reads like he talks, which can cause you to read a sentence twice or three times, but you get used to it. Eduardo Gutierrez was an illegal immigrant from Mexico; he was barely 21 years old when he was killed in a construction accident in Brooklyn on November 23, 1999. Born in San Matías Cuatchatyotla, to a very shy 15 year old woman, he lived a lonely life filled with fear in Brighton Beach/Brooklyn, sharing one bathroom and an apartment with 8 other illegal men, always in fear of capture and deportation. His life ended in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, when Eduardo fell three stories and drowned in wet cement. The builder, his employer, hired and exploited illegal workers with impunity. Breslin characterizes him as "a crook with blueprints." Everyone knew his long record of violations, but he was untouchable; he was a friend of Giuliani administration, his bagman had given Giuliani's campaign $83,000 in 1996. Eugene O. and his son Richie (a police chaplain wannabee who ran to Belgium to avoid the law he loved so much) were politically connected in the powerful Satmar-Hasidic community. In 1993, a city inspector cited his construction project as the worst building he had seen in a decade. After Eduardo's death, the press forgot about him. But Breslin went to his funeral in Mexico and came back to the USA over the border like the other illegal workers, citing the Border Patrol's stats on drownings and deaths on the route. This is Eduardo's recreated story, filled with stories of his struggle to get to NYC and the aftermath of his death. So much of New York is built on illegal labor, so it is important to read