“When you see someone you love being mistreated, it inspires a certain kind of energy”

Discussing the Cost of Undocumented Labor with Los Angeles City Council Candidate Hugo Soto-Martinez

Hugo Soto-Martinez, LA City Council District 13 Candidate.

“My parents are street vendors,” labor organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez explained. This personal history, working alongside his family in South Central Los Angeles, helped compel Soto-Martinez to run for Los Angeles City Council in this November’s election.

This week’s installment of La Cuenta explores the intersection of undocumented advocacy and formal politics: what are the costs of advocating for substantive change in a city like Los Angeles that has one of the largest populations of individuals labeled as undocumented? As one kind of cost, representation within formal political structures is all too absent for our community.

At the heart of Soto-Martinez’s work is an ongoing drive to support the labor and living conditions of U.S immigrants. As he explains, in our conversation below, the plight of living undocumented in Los Angeles is a hardship that could be eradicated through organizing and resistance.

Alix Dick: I understand that supporting labor movements is a large part of why you're running for office. What do you want people to know about immigrant labor conditions in Los Angeles?

Hugo Soto-Martinez: Well, I would say that there is a very large workforce in this county that is abused, neglected, mistreated, underpaid, and undervalued. And those are the people that make the city run. The people who cook your food, cut your grass, take care of your kids: those are the backbone of our economy. Whether people want to hear it or not, it's the absolute truth. And those people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. They should have a good wage, access to healthcare and a pension. They should be able to take their kids to the movies and not work two or three jobs or deal with the conditions that they face in the workplace and in society.

AD: These conditions are getting worse. Everything is getting more expensive. You really have to work two or three jobs just to make rent!

HS-M: Absolutely. And I would add that recently, LA County released the homeless count, and it showed that Latino homelessness has increased over 20% in the last two years. They now represent more than 40% of the homeless population. And it's not a surprise to me because people who were undocumented, have received no support or relief from covid or unemployment. They got zero. And LA County has 1 million undocumented folks. We have the largest undocumented population in the country.

AD: How can we do a better job protecting and supporting them?

HS-M: I think the first thing we have to do is pass comprehensive immigration reform. I mean, there's 11 million people out there in the U.S. I think we should be fighting for a pathway to citizenship. That's the federal government. But even in the city, there's a lot we can do. We can make sure that we ban E-Verify. E-Verify is a database that's used by the federal government that prohibits folks from working. If you are applying to work at a place with E-Verify, you most likely won't get a job at that place. They're using a federal database to check your documents. We should ban E-Verify.

In the city of Los Angeles, we have an office for Immigration Affairs, but it's very limited in scope. It is public money that is used to help families in danger of deportation. But that’s it. It is the only thing that helps us. We know that people who are undocumented are more likely to be harassed at work, more likely to be victims of wage theft, not get paid overtime, and harassed by their landlords. So many things!

So, when we think about what the city of Los Angeles could do, we need to ask, “What are immigrants’ experiences? What are the things that they deal with?” Based on this, the city could make an office that protects those rights.

AD: I know you care a lot about street vendors, which I do too. What is the current context of street vending in Los Angeles and how can it change?

HS-M: It's improving and it's improving because of the organizing that street vendors are doing. The key is how we self-organize. There's a great organization in the city called Community Power Collective. They organize street vendors. They do a great job of advocating. A few years ago, they helped pass a city-wide legislation. But there are still many things we can improve. There's still street vending prohibition in certain parts of the city. We have to work on that, and we have to empower the entrepreneurship of street vendors. They're small businesses.

AD: I'm glad there are more and more protections for street vendors. They feel like they are an important part of our culture that we don't fully appreciate.

HS-M: Oh, absolutely.

AD: I know you have a family reason for caring about street vendors, do you want to talk a little about that?

HS-M: So, my mom and dad started street vending, mostly fruit when I was about three. As far as I can remember, they were street vendors. They used to wake up every morning except Sundays and go to the part of the downtown where they sell fruit wholesale. I used to go with them, and we would come back to the house where I would help cut it up with my mom.

AD: Oh, so you’ve been in this work since you were a kid.

HS-M: Yeah. I’d do pipino [cucumber] and the mangoes. They didn't let me use the knife as a kid! They did that until I was about 14 years old. The only reason we stopped is because my dad hurt his back and he couldn't work anymore.

AD: Does your mom work now?

HS-M: My mom works. She eventually got a job at the airport. She's a janitor. She's been there since 2000. She's been there for 22 years. So once the family business didn't work anymore, she started working at the airport.

AD: What a misfortune that your dad got sick. I cannot imagine how difficult that was.

HS-M: Yeah. It was hard.

AD: Is this one of the reasons why your campaign focuses so much on labor and social inequalities?

HS-M: Absolutely.  When you grow up poor, you kind of know you're a poor person. My dad was always working all the time. He would come home sometimes and talk about being harassed by the police just because he was street vending. And then growing up where I grew up, it was the same thing. There was a lot of police harassment.

AD: South Central, right? Is that where you grew up?

HS-M: Yeah, I grew up in South Central and I started working in the hotel industry very young as well. There's always a lot of abuse that service workers go through. One of the worst things that happened to me was mental burnout. I remember one day I worked like 12 hours. I didn't take a break. I was in such a bad mood. I was a full-time student, full-time worker. And I was so angry, and I almost quit the job, but I just remember feeling so little and so powerless. That day, it was a Monday and I didn't go to school that day. I just wanted to be home with my mom.

AD: You were burnt out.

HS-M: Yeah. I just needed my mom's love and my mom's protection for a day. Seeing that dynamic of power against people who don't have power, people having power abusing people who don't have power: that’s been a key part of it for me.

AD: If you win this election, is there anything you are worried about?

HS-M: I try not to operate from fear.

AD: I love that.

HS-M: I do think there is a component of love that is in there. The thing that I talk about a lot is, when people say, "What made you do this?" And my honest answer is, "Love is crazy, but it's also connected to a fear." I think about the community I've been in. I think about the folks I've worked with, whether they have TPS [Temporary Protected Status] or DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] or whatever, or even if they have documents but they're living in a city that is very difficult to live in. Part of it is fear that they're being attacked, they're being punished. And my fear is it will continue.

But this fear is very much connected to love. When you see someone you love being mistreated, it inspires a certain kind of energy. I think about my mom. When my dad got hurt, she had to work two, three jobs. Why did she do that? She was doing it because she loved her six kids.

Propina

If you’re a new La Cuenta Reader, each installment includes a small propina—an action item, a token of gratitude, a suggested media product, something for our readers to take away.

It might seem a little odd to devote this week’s “cost” to the nuances of LA electoral politics. Most of our writers and many of our readers are not able to vote in this country. Elections are a reminder of how the U.S. tries to silence undocumented civic agency.

Our conversation with Soto-Martinez, however, is an opportunity for dialogue and reflection—particularly for readers afforded the privilege of voting in this country:

• What are the stated views on immigration for the candidates in your area? Are they even on the record or have any kind of meaningful policy stance?

• Who endorses and who funds particular candidates and how might you interpret this information?

How are you engaging in dialogue during this political period?

At La Cuenta we remain skeptical of electoral politics bettering the state of immigration policy in the near future. This season should be one for community-driven dialogue about what change looks like and how you can interpret political rhetoric today.

Thanks!

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