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Los Trabajadores/The Workers, an eye-opening new documentary film by Heather Courtney, details the daily struggles that face undocumented Mexican and Central American day laborers. 

Filmed mostly in Austin, Texas, in 1999 and 2000 for New Day Films, this 48-minute film has already won numerous awards and rightly so. 

This is one of those hard-hitting documentaries that would be right at home on PBS or in a sociology or Latin American studies class in college. That doesn't mean its boring. Courtney spent a lot of time in Austin and in Mexico filming and researching for this film. 

One of the workers featured is Ramon Castillo, a 44-year old Mexican day laborer who left his home in Cardenas, Tabasco, after the Mexican peso began a free fall in 1994 during the Salinas administration. 

Castillo had a decent job with PEMEX, the Mexican petroleum company. After losing his job and a subsequent temp job, he left his wife and two daughters and illegally entered the United States, working in the Austin area. 

Castillo is not alone. Latino workers from all walks of life have made their way to El Norte in search of better-paying jobs. The sad fact is that this migration north, mainly by men, tears families apart. Courtney interviews Castillo's wife and daughters back in Mexico. It was clearly a hard choice for all of them. 

As for the work Castillo and others find in the United States, they are often jobs working for contractors in booming Southwestern cities like Phoenix, Tucson, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. 

"It's a dream of all Latinos to come here and experience this country," says 24-year old Nicaraguan migrant worker Juan Gutierrez. 

It is clear in this film that most migrants -- legal and illegal -- face hardships upon arrival. The work can be dangerous, the pay is paltry and local residents are not always welcoming. 

This is most noticeable during a segment of the film where residents oppose the placement of a day labor pickup site being built in their middle-class neighborhood. Despite vocal protests, the Austin City Council votes 4-3 to move the site from downtown to the neighborhood. At the site and in the council room, protesters hold signs that read; "Get the crime facts! No Felony Day Labor Camp Near Families" and "Does Our Council Represent the Citizens of Austin or Big Business?" 

Big business is a reference to the construction companies and independent contractors that hire the Latino day laborers, many of whom are unskilled and undereducated, and therefore the targets of abuse. 

The day laborers, "los trabajadores," defend themselves against the concerned Anglos. 

"We come to work and nothing more," says one worker who appears disturbed by accusations of thievery and drunkenness among his fellow workers. 

Interestingly, the workers unite and form the First Workers Day Labor Site on Austin's 51st Street. While some residents still oppose its presence,one woman applauds the men for what they've achieved. 

One Austin demolition contractor, Wesley Beck, tells Courtney that the day laborers are important to the economy. 

"Can't blame 'em much," Beck said. "Gotta take care of yourself." 

The Workers ends on a sad note, with Gutierrez boarding a flight back to Nicaragua after being deported. 

"We build the buildings, we do the hardest jobs, and still they don't want us," he says. 

The well done and poignant documentary lacked one aspect. Courtney should have addressed the issue of illegal immigration and its effects, positive and negative, on the infrastructure and economy. 

Andrew West Griffin  10/06/03