The following excerpt is from a February 3, 2010 article published in The New York Times. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, they wait on corners for odd jobs, sending as much money as they can back home to Guatemala. They gather at the small churches that double as community centers. They sleep in apartments crowded with friends and family.
And when members of the community die, as five did in a terrible blaze last weekend, they reach into meager savings to help send the bodies back home.
…
The workers say they are here simply to make money and, when they do, they try to send as much as possible to wives, children, parents and siblings. But recently there has not been enough to pay for themselves, let alone to subsidize others, so they come out again the next day, and stand in the cold waiting for work, seven days a week…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read articles about the Guatemalan Economy.