Table Of ContentJanitors, Street Vendors,
and Activists
Janitors, Street Vendors,
and Activists
The Lives of Mexican Immigrants
in Silicon Valley
Christian Zlolniski
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley / Los Angeles / London
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Parts of chapter 2 originally appeared in a different form in “Labor Control
and Resistance of Mexican Immigrant Janitors in Silicon Valley,” Human
Organization 62, no. 1 (2003), and in “Unskilled Immigrants in High-
Tech Companies: The Case of Mexican Janitors in Silicon Valley,” in The
International Migration of the Highly Skilled, ed. Wayne Cornelius,
Thomas J. Espenshade, and Idean Salehyan (San Diego: Center for
Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San Diego,
2001). Some of the material presented in chapter 3 initially appeared in
different form in “The Informal Economy in an Advanced Industrialized
Society: Mexican Immigrant Labor in Silicon Valley,” Yale Law Journal
103, no. 8 (1994), reprinted by permission of The Yale Law Journal
Company and William S. Hein Company from The Yale Law Journal,
vol. 103, pages 2305–2335.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2006 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zlolniski, Christian.
Janitors, street vendors, and activists : the lives of Mexican immigrants in
Silicon Valley / Christian Zlolniski.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-520-24641-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 0-520-24643-8 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Mexicans—Employment—California—Santa Clara County—Santa Clara
Valley. 2. Alien labor, Mexican—California—Santa Clara County—Santa
Clara Valley. 3. Unskilled labor—California—Santa Clara County—Santa
Clara Valley. I. Title.
hd8081.m6z556 2006
331.6′272079473—dc22 2005008439
Manufactured in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on New Leaf EcoBook 60, containing 60% post-
consumer waste, processed chlorine free; 30% de-inked recycled fiber,
elemental chlorine free; and 10% fsc-certified virgin fiber, totally chlorine
free. EcoBook 60 is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/astm d5634–01 (Permanence of Paper).
To my parents, Miroslaw y Natalia
Contents
List of Illustrations and Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. Mexican Immigrants in Silicon Valley 20
2. The Subcontracting of Mexican Janitors in the
High-Tech Industry 46
3. Working in the Informal Economy 73
4. Mexican Families in Santech 106
5. Community Politics in the Barrio 145
Conclusion: Subproletarians in a Postindustrial Economy 173
Epilogue: After the Dot-Com Demise 185
Notes 211
References 225
Index 239
Illustrations and Tables
Figures
1. Santech barrio 33
2. Typical apartment in Santech 34
3. A decaying apartment building in Santech, 1993 36
4. Santech residents socializing 42
5. A Justice for Janitors march against a Silicon Valley cleaning
contractor 61
6. A dentist’s chair in Gustavo’s informal dental clinic 97
7. Margarita’s extended family 123
8. Carmen’s household 134
9. Carmen poses in her shared room 136
10. Carmen cleaning an office building 138
11. Santech activists throw a children’s birthday party 157
12. A meeting of People Acting in Community Together 162
Map
San Jose and vicinity 23
ix
Tables
1. Population in Santa Clara County and the city of San Jose,
1900–2000 24
2. Latino population in San Jose, 1960–2000 27
Acknowledgments
It is a great pleasure to thank all the people who helped me in the process
of completing the project on which this book is based. First, I am deeply
thankful to the dozens of Mexican workers and families who opened
their homes and shared their lives, troubles, and triumphs with me in San
Jose. Santiago generously offered me his insights on his life and experi-
ence as a janitor in Silicon Valley, and I truly enjoyed his wit and sense of
humor. Anselmo, Jose, and Miguel always found the time to talk to me
and engage in long conversations despite their tight schedules and de-
manding night-shift jobs. Martha and Agustín shared their home and
meals with me on many occasions, introduced me to many neighbors in
Santech, and invited me to numerous community events in the barrio
and elsewhere. Doña Teresa and Amparo warmly received me at their
homes, offered me their hospitability, and shared their lives with me.
After their arrival in San Jose, Silvia and Fernando helped me to learn
firsthand about their experience of adjusting to the life of newcomers in
the United States. Joel’s family made me feel at home every time I vis-
ited them, and I have fond memories of the many evenings I spent with
them. Quina, Edelmira, Dolores and Zeferino, Xotchil, Alfredo, and
many other former residents of Santech, whose names cannot all be listed
here, offered their hospitability during my stay in San Jose. Doing field-
work among them was a source of inspiration and joy, and I treasure the
friendship that has grown with many of them throughout the years. I also
thank Salvador Bustamante, Guillermo Barroso, and the organizers of
Local 1877 for their time and generosity, as well as Corazón Tomalinas,
the group People Acting in Community Together, and its community
xi
xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
organizers in Santech. I hope I have conveyed their views and actions
fairly. In San Jose, Jesús Martínez Saldaña offered me his guidance, gen-
erosity, and friendship, introduced me to important leaders in the Latino
community, and gracefully shared his deep knowledge about Mexican
immigrants in Silicon Valley. My friends Ervin Barrios and Omar Nuñez
were a source of intellectual stimulus, and together we shared many
laughs. Rafael Morales gave me the opportunity to work as a volunteer
in his program, which I truly enjoyed. During fieldwork, I benefited
from stimulating intellectual exchange with Daniel Dohan and Mary
Pearman. After I left the field, Daniel continued his encouragement of
my book project, while his own book comparing poverty among Mexi-
can immigrants in San Jose and Mexican Americans in Los Angeles was
an inspiration and model for a superb ethnography.
Several institutions have helped support my research financially. I
thank UC Mexus and the California Policy Seminar for providing finan-
cial support for fieldwork in the initial phase. A Visiting Research Fel-
lowship at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of Cal-
ifornia, San Diego, allowed me to write up the results of the initial phase
of the study and, ever since, has always been supportive of me as a for-
mer fellow. El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Colef) in Tijuana, where I
worked for several years, allowed me to finish my dissertation with a
lightened teaching load. While at Colef, I learned much from my col-
leagues about immigration and border issues. I also enjoyed the intel-
lectual support and friendship of my fellow members of the Grupo de
Tesis, Patricia Fernández de Castro, Alfredo Hualde, and Marie Laure
Coubes, as well as Carmen Martinez and many other colleagues and
friends.
This book is the product of a long process that started with my doc-
toral dissertation in the Department of Anthropology at the University
of California, Santa Barbara. I am particularly grateful to the members
of my dissertation committee for their support. Juan Vicente Palerm,
chair of my committee, provided unconditional and consistent support
throughout the years in more forms that I could enumerate here, and to
this day has always been a model of commitment, honesty, and dedica-
tion both to the study of Mexican immigrants and to his students. Sandy
Robertson has been consistently sympathetic toward my research inter-
ests since my early years in graduate school. I enjoyed his professional-
ism and serious scholarship and learned a great deal from his vast knowl-
edge of the household from a cross-cultural and historical comparative
perspective. Harvey Molotch enthusiastically endorsed my research, and
