[ilbegone]

I was ran off from two jobs in the last four years because I objected to the Mexican nationals on the crews doing work they had neither the training nor the pay to do the job they were doing.

Besides, in each instance I had flashbacks as to what had happened in housing construction in the eighties - that is exactly how the virtual wholesale displacement of American citizens in an entire California industry began.

The one in particular that I'm working with now - I don't dislike the man but there is a strain.

He's been in the US for twenty years, the last ten primarily with English speakers. He's just now getting around to the idea that he needs to have a far better working comprehension of English. The only reason he's had this job for so long with minimal English skills is because he's being protected from up the corporate ladder. Otherwise, he'd have been gone in the first week as a safety hazard.

I won't cater to his Mexican - ness. If he says something to me in Spanish I reply in English - he's got the other guys saying badly pronounced stuff like "como estas", "Gracias", and a load of other stuff.

There was twice he was screwing around buying tamales and champurrado from street vendors while I was getting my part ready, then instead of doing his stuff he started undoing and jerry rigging my part. I got loud, don't f**k off to begin with and then come over and screw with my part of it. Besides, if I had let him do it, the task would probably have failed and we'd have to redo everything, as well as look stupid.

Then, several times when I was off doing something else, he parked the truck and walked away from it to eat lunch out of sight without locking it, my tools were wide open to whomever wanted to take them - pissed me off every time.

Of course, he appointed himself as the "man in the middle" between myself and primarily Spanish speakers who knew enough English and needed to communicate with me personally. He was a part of Spanish speaking rude behavior, which I do not appreciate.

He's now generally working elsewhere on the job. I'm not sure if he thinks he's punishing me or merely trying to salve a wounded sense of masculinity.

I believe that if there were a bunch of fellow Mexican nationals on the job, they would work on setting me up to get me fired.