The Mexican immigrant worker in New York is a perfect example of the hero who has gone unnoticed. It is common for a Mexican worker in New York to work extraordinary hours in extreme conditions for very low wages which are saved at great cost and sacrifice and sent to families and communities in Mexico who rely on them to survive.
The Mexican economy has quietly become dependent on the money sent from workers in the US. Conversely, the US economy has quietly become dependent on the labor of Mexican immigrants. Along with the depth of their sacrifice, it is the quietness of this dependence which makes Mexican immigrant workers a subject of interest.
The principal objective of this series is to pay homage to these brave and determined men and women that somehow manage, without the help of any supernatural power, to withstand extreme conditions of labor in order to help their families and communities survive and prosper.
This project will consist of 12 color photographs of Mexican immigrants dressed in the costumes of popular American and Mexican superheroes. Each photo will picture the worker/superhero in their work environment, and will be accompanied by a short text including the worker’s name, their hometown in Mexico, the number of years they have been working in New York, and the amount of money they send to Mexico each week.
A dentist who pulled out an elderly woman’s teeth without anaesthetic “to teach her a lesson” has been thrown out of the profession.
Optimus Prime (born 1971) is a U.S. Army Ohio National Guard firefighter who had his name legally changed to Optimus Prime in May of 2001, on his 30th birthday. He claims to have done this because the fictional character of the same name from the Transformers was like a father figure when he was growing up. The name appears on his driver’s license, military ID, and uniform. Prime’s military unit, the 5694th Tactical Crash Rescue Unit, is currently deployed on Operation Enduring Freedom. Prime was recalled from Baghdad in Iraq in June 2003 following a pair of family emergencies. His former name has not been publicly disclosed.