On a typical day in years previous, Luis Valentan was out chasing vehicles by 5 a.m., jostling with different determined males attempting to land a job exterior a Dwelling Depot.

“Hey, take me! I work for a superb value!” Valentan would plead amid an anxious refrain of overseas accents.

The immigrant from Mexico Metropolis was 25 when he grew to become a day laborer, and instantly he started listening to co-workers speak about struggling to help a household, repay money owed and pull collectively sufficient cash to cowl medical payments and rising rents. Tales of wage theft, discrimination and verbal abuse circulated amongst his compañeros, particularly those that lacked authorized work paperwork.

Valentan knew that in some way he had to assist immigrants like himself. However how?

Twenty years later, Valentan makes use of a curious pair of props to understand his targets as an immigrant labor activist: a microphone and a wrestler’s masks.

Each Friday morning at 11, he enters a radio sales space on the Pasadena Group Job Heart, activates his transmission gear, adjusts his microphone and fires up his two-hour radio present, “Voces Jornaleras,” Spanish for “Employee Voices,” or “Journeymen Voices.” His present is a cornerstone of the lineup at Radio Jornalera, an internet-based streaming platform that could be a venture of the Nationwide Day Laborer Organizing Community.

Activist and radio host Luis Valentan, left, interviews Jose Diaz on the Radio Jornalera studio in Pasadena.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Instances)

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Carrying denims, a pink plaid shirt and a baseball cap with a Mexican flag emblem one latest day, Valentan, 50, leaned into the mike as he welcomed listeners as in the event that they had been previous buddies. His arms and face had been tanned from perpetually toiling within the solar, his fingers callused.

“Buenos días, compas y compitas,” he started, earlier than launching right into a passionate oration on the persistent drawback of wage theft.

“Immigrants are already right here,” Valentan mentioned later in an interview. “Somebody has to do the work and I’ve needed to be the voice, making the most of the totally different communication platforms, if different media ignore us.”

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Luis Valentan emigrated from Mexico at age 18 within the mid-Nineties and commenced working as a day laborer. Finally he grew to become an activist for immigrant rights and employees’ rights.

Valentan smiles at skeptics who doubt that he and his fellow immigrant laborers, with out previous expertise or faculty coaching, may’ve created Radio Jornalera from scratch in mid-2019, in what was as soon as a small warehouse. In simply 4 years the station has expanded its programming from two hours every week to 24-7, and has branched into different states and even different nations.

However his ebullient on-air persona isn’t Valentan’s solely public identification.

His alter ego is a luchador — a Mexican lucha libre, freestyle, wrestler — generally known as “Compa Ñero,” who barnstorms throughout California exhorting employees to demand and train their rights. “Compa Ñero” is a double wordplay in Spanish: Mixed, the 2 phrases imply “pal” (compañero); separated, they type a shorthand for compadre ñero, an irreverent road particular person.

At a rally in San Francisco, Luis Valentan, aka Compa Ñero, marches in favor of a state invoice that would supply unemployment advantages to undocumented immigrants.

(Selene Rivera)

Carrying a yellow and black masks topped with the letters “SN” — made well-known within the Seventies and ‘80s by Vick Amezcua, aka Septiembre Negro, a 5’7” bundle of luchador fearsomeness — Compa Ñero is never seen on the radio station. His area is the streets, the place he usually takes half in protest marches and political actions, educating and uniting his group with jokes and colourful slang.

“The issues of the immigrant group, particularly day laborers, should not discovered on the college,” Valentan mentioned. “You could see them and stay them to grasp them.”

Valentan says that moreover offering data and sources, Radio Jornalera’s mission is to erase frequent prejudices towards day laborers. He hopes his street-theater persona can encourage and uplift.

“We immigrants want somebody who identifies with us,” he mentioned. “A hoop fighter is a personality that at all times attracts everybody’s consideration.”

In line with the Nationwide Day Laborer Organizing Community (NDLON), there are between 120,000 and 150,000 women and men working as day laborers in at the least 22 U.S. states. Broadcasting on YouTube and Fb, Radio Jornalera helps callers get authorized and different skilled recommendation —not solely with wage theft and wage restoration but in addition with on-the-job accidents and accidents, discrimination, immigration and visa considerations, in addition to COVID- and different health-related issues.

Lilia García Brower, the California labor commissioner who oversees the primary legislation enforcement company for office protections, mentioned that Radio Jornalera has been a vital pressure in stemming wage theft. In 2021, California employees filed almost 19,000 claims totaling greater than $338 million in stolen wages, in accordance with a database offered by the labor commissioner’s workplace.

Luis Valentan sweeps out the Radio Jornalera studio in Pasadena earlier than conducting an interview.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Instances)

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“Wage theft is a systemic drawback in California,” García Brower mentioned. “We do not need precise knowledge, however we all know that it’s within the billions. In Los Angeles County particularly it’s recognized that every week roughly $26 million is looted from employees.”

On one latest radio present, José Luis Rodríguez, a 64-year-old immigrant day laborer from Mexico Metropolis who seems to be for work exterior a Dwelling Depot in Azusa, referred to as in to say that he hadn’t been absolutely paid for a 2021 house-painting job.

The house owner was ignoring his pleas for cost, Rodríguez mentioned. “When the times handed and he stopped answering me, I knew that he had stolen from me. I felt unhappy, and like a idiot.”

The Baldwin Park resident took his case to Radio Jornalera, which he knew from its public service ads for native meals banks. Valentan tried to contact the house owner, however his telephone calls weren’t answered. The house owner additionally didn’t reply to a Instances reporter’s repeated telephone calls.

In line with lawyer Cal Soto, coordinator of employees’ rights for NDLON, Rodríguez subsequently filed a grievance in Van Nuys with the California Labor Commissioner’s Workplace, additionally referred to as the Division of Labor Requirements Enforcement, in search of again pay for 2 days’ work — a complete of $300 — plus a high quality of as much as $6,000 for alleged wage theft. The case may take two years or extra to resolve.

Rodríguez additionally was in a position to obtain coaching in wage theft prevention, monetary help and meals help. He now volunteers on the Pasadena Job Heart. “I really feel stronger, with extra vanity, in spite of everything this,” he mentioned.

Valentan mentioned that along with empowering employees akin to Rodríguez, Radio Jornalera’s mission is to erase frequent prejudices towards day laborers, who usually are caricatured as low-skilled, unreliable migrants illegally in the US. He hopes his luchador character can encourage.

“We immigrants want somebody who identifies with us. A hoop fighter is a personality that at all times attracts everybody’s consideration.”

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One afternoon in 1981, Valentan mentioned goodbye to his mom and set off for the US. He arrived in South Los Angeles a couple of days later. He was 18.

With no highschool schooling, he cleaned bogs and later labored within the garment business. He shared an residence with 10 others. Generally he slept in a closet.

In 1998 he grew to become a day laborer, rising at 5 a.m. to unload trailers, shovel cement, work a stitching machine and have a tendency gardens. Employers favored the younger, the sturdy, the low-paid — those that didn’t complain about degrading pay, sore backs and dislocated arms, verbal haranguing and sexual harassment. They feared they’d be deported in the event that they did.

“I noticed and skilled loads of injustice,” Valentan says. “We’ve no alternative however to close up and put up with the mistreatment if we need to earn the day’s pay.”

Whereas dwelling in Arizona for eight years within the early 2000s, he overlapped with Arizona’s passage in 2010 of extremely controversial Senate Invoice 1070, which barred state and native officers and companies from curbing federal immigration legal guidelines; imposed penalties on anybody sheltering, hiring or transporting people who find themselves within the U.S. illegally; and empowered police departments to query the immigration standing of detainees, together with these stopped for easy visitors violations. Critics mentioned it could result in racial profiling and civil rights violations.

Valentan grew to become concerned with the immigrant-rights group Promise Arizona. When he returned to Los Angeles in 2012, he was a dedicated activist and a skilled group organizer.

“You may’t simply complain all of your life,” he mentioned. “You additionally need to get entangled together with your group to make a change.”

Again in L.A., he labored to focus on immigrants’ tales by means of the Voces Mobiles Day Labor Mission of the Instituto de Educación Standard del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), a nonprofit that organizes and educates immigrants to unravel issues in their very own communities. In 2015, he started contributing to a twice-monthly, one-hour radio program, Voces Jornaleras — the identical as its present — in a earlier iteration on KPFK-FM (90.7), joined by fellow activist Manuel Vicente from NDLON. After Donald Trump was elected, the pair felt additional spurred to counter the brand new administration’s anti-immigrant insurance policies.

When a chance arose to broadcast the present out of the Pasadena Group Job Heart, they seized it. There now are 9 totally different exhibits and a complete of 14 program announcers.

Luis Valentan, left, West Coast Regional Coordinator for the Nationwide Day Laborer Organizing Community (NDLON), interviews home painter Marina Rodriguez in Salt Lake Metropolis.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Instances)

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“The purpose was not solely to tell and entertain day laborers, however to offer them a software that trains them as activists and organizes them from the roots up,” says Vicente, a Mexico native who holds a level in communication sciences from the Jesuit College of Guadalajara. “On the market, there are various information platforms that report on sure points, with the minutes counted. Right here, we’ve got as a lot airtime as attainable, with out limitations.”

Rosa Sánchez, 63, was amongst those that requested Voces Jornaleras for help. The Pasadena cleansing employee grew to become a widow on Jan. 30, 2021, when her husband, José, a prepare dinner, died after the couple fell in poor health from the coronavirus.

“I used to be left and not using a husband, and not using a job and nonetheless with bodily ache as a result of illness,” mentioned the native of Jalisco, Mexico. “Mr. Valentan listened to my case and his staff directed me to a meals financial institution that continues to assist me.”

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic introduced enhanced recognition of the important work carried out by the day-labor sector. Even so, due to their immigrant standing many of those employees have struggled to entry the financial help offered to U.S. residents.

“Day laborers, like all migrants, carry the American dream of their minds, and lots of had been unable to realize their desires after dying on the road,” Valentan mentioned.

That kind of consciousness has spurred day laborers and important employees in different elements of the nation, in league with activists, to deliver Radio Jornalera into their communities. Among the many platform’s new companions are Unión de Vecinos, a corporation that addresses housing legal guidelines and rights; El Baúl de los Recuerdos, which mixes regional Mexican music with experiences on immigrant points; Alianza TPS, which covers information about immigrant reduction companies; and Freedom Sing, which broadcasts music related to immigrant-rights actions.

Elizabeth Blaney, co-founder of Union de Vecinos, mentioned it was vital to have an additional public platform that aligns with the immigrant group on each longstanding and rising points.

“On-line platforms have develop into a conventional avenue for all working individuals who need to educate themselves, be a part of activism or combat for his or her rights,” Blaney mentioned.

The Unión de Vecinos program has been on the air since 2020, each Monday at 11 a.m..

“Whenever you hear different individuals claiming your rights, you begin to need to do the identical. Radio Jornalera injects individuals with that feeling of unity and activism,” Blaney mentioned.

The Radio Jornalera format has been replicated in Minnesota, Boston, New York, New Jersey, Washington, El Salvador and Guatemala. For the final a number of months, Valentan additionally has been broadcasting his present from Salt Lake Metropolis, to develop the platform’s presence all through the West. In November, Radio Jornalera grew to become established in Costa Rica, and this yr it’s anticipated to develop to Florida and Texas.

Angela Sanbrano, co-executive director of NDLON, is pleased with Radio Jornalera’s dramatic development.

Luis Valentan, holding a digicam, interviews Wilmer Avila Rodriguez in Salt Lake Metropolis.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Instances)

“Day laborers have numerous jobs that maintain Californians’ lives and the nation afloat each day, and but virtually nobody writes about them until they’re damage or ripped off,” she mentioned.

Victor Narro, venture director and professor of labor research for the UCLA Labor Heart, mentioned the day-laborer group has come a great distance for the reason that Nineties, at the least in California.

“Within the Nineties, day laborers had been attacked from totally different angles. They had been identified for interfering with companies, for interfering with public roads, and even teams of neighbors argued that day laborers had been interfering with the aesthetics of their neighborhoods. There have been cities that put guidelines to restrict day laborers from congregating in public locations, and that is nonetheless taking place,” he mentioned.

“Little by little the day laborers got here collectively, fought for his or her rights, educated individuals, they usually proceed to take action in a method or one other,” he mentioned. “There may be going to return a time when Congress has to maneuver ahead with an immigration reform package deal, and we’ve got to ensure that day laborers are on the desk, in any immigration reform package deal and in any insurance policies, as a result of no person desires to see them, however they proceed to make use of their companies.”

Valentan and Vicente, for his or her half, aren’t taking time to savor Radio Jornalera’s achievements. Though the know-how evolves, immigrant employees’ hopes for a greater future keep fixed.

“Solely the instruments have modified,” Valentan mentioned, “however the want to work has not modified.”