Last month six construction workers were found dead in a red pickup truck submerged in 25 feet of water in Baltimore, Maryland. The truck fell into the river following the collapse of the bridge they were working on. Only the bodies of 26-year-old Dorlian Castillo Cabrera and 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes were found inside the truck, according to USA Today, According to the media outlet Firstpost, the six construction workers were part of a Central America crew from places like Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.
Many immigrants come to America in search of the American Dream, where they believe they will be able to strike rich and give their children a successful life if they work hard. Although that is the case for some, many are left with very low-paying and dangerously high risk jobs. Death was considered a constant, ever present issue on the Panama Canal project in 1904-1914 where 25,000 workers died. Yellow Fever, drownings, electrocution and avalanches due to the explosion of over 60 million pounds of dynamite.
The construction of the Suez Canal which connected the Mediterranean and Red Seas through a sea-level waterway, killed many people from cholera and plagues because of the lack of sanitation facilities, polluted drinking water, and rotted food. There were many industrial accidents and no basic medical facilities. Over 120,000 workers died during the 11 year project.
The use of Chinese workers to build the Transcontinental Railroad Project was one of the most tragic times for immigrant workers in America. The construction started on January 8.1863 in Sacramento, California. The purpose was to connect the east and west coasts and make rural and unexplored areas accessible. This was part of the government’s Manifest Destiny, where Americans believed that they had a god-given right to expand westwards. Through years of aggressive colonization which annihilated the American Indian. America was able to expand from the original 13 colonies to an enormous territory spreading across the entirety of North America.
However, how were they going to be able to effectively communicate and transport resources became the next critical issue. That is where the transcontinental railroad came in… to become the fast mode of transportation between America’s two coasts. After the first two years, the U.S government realized that they needed many more workers. In January 1865, the Central Pacific published an ad, seeking 5,000 additional railroad workers. Although some white workers responded, they began recruiting people from Chinese companies abroad. Chinese people willingly came, particularly from China’s Guangdong province, where they were fleeing their country’s Opium War. It has been estimated that over 20,000 Chinese laborers participated in the Transcontinental Railroad Project.
Chinese workers were abused daily. They were given one half of what the Euro-American workers were paid and even had to pay for their own food. The Chinese workers organized a strike to demand better working conditions and equal pay. However, the bosses broke the strike by threatening violence and to withhold food rations, causing the workers to back down. There were extreme weather conditions like harsh winters and constant threats of avalanches, there were brutal summer temperatures that reached up to 120 degrees. The most dangerous area was the Sierra Nevada’s Cape Horn where teams of Chinese workers had to remove boulders, trees, and brush from the mountain’s slopes where any delays in pulling back the boulders would lead to sudden death from explosives. Over 1,000 Chinese people died and had their bones shipped back to China to be buried.
Many believed that the Chinese were going to “steal their job” since many Chinese workers were willing to work long hours in terrible conditions for extremely low pay. The Naturalization Act of 1870 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of May 6, 1882 were enacted because Americans believed that the Chinese immigrants should not be allowed to come to America, or there would be no more opportunities left for them. There were many horrific acts of violence against the Chinese. In the 1880s, thousands of Chinese laborers were targets of murder, assault, due to growing natives, increasing resentment towards Asians and anti-Asian Legislation.
Along with the railroads, there was a huge “gold rush” from the mining industry which drew many Chinese workers to America as well, hoping to strike rich and find gold. Although there was a lot of anti-Asian legislation and resentment growing, many Chinese immigrants played a large role in shaping the country. However, much of history tries to rage and hide the facts. Many photographs taken during the Transcontinental Railroad Project did not include Chinese workers. Despite many of the railroad workers’ descendants attempting to seek acknowledgment of their ancestor’s labor, the then Transportation Secretary John A. Volpe refused to acknowledge it.
The story of the Chinese immigrants and the thousands of laborers who died building the Transcontinental Railroad and Panama and Suez Canals transcends generations of suffering and death is reflected today among the poor. There are still many deaths that have claimed the lives of immigrants in the construction industry in places like Baltimore and New York. Juan Chonillio, a 44-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant fell to his death while getting stuck in a moving crane. His family was only able to get a $10,000 compensation for his death. His nephew was outraged. “Nobody got locked up. Nobody got a real punishment, I guess that means you can put somebody at risk, just plead guilty, and that’s it.”.
We, as a nation, need to realize that immigrants are very important to making America great. There has continuously been pushback from many Americans, thinking that immigrants are stealing their jobs; when in reality, the ancestors of these Americans were immigrants. Rather immigrants provide an important foundation in America. Many immigrants take on jobs that no one wants, either because of low pay or dangerous conditions, like the bridge in Baltimore.
