Labor Day: a reflection of an American worker
My father is the hardest working man I know.
Since a young child I have memories of my dad always working and doing what he can to provide for his family.
My dad immigrated to the United States in the sixties and graduated Garfield High School in 1968. My family were tradesmen who were small business owners. My grandfather Alfonso Reyes owned a small wood mill in South Los Angeles manufacturing wood picture frames and molding. My great grandfather worked with wrought iron and had a small business too.
When my dad entered the workforce, he was able to become an electrician apprentice with my grandfather Raul Bautista and soon got hired with Santa Fe Railroad in commerce as an IBEW electrician.
My dad has always been a hard worker and my memories of him always working swing shift or overtime, not being able to spend time with the family because he had odd hours.
When I became a teenager, my dad started to take up upholstery and did little jobs on the weekend in order to bring extra income into the home when he wasn’t working at Santa Fe. He learned the trade from his uncle, “Tio Pepe” as a child growing up in Chihuahua.
He first started with auto upholstery, and I sometimes I helped him in our garage taking apart the seats and removing the old covers to earn some extra money. At the time, I did not really like helping him and was more focused on spending time with my friends playing.
He slowly grew the upholstery business and somehow juggled working full time while managing a small business. So most of my time with my dad during my adolescent years was spent either at the business or when he was at home resting since he worked so much.
At one point, he was injured at Santa Fe while I was in H.S. His knee was busted and he had to have surgery so he was out of commission for a while. It is a strong memory since it was one of the few times in my life when I saw my dad actually not working while he healed. By then, my dad had employees at his business who did much of the upholstery work, and he would do mainly estimates for clients and order supplies for jobs.
After his knee healed, he went back to work for a while and I believe he was re-injured and was not able to perform his job duties. I just remember that he couldn’t go back to work at Santa Fe and it was tough for the family.
He finally was able to get a settlement thanks to the help from the Union and no longer worked for Santa Fe Railroad.
That is when he opened his mattress manufacturing business and started to work for himself as he as done for over 20 years. It’s been a struggle, since manufacturing of just about anything in the United States as been decimated by foreign trade. For those family and friends who know my dad; you know he’s still a hard worker and struggles to survive in this economy as most small business do.
This year he is able to finally draw on his Railroad retirement pension. I am glad to see that even after all of these years, his work as an IBEW electrician is still helping my father and our family.
I know that my dad is far from officially retiring and will work until that last day he is able too. It’s just in his nature.
Today, Labor Day was we reflect on working men and women; I think of my dad. The hardest working man I know.
-Louis R. Reyes
My Dad
