Dulce makes peace with the leering day laborers at Starbucks

Dulce Vasquez, the managing director of Zócalo Public Square, frequents the Starbucks at Wilshire and Union [which I think was one of the Magic Johnson Starbucks that opened after the 1992 riots destruction.] They know her name and her order there, and she loves dropping in. But the day laborers outside because of the adjacent Home Depot used to stare and whistle at her. She writes that she almost switched Starbucks because of the attention, then she bonded with the men.

I realized how much I am actually like those men: born in Mexico (check! ), dark skin (check!), dark brown eyes (check! ), pin-straight, thick, dark hair (check, check, check!). I’m fighting to make a living, trying to be successful, trying to make my family, which is thousands of miles away, proud. Take away the Ann Taylor suit and I have more in common with them than with most of my friends or colleagues.

After that, my attitude changed. The next morning, I pulled into the parking lot, got out of my car, and cheerfully greeted two of the workers: “Buenos días!”

Now, she writes, the leering is like family. An editor's note says that Vasquez was born in Tampico and moved to Florida when she was seven.