SOLICITATION JUST PART OF DAY LABORERS' LIVES.

Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer

VAN NUYS -- As they pass time on the corner of Kester and Oxnard streets looking for work, day laborers tell stories.

They talk about a man who drives by in the afternoons, pretending to need someone to mow the lawn, trim some trees or paint the garage.

What the man really wants is sex. And he's looking for a man to hire for the day.

``I tried to ask him what kind of work he wanted, and at first he said one thing, then another, so I didn't want to go,'' one worker recently said at the Van Nuys street corner.

``These days, you have to know who you are getting in the car with,'' he said. ``These days, you better ask all the questions before you get in and go. Bad things can happen very fast.''

With thousands of undocumented immigrants looking for work every day in Southern California, the practice of hiring day laborers for sex has some health experts concerned about the rapid spread of AIDS in the immigrant community.

For the past three years, outreach workers have handed out safe-sex booklets to men at Kester and Oxnard, near one of several Los Angeles-area locations listed on a Web site used by gay and bisexual men in search of sex.

The men using the Web site target day laborers because many of them are young, alone and desperate for money -- especially after passing an entire morning without finding any work, said Dr. Frank Galvan, assistant professor at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles.

Surprised by the discovery of the Web site in 2004, Galvan began researching the practice across Southern California. What he discovered alarmed him.

In a survey of 450 day laborers at the various sites listed on the Web site, 38 percent said they had been solicited for sex while seeking work. Ten percent of them accepted the offer. A majority of those said they did not use condoms.

Of those who accepted the offer, 86 percent denied being gay. The same 86 percent said they agreed to have sex for money because they hadn't worked that day and needed the money.

During his research, Galvan was told laborers were sometimes threatened with deportation if they refused sex.

County health experts say that while the soliciting of day laborers is alarming, they are more concerned about the transmission of HIV and the use of crystal meth among gay and bisexual men across all communities.

Of the 450 day laborers surveyed, only one tested positive for HIV.

``I haven't received anything that suggests that we need to dramatically shift HIV resources to this issue,'' said Mario Perez, director of the Los Angeles County Office of AIDS Program and Policy. ``It's alarming that it's happening, but when the dust settles, we try to get to the men who are at a higher risk.''

In Los Angeles County, HIV and AIDS among Latinos continues to increase. Health experts estimate 48 percent of all AIDS cases are Latinos, primarily among men who have sex with other men. New cases of syphilis also jumped 40 percent in Los Angeles County last year and of the new cases, 42 percent were Latinos.

Perez said if more day laborers are being solicited, those who are victimized would likely remain silent. He said the practice has been going on for at least eight years.

``We continue to be challenged with some cultural issues around homophobia, and the stigma and shame of AIDS,'' Perez said. ``I still think there's shame and stigma to either being gay or being bisexual in the community, so those might be some deterrents of sharing their experience with other counterparts. We may never know the true extent of what's happening.''

Galvan cautioned that his survey of the 450 day laborers was not conducted randomly. He said he visited five sites in Los Angeles and one in the San Fernando Valley -- all of which were listed on the Web site.

But he and others aware of the practice say that if it is happening in Los Angeles, then day laborers across the country are likely being solicited as well.

``If it's happening in Los Angeles, then it's happening in New York and it's happening in Miami. We need everybody to know what's happening,'' said Victor Martinez, regional director for Bienestar, a nonprofit organization that works to fund education, research and policy for Latinos and HIV prevention.

Martinez, who presented Galvan's study in Sacramento recently, said it is not the agency's policy to judge the men if they accept the sexual advances. Their job, he said, is to warn the men they could contract HIV and to secure more funding through Los Angeles County Health Services for additional research.

``People still die of AIDS,'' Martinez said. ``Especially our clients, because they don't have access to health care. Nobody talks about it, but they are the new faces of AIDS.''

The Los Angeles Police Department said it was not aware of the practice, which did not surprise Martinez.

``It is understandable because this community is disenfranchised. They do not speak English. They are undocumented. They are afraid. But it doesn't mean it doesn't happen,'' he said.

Men who pick up day laborers share their stories from various states on the Web site that lists the Los Angeles locations. They swap techniques on how to lure day laborers into their cars. One tipster advised: ``Go later in the day, when the men haven't worked.''

One man shared this experience with a day laborer in Texas in May:

``I picked up a (day laborer) this morning from Ross Avenue here in Dallas and I just drove around with him and we ended up in Irving. ... Very resistant about it at first, but I did promise to reward him nicely,'' the anonymous man wrote.

``Well anyway after we were done we stopped at a 7-11 ... and when he was in the restroom I just drove off. I don't know how he got home.''

On the four corners at Kester and Oxnard streets, where rows of automotive parts and manufacturing shops stand, hundreds of men gather early for a day's work.

Those who specialize in painting meet at one corner. Builders and masonry specialists stand at another. The younger men often get the good jobs first. They can run faster toward prospective employers. Those who speak English have an even better chance.

By 8 a.m., if a man hasn't been picked up yet, chances are he will find nothing that day. Those left behind often linger to lean against a lightpost or to squat in the shade of a building.

Sometimes, the men are approached by preachers from local storefront churches who pass out pamphlets and prayer cards that promise salvation to the born-again.

Sometimes, a man will come by and pass out fliers for local bars or strip clubs.

But as morning turns to afternoon, desperation sets in among some laborers, and those who can exploit them begin to circle, Martinez and others say.

``The men talk about it,'' said Felipe Serrano, a day laborer and part-time outreach worker for Valley Community Clinic in North Hollywood. ``We all try to watch out for each other. Men say it happens to them in parks.''

Through in-depth interviews, Galvan found that day laborers who were addicted to drugs were six times more likely to accept solicitations of sex. But Galvan also found that those men who had been laborers for five years or more were seven times more likely to accept sex.

Galvan said more research is needed to find out why.

The fact that some day laborers are solicited for sex does not surprise Antonio Bernabe, lead coordinator of the Day Laborer Project for CHIRLA, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

In his 14 years working with day laborers, Bernabe says exploitation against migrant workers is nothing new and comes in many forms -- from working men in the field under the hot sun without offering them water or breaks to not paying them for a day's work.

``This is a big city and because there is a congregation of men, there are people with the kind of psychology that wants to take advantage of their needs,'' Bernabe said.

``They do want to hire the day laborers for work and they come with the money in their hand. But it's a camouflage for what they really want.''

And it's not just men soliciting men, Bernabe said.

``In these times we're living, it's also women who want to hire the men,'' he said. ``But it doesn't happen frequently.''

One day laborer working on Oxnard Street in Van Nuys smiled when he remembered the woman who said she needed work done.

``One day I was standing at Roscoe and Balboa and an older woman asked me to come to her house to plant flowers,'' he says.

``It was a lie. She wanted me for the other thing.''

Bernabe, who oversaw the operation of a day labor site in North Hollywood, said such organized facilities offer better protection for the men. Laborers can report crimes to the coordinators, who will confront employers.

``Most of the time, the employer says it's a misunderstanding,'' Bernabe said. ``They say, `Oh, he didn't understand what I was trying to tell him in English.'''

Martinez said the stigma of AIDS combined with macho attitudes toward the use of condoms continues to contribute to the spread of the disease.

And while many would shrug it off as not having it affect their own community, Martinez said think again.

``Some of these men go back to their wives, so eventually they end up passing it on.''

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

photo, 2 boxes

Photo:

(color) Felipe Serrano of the Valley Community Clinic's Entre Hombres outreach program, right, talks to a day laborer in Van Nuys on Thursday about sexually transmitted diseases.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) Day laborers in the U.S.

Source: The National Day Labor Survey, 2004

(2) AIDS cases in the Valley

Source: County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services 

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