June 20th Reading

NYT Ch. 7 : DePalma, Anthony. "Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung"

· In this chapter, the author describes the contrasting lives of a Greek and Mexican immigrant. They had a minimal amount of schooling, were unmarried and childless men, and had come to America looking for opportunity. All similarities end there with the two men. The Greek immigrant, Zannikos married an American born Puerto-Rican Woman and was on the fast track to becoming legal. In contrast, Parelta married a woman in his hometown and brought her to the U.S. He also has been working as menial labor performing various kitchen jobs for the past 15 years to support his growing family while Zannikos managed to create and own an expensive restaurant in upper Manhattan. Two men that are so similar and came to America with the same goals ended up in completely different places. Could it ‘be all about luck’ as Parelta claims? My question about this article is if either or both men were women how would their experience differ? Would Parelta be able to have as many ‘friends’ to find as many jobs? Would his experience be more in domestic work rather than cooking in restaurants? And would Zannikos be as successful? I believe that as women, not only would these two men have different lives, but their levels of opportunity and ‘luck’ at achieving the American dream would be significantly lowered.