Thread: Hard Days for a Buff and Shine Man

Hard Days for a Buff and Shine Man
Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

By JOSEPH HUFF-HANNON
Published: February 6, 2009
MARCOS SILVA DE PAULA, a 37-year-old Brazilian who moved a decade ago to a Brazilian enclave in Astoria, Queens, can offer a ground-floor view of the city’s economic turmoil.

For many years, Mr. Silva De Paula made a decent living in what is something of a throwback profession — he shines shoes for a living — but he is now planning to return to Brazil with his wife, Miria, and their 3-year-old daughter, Kimberly. Both Mr. Silva De Paula and his wife, who works part time cleaning houses, have seen their incomes plummet in the past year, and in leaving, they will be following in the footsteps of many Brazilian friends who have already made the one-way trip.

Many immigrants are suffering economically these days, but as the recession deepens, Brazilians are among the few who have the option and incentive to return to their homelands. The reason is that Brazil’s economy, while clearly affected by worldwide troubles, has been relatively strong in recent years, so much so that even before the recession, its strength had drawn immigrants home.

On a recent evening, between bites of a Brazilian farmer’s cheese and his wife’s homemade cake, Mr. Silva De Paula sat in the kitchen of his two-bedroom apartment and talked about his decision to move back home.


When I came here in 1999, Brazil’s economy was in the pits, and it wasn’t too hard to get a visa to travel to the U.S. When I got to New York, I felt at home already. I got work as a house painter, then as a mechanic, then as a driver delivering business documents.

I started working as a shoeshine man in 2004 when a Brazilian friend left for Florida. He sold me his kit, and I took over his business and some of his regular clients. For three years I made good money. I’d take the kit, with the wooden box and my little brushes, and pull it around in a little cart with me, and go to offices in Manhattan, Queens and Long Island.

To tell you the truth, at first I hated this job. Then, after a while, I started to like it a little bit, or at least to hate it a little less. The good part about it is I don’t have a boss telling me, “Do this, do that.â€

Now I’m barely making $2,400 or $2,500 a month.

I make less than that and I am doing OK.....

But...PLEASE go and be with your family

At least this guy and family didn't take an Americans job! Him and his wife supported themselves well and didn't take our welfare. If illegals were like this family I wouldn't mind them here as much. Sounds like a stand up guy. :P