Thread: Hombres of Steel

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/nyreg ... 4hero.html

September 24, 2006
Urban Tactics
Hombres of Steel
By TIM MURPHY



IN the world of Dulce Pinzón, a 31-year-old photographer who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Superman isn’t played by some tall, square-jawed Christopher Reeve clone but by diminutive Noe Reyes, 37, who lives and works in her neighborhood. There, he delivers food for the Anytime restaurant, a job that enables him to send hundreds of dollars a month back to family in Mexico.

Ms. Pinzón’s Aquaman is Juventino Rosas, who until recently worked cleaning fish at the Fulton Fish Market; he has since moved up to driving a taxi.

And Wonder Woman is Maria Luisa Romero, a woman in her 50’s who works as an attendant at the Laundromat that Ms. Pinzón uses.

All three are undocumented workers from Ms. Pinzón’s home state, Puebla, which supplies New York with a large number of its Mexican dishwashers, deli workers and cleaning women.

A few years ago, Ms. Pinzón, a former organizer for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, started asking the city’s anonymous day laborers from Puebla if they would pose for her in their work settings — dressed as superheroes.

“They’re so quiet and hard-working and invisible,” she said. “I wanted to pay a tribute to them.”

Of her score of subjects, Mr. Reyes was her favorite. “He’s been in New York 10 years and has put his siblings in Mexico through university with his earnings,” she said. “But he’d never so much as visited the Empire State Building, he’s been working so hard.”

She added: “He’s so fragile and small with his bicycle. I said to him, ‘You’re going to be my Superman.’ ”

The photographs, which were on view at the Queens Museum of Art during the summer, will move to Manhattan this week for the Art(212) fair, which starts Thursday at the 69th Regiment Armory, on Lexington Avenue and 26th Street.

Mr. Reyes was one of the subjects who attended the opening of the exhibition at the museum in Queens.

“He had to ask a co-worker to cover for him for three hours so he could come,” Ms. Pinzón said. “But he loved it. He was so proud, he was actually taking pictures of himself at the show.” TIM MURPHY

someone tip off ICE to be at the next art show..... someone should deport this "super hombre"

Must be the Superman from the bizarro world -- he's working
to break the law.

Most supermen in this nation also care for their families and send a little to the IRS too. I wonder if he ever got sick and paid for it. How come he's still here when we have his name, address and even his photo? I'd opine Brooklyn would be better off with their disadvantaged kids doing this work in lieu of drugs.