THE GREASE
TRAP
would flash his hand at the road
to signal that he wanted to race.
Then he’d blast the horn three
times and tear off into the night.
There was no finish line. “The
point was just to be ahead,” he said.
Barrera took pride in the fact
that he never lost control of the
wheel while causing at least two of
his challengers to crash. But his aggressiveness got him in trouble with
the cops, and he eventually lost the
valet job because he couldn’t pay off
the fines on his license.
For months after that, he wondered whether he’d blown the
best chance he’d ever have to pull
himself out of poverty. Despite his
family’s good years in the ‘90s,
he didn’t know anyone who’d recovered after falling into a life of
“poverty and depression.”
He spent most of his time on his
laptop, surfing the Internet and
reading about the stock market.
He did odd jobs as a janitor and an
“It’s embarrassing
to say she takes care
of me. It should be
the other way around.
It makes me feel like
I’m not a man.”
HUFFINGTON
05.12.13
off-the-books car mechanic. After
about two years of this, his mother
kicked him out of the house. He
moved into the windowless room
in his uncle’s basement and applied for work at the KFC.
Barrera informed the manager
that he’d worked at fast-food restaurants before and felt he deserved
$9 an hour based on his experience.
“He offered $7.25,” Barrera recalled. “ I saw a look on his face,
like, if I kept asking for $9, there
wasn’t going to be a job for me.”
He took his place behind the
counter the following week.
Barrera worked hard and was
quick on his feet, and after just
three months his boss promoted
him to shift supervisor. Barrera
spent $114 of his own money on
a food preparation certificate
that made him eligible for the
expanded role.
In addition to working the cash
register, he was now responsible
for preparing pot pies and biscuits,
baking cookies, and changing the
syrup in the soda machine. He
also answered the phone, handled
transactions for Spanish-speaking
customers, unpacked boxes, arranged food in the freezer and on
the shelves, closed the store three
or four nights a week and checked
that the money in the registers
matched up with the receipts.
His managers encouraged him to