Once a charming, bustling village, Lynn, Massachusetts is a town that many people would say has fallen by the wayside. Forty years ago, Lynn was home to General Electric and had a large port that serviced much of the metropolitan area. Since then, the city's decline has been slow and steady. And according to an MIT report published for the Department of Urban planning, the outlook in Lynn is bleak.
"Water currents deposit silt that prohibits large modern vessels and makes the harbor practically useless as an industrial port," the report reads. "The disappearance of factories has left the [working class] with rising unemployment rates. Developers and investors have not found Lynn an attractive investment."
According to a statistic from the State Department of Education, Lynn has a school dropout rate of 9.4 percent. Its downtown looks like a battered fighter trying to get up even when he knows he should stay down. Yet inside one Lynn house, the mood is not pessimistic. To OneSource employee Irlanda Jimenez, the world is filled with promise.
"I came here eleven years ago, because it was impossible to make it in Santo Domingo," Jimenez said. "When my daughter was three I divorced my husband. I was working at a radio station not making enough money, and I had moved back in with my mother, I had to do something to earn more money." Jimenez made the trip from Puerto Rico to New York and then eventually to Boston in hopes of a better life.
The details and difficulties of moves such as Jimenez's are common stories today - immigrants who live without proper papers, without medical insurance, and with one dead-end job after another. In her search for a home, Jimenez has met corrupt officials, cold landlords, and fought the same realities that all immigrants struggle against.
"Once you have children it is impossible to think only of yourself," Jimenez explained, but her story is much more complicated than that. Jimenez's sacrifice and struggle has nothing to do with her own gain. "Things back home are not safe," she said. "My brother was a taxi-driver in Santo Domingo. One night someone called his apartment and he let him up. He opened the door and they shot him and left. It is much safer here."
Jimenez views difficulties and obstacles as things to be overcome. Nothing is impossible. Her attitude has led to her involvement to get a new contract with OneSource.
"I need medical insurance because I know how hard it is to live without work," Jimenez said. "Without sick days we don't have the chance to provide for our children. I had an operation and I had to go without working for five weeks. I managed to borrow some money from a friend, but when your children depend on your paycheck and you still have to pay rent..." Jimenez trailed off as she gazed to her daughter sitting quietly doing her homework.
"I want to become a Tufts employee... so that they can get the help and benefits of such a good university," Jimenez said. The University has so far stated that they will watch the negotiations without becoming involved.
"I read in the newspaper the other day that they want to offer University employees ESL lessons," Jimenez said, referring to proposed English language classes. "Well, until the University recognizes us as staff, we won't be able to go. And since most of us work six days a week for eight hours a day, how are we going to find the time to study?"
Yet the University's position in the matter has not affected Jimenez's view of Tufts students. "I love the students of this school, so much," she said. "They are so kind. I love being around people from all over the world and many of them are so helpful, I have had students help me lift heavy bags without hesitating. They are the best part of this campus."
