Maids, parking valets, and other domestic workers push back
against ill treatment in 'the world's most unequal region.'
Mexico city; and Santiago, chile When parking attendant Hugo
Enrique Vera was beaten by a wealthy client in Mexico, allegedly
for refusing to show the man where to find the jack in his car,
the surveillance camera captured a stereotype dating to colonial
times: The wealthy resident asserts authoritarian control over
the worker, who takes the beating without question. But there
was a twist: Mr. Vera filed a criminal complaint and condemned
his perpetrator on national news, unleashing a charged debate
about callousness toward the working class. For two decades,
social movements in Latin America have centered on indigenous
rights. Today the indigenous have earned new political
representation, and open mistreatment will draw complaints. Yet
daily life across Latin America is replete with symbols of
stubborn class inequality that go unchallenged, such as
condominium buildings that have separate e