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COPYRIGHT 2007 The Institute Inc.
Prologue
1987: Camionetas
In the middle of the night, an unmarked camioneta (15-passenger mini-van) idles in front of a rental house in a West Dallas neighborhood. While a full load of passengers squeezes in, its small cargo trailer is packed with suitcases and cardboard boxes. Among the passengers is an undocumented migrant woman who, along with her two youngest children, must return to Tiquicheo, her home town in the tierra caliente of Michoacan, to take care of her ill mother. Leaving behind her husband and their older children, she waves a tearful adios as the camioneta and trailer depart on the long journey south to the Mexican border. Once across the Rio Grande, she and her children will board a Mexican bus line to continue their trip southward to Tiquicheo. Eventually, after several transfers among first- and second-class buses, they will arrive exhausted at her mother's home. (1)
1997-2002: Entrepreneurs and Their Troubles
Late in the evening, crowds are lining up to board camionetas and buses at numerous locations in Oak Cliff, northwest Dallas, East Dallas, and suburban Garland, locations including abandoned gas stations, unused parking lots, and even residential driveways. The following morning, Anglo neighbors make phone calls to city code enforcement officials to complain once again (and more loudly) about noisy night-time arrivals and departures, strangers walking the streets at all hours, and alleged code violations. Even though few firms have business permits, adequate accident and liability insurance, and USDOT [U.S. Department of Transportation] licenses for their buses (none will be required for their camionetas for five more years), there is strong demand for their inexpensive transport services. The crisis comes to a head following August 2001, when one of the leading Hispanic transport company owners (suffering from severe depression in the face of continuing harassment by city code enforcers) shoots himself to death. As a consequence, more than 100 Hispanics involved in camioneta and bus enterprises travel to City Hall to confront the Mayor about selective code enforcement and racism. (2)
2007: Competition Between Firms Small and Large
In the early evening, individuals and families are arriving at several bus stations along East Jefferson Avenue in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. Here they can choose among a dozen companies that specialize in providing transportation for Mexican and U.S. citizens between the two nations, as well as to destinations through-out the United States. Some of the smaller firms share space in older, rather shabby-looking facilities; other, larger transnational companies (including those owned by such industry giants as Greyhound and Omnibuses de Mexico) offer their passengers elegant new terminals. Computerized ticketing, assigned seating, and through travel to the final destination on the same bus make the experience much easier than it used to be. As they board their buses, passengers can see the USDOT registration number and similar registration numbers for travel within Mexico and for other states beyond Texas. Once on board, passengers can relax in the reclining seats, watch the latest Mexican movies on overhead video monitors, or use the restroom facilities at the back of the bus. (3)
Introduction
During the past 20 years, what once was a small-scale, underground transportation system operated by a handful of risk-taking entrepreneurs has been transformed into a multimillion dollar industry serving tens of thousands of individuals and families in the United States and Mexico. The emergence of this Hispanic-oriented transportation system has taken place in the shadow of IRCA (the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986), in the wake of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement that went into effect on January 1, 1994), and with very little attention from anthropologists and other social scientists. (4) In this article, we examine the development of this new arena for competition in the North American transportation marketplace. We begin by considering the background for studying the Hispanic transportation system, before discussing the social scientific and journalistic literature with a view toward locating the present study in the intersection of studies of transportation, ethnicity, and entrepreneurship. Then, we lay out our multi-method approach, which includes examination of government-maintained motor carrier databases, analysis of newspaper articles and advertisements, assessment of census data, and field work among companies in the greater Dallas, Texas, metropolitan area. After providing case studies of several firms involved in the Hispanic transportation system in Dallas and beyond, we conclude with observations about the past, present, and future of this emerging segment of the North American transportation system.
For decades, U.S. and Mexican bus systems operated separately and followed different sets of formal laws and informal cultural rules. In both countries, intercity and interstate bus industries operated as informal "partnerships" between private corporations (which owned and maintained the buses, leased the terminals, and hired drivers and other employees) and the state and federal agencies that provided funds to build and maintain highways, provided subsidies to bus companies serving provincial areas, and provided safety guidelines for motor buses providing intercity passenger service. Until the creation of NAFTA, making a trip from the U.S. to Mexico (or Mexico to the U.S.) required changing buses at the border (e.g., taking a Greyhound from Dallas to Laredo, clearing Mexican customs, and then trans-boarding onto a Mexico-based bus to continue one's journey into central Mexico).
Once NAFTA came into existence, the "broken" transportation system between the U.S. and Mexico was transformed as entrepreneurs and their family firms began to offer better service for transporting passengers and goods from places like Dallas to central Mexican communities and from Dallas to other cities in the U.S. Since 1994, numerous transportation companies have been established by Hispanics in the west and southwest. These enterprises began by offering inexpensive transportation between U.S. cities and the interior of Mexico, a market that was not well served by traditional bus companies on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Daniel Gonzalez, a reporter for THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC, begins a story titled "Greyhound Losing Business to Latino Bus Lines" with a familiar tale:
Forget Greyhound. When it comes to traveling by bus, Latino immigrants like Arturo Lopez are far more likely to hop aboard lines with names like Crucero, Autobuses Americanos and Transportes Baldomero Corral. "I like it. It's fast," said Lopez, 53, of Sedona. The farm worker recently bought a ticket from Phoenix to El Paso aboard a Crucero USA bus. "Greyhound costs a lot and it takes a long time to get anywhere. These lines go direct." Best of all, Lopez added, "the driver speaks Spanish" (May 2, 2005, DESERET NEWS, Salt Lake City, UT).
In his article, Gonzalez adds that these bus lines are flourishing throughout the southwest and expanding to other areas of the nation where the Latino population is rapidly increasing. Although he provides no source for the figure, he claims that "Latino bus lines have grown into a $300 million industry nationwide," at the same time that Greyhound, the no. 1 passenger carrier, has suffered declining revenues and passenger loads. He concludes his article with another first-hand account:
Juan Coronel, a 29-year-old Phoenix apartment maintenance worker, recently bought a $50 ticket aboard Crucero USA for his 75-year-old mother, Celsa Avitia, to return to her home in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, after a two-week visit to Phoenix. His mother speaks no English, but Coronel knew that if she had any problems during the 12-hour journey, she could communicate with the bus driver. Coronel said his worries also were eased knowing his mother would not have to transfer to another bus line at the border, as passengers traveling on Greyhound must do. "This is a lot easier. It goes directly there," Coronel said, standing outside the Crucero terminal as his mother prepared to board the bus (May 2, 2005, DESERET NEWS, Salt Lake City, UT).
Views of Hispanic Transportation
During the 20 years since the passage of the IRCA legislation, immigration has been an important arena for both conservative and progressive political groups in the U.S. Concerns about the impact of "illegal aliens" on American life have stood in stark contrast to the perspective that the U.S. has long benefited from "undocumented workers" who have come to work in the U.S. from Mexico and other nations. Controversies about immigration soon focused on the emerging Hispanic transportation system. Originally developed to serve immigrants traveling back and forth between Mexico and the United States, the expansion of the Hispanic population into locations throughout the U.S has been met with flurries of critical reactions. The INS (now ICE) has taken an especially negative view of camioneta operations. In 1997, the same year that Hispanic entrepreneurs were undergoing troubles in Dallas, George Regan (Acting Associate Commissioner for Enforcement) testified before the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives:
Small transportation companies, operated by smugglers and known as camionetas, are springing up in Texas. These camionetas operate under federal transportation regulations as "common carriers" and, therefore, are not required to check the documentation or status of their passengers. Consequently, these smuggler-operated camioneta buses are able to transport illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States, with little or no fear of prosecution. Unlike legitimate bus companies, both small and large, smuggler-operated camionetas have no scheduled routes or stops and deliberately plan their trips to avoid detection. Smuggler-controlled camioneta operations are based primarily in the Houston and Dallas areas (Regan 1997).
The Internet offers numerous websites and blogs where strong opinions are expressed about the dangers of illegal, undocumented camionetas and buses, and their occupants. For example, Matt Maggio, publisher and editor of the Alamance Independent, offers this description on his website (http://www.alamanceind.com/newfol~4/immig_28.html):
"Camioneta" is the Mexican name for the vans that transport Mexican aliens into and around the U.S.--and it certainly appears that Burlington is now an airline-style hub for one major camioneta company as of Jan. 2000. Transportes Regiomontanos is a "Mexican van" service bringing Mexicans to Burlington and elsewhere in North Carolina; fare from Celaya, Mexico (their stop nearest Mexico City) to Burlington is $185. It keeps two of its vans (photos below) parked at the Colony Apartments off of Mebane St. when they are not on the road; both have Texas plates--and advertise service to places as varied as Chicago, Wisconsin, and Virginia. Their late-model vans--like many "Mexican van" services now--pull small trailers, thus leaving as much room as possible in the van for paying passengers instead of luggage; this is an indication of how many passengers they carry. The trailers prominently advertise Regiomontanos' toll-free U.S. number that is used to handle customer service out of Atlanta--nowhere near the border. The woman who answers the phone there knows what interstate exits they get off at in Burlington from memory; she says that in this county, their stop is at Flying J truck stop in Haw River. But Regiomontanos also operates an airline-like hub as of Dec. 4, 2000 at the My Ranchito 2 tienda on Hanover Rd. in Graham--transferring Mexicans from its camionetas to its intercity buses in the same way American Airlines gathers passengers at key airports from its "commuter" subsidiary American Eagle (Maggio 2000).
Negative comments also abound in letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, and investigative reports in local newspapers. For example, two newspaper accounts of Houston-based camioneta services describe them as "a front for 'coyotes'" (Hegstrom 2002) and as "conduits...
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