Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas’ Gulf Coast on Friday night, but the city will continue experiencing heavy rains for the rest of the week. Already, the effects have been devastating. With some streets resembling rivers, good samaritans have stepped up to help first responders’ efforts and to save their neighbors. In the midst of all the chaos, a 60-year-old Gloria María Quintanilla waded through waist-high water for an hour to arrive at her job at the Doubletree.
In a New York Times story about the anxiety felt by many Houston’s residents, Quintanilla’s testimony was supposed to show the resilience of the city. “It was my day to work, and I’m a very responsible person,” Quintanilla, a Salvadoran immigrant, told the NYT. “I had no idea it was going to be like this.”
Instead, her story laid bare the reality for many immigrants. In the United States, they work hard, often in terrible conditions. Gloria walked for an hour to her job, where she earns $10 an hour, because she had to. She couldn’t afford to miss work and traversed the same treacherous waters that posed a hazard to so many. While some view her extreme efforts as representative of how hard immigrants work, others feel enraged that she’s risking her life for $10 an hour, a wage that would likely not properly equip her for emergencies. Some even tweeted at DoubleTree asking the company to properly compensate her.
Check out a few reactions below: