For nearly 50 years, the southeast corner of West Belmont and North Milwaukee avenues has been a portal for day laborers. The worker's arms are willing, their eyes are wells of hope.

Anytime between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. seven days a week, a pickup truck may swing through a parking lot and snag a worker for a carpentry or painting job.

Chicago songwriters Ami Saraiya and Anna Soltys spent the last few months interviewing the Latino and Eastern European laborers there.
Based on their field work, they wrote the lilting ballad "Sweet Chariot," which will be included in the "Chicago for the People" CD released at an April 30 concert at the Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 N. Kedzie. (Tickets are $10 at soundcultureseries.blogspot.com.) They will debut the song at the event. Also appearing will be Los Vicios De Papa, the Black Bear Combo and DJ David Chavez.
Saraiya and Soltys sing, in part:
"Take the time to get to see/ The man I am, the warrior in me
And together we can both shake hands."

"Many people don't realize what's going on at this corner," Soltys said during a morning interview at Belmont and Milwaukee. "The first time I drove by, I thought there were just a lot of late buses. We found out, which we remark about in the song, that in Mexico there have been a lot of U.S. companies taking over businesses." The displacement accelerated after 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement.

"It forces people out of their jobs," Saraiya continued. "So a lot of them come here to find work. The song title comes from hopping up on a pickup truck to get work."
The corner first was popular in the early 1960s with Jewish day laborers. The wide Avondale avenues are now a narrow mashup of a bar called Cafe Lura and Maryla Polonaise, a restaurant popular with Eastern Europeans and Latinos. Many workers find respite at a Dunkin' Donuts on Belmont, where at times they are mistaken for gang members.
On a recent day, about 25 workers milled about a gas station parking lot and sidewalk. The owner of the station declined comment.
Two police cars arrived, and officers gently asked the workers to move to public property.
"There's a stereotype that goes along with these men -- and there are women in the industry as well," Soltys said. "People drive by and assume they're alcoholics, sexual predators. A lot of them don't speak English, so how are they going to say, 'I'm a hard worker and I will build a house for you for close to nothing'? A lot of employers take advantage of these guys for that reason. That's not something they necessarily complain about as long as they get treated fairly and get their pay. It's things that come with it -- not being covered by insurance, getting thrown in jail for standing on the corner."
Writing a song about people from another country, most of them men, took the women a long time. "For us it was a sensitivity level," Soltys said. "When we started the weather was below zero. Putting ourselves in the worker's role was a challenge. But we're all looking for the same thing -- to feed ourselves and our families."
The songwriters learned that some laborers have a musical background. Saraiya and Soltys hope to re-record "Sweet Chariot" with workers playing instruments and singing Spanish vocals.
The Latino Union of Chicago is a not-for-profit advocate for the workers. The union also protects workers at hiring sites in Albany Park, Back of the Yards and suburban Cicero. The 10-year-old union connected with David Meyers, producer of the "Chicago for the People" CD. A volunteer with the union since 2003, he brought the songwriters to the site.
Carpenter Santiago Montsdeoca, 42, said through translation, "We are on this corner for daily survival. We want to provide for our children. This has been a day labor corner for 50 years. Lots of us live here, some of us even live on the South Side. The police get confused as to why we're here. It would be good if police and workers could come to an agreement for people outside our corner who are causing problems."
Complicating matters is that the gas station is on the dividing line of the 30th and 31st wards. "The day laborers are really not a problem," said Ald. Ariel E. Reboyras (30th). "They're just trying to get work. The bulk of them are in the 30th Ward. Our constituents don't say good things. But its not entirely day laborers. People are mixing apples and oranges. We have day laborers and homeless. A handful of day laborers do hang around until the wee hours and start drinking near the Copernicus [Senior] Center [at 3160 N. Milwaukee]."
Later this year a new elementary school will open at 3231 N. Springfield, a half block from the day labor corner.
"We will not allow folks to hang out there when kids are walking to school," Reboyras said. "I've tried to shift them to a different corner. The gas station owner is working with them. He's new. I went to school with the last owner, and it's unbelievable what he used to do for the guys. But at that time the majority of them were Polish.
"That corner has a lot of history."
Ald. Ray Suarez (31st) couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.
In the past as many as 120 workers have gathered on the corner. Montsdeoca said that on a good day about 15 to 20 jobs will be found. Elisa Ringholm, development director of the Latino Union, added, "On this corner you'll see workers from Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Honduras, Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico. You'll even find African-American and white U.S.-born workers. The gentrifi- cation of neighborhoods affects these workers." She said wages can range roughly from $8 to $12 an hour.
In 2006, the University of Illinois at Chicago participated in the first nationwide study of day laborers. "On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States" concluded that more than three-quarters of day laborers are undocumented immigrants and that the Midwest displayed the highest rates of abuse in almost every category: wage theft, denial of food and breaks, injuries.
Gretchen Moore is a neighborhood resident who frequently visits the corner, bringing bread and clothes to the workers. "Their stories make a woman cry," Moore said. "People don't know their stories. Some of those guys walked for a year to get from Guatemala to the Texas border. Most of the workers are isolated and afraid."
Between 1982 and 1990, Moore taught the class "Adjusting to Your Life in Chicago as an Immigrant" at Truman College. Moore and her husband, an accountant, have hired the workers.
Maria Hernandez said husband Joel looks for work on the corner. He has been a construction worker for 15 years. "Even for people like my husband, who has years of experience, because of police abuse we've seen on this corner, jobs have dropped," said Hernandez, who lives west of Belmont and Milwaukee.
"I shed tears for the injustice that happens here."
Photo: Brian Jackson, Sun-Times / Maria Hernandez, pictured last week at Milwaukee and Belmont, is among a group of day workers who gather on the corner to look for jobs. Hernandez says the job hunters are frequent targets for harassment. "I shed tears for the injustice that happens here," she says. Photo: Brian Jackson, Sun-Times / Ami Saraiya (left, with Elissa Ringholm) co-wrote "Sweet Chariot" after observing the day laborers gathered at Milwaukee and Belmont. She'll perform the ballad at an April 30 concert at the Logan Square Auditorium. Photo: Santiago Montsdeoca, carpenter Photo: Ald. Ariel E. Reboyras