“Como Familia ”

This chapter addresses the role of the Portbridge Day Labor Center (DLC) as a source of critical familial support. It begins with the impact of family separation, as workers sought to maintain close connections across distance, and points to the strong ties forged at the DLC that advance theories of how migrants cope with being far from home. Because the overwhelming majority of day laborers were men, several shared the experience of negotiating their ideals of masculinity and fatherhood in new and significant ways while separated from wives and children. Through food sharing, a daily cash lottery, and participation in everyday life together, workers at the DLC created kinship-like relationships grounded in reciprocity, exchange, and trust. These flexible expressions of family inform anthropological inquiry into how vital relational connections are formed and sustained over time. The chapter also considers how, like families, workers at the DLC disagreed and argued, particularly when the goals of the collective were undermined, putting their positive reputation in the community at risk. The ties formed at the DLC were not a sustainable substitute for family, but this fictive kinship provided crucial support and gives insight into how migrants create intentional, unconventional forms of belonging amid separation.