Design
An L.A. Artist Makes Immigrant Workers Impossible to Ignore
Ramiro Gomez plants cardboard cutouts of domestic service employees in wealthy neighborhoods.
The affluent neighborhoods of West Los Angeles are always ready for their close-ups — lush hedges carefully groomed, dead leaves blown away, lawns mowed, cascades of bougainvillea watered, roses pruned. Inside the glittering multimillion-dollar houses, every surface is dusted, every floor polished. Beautiful.
This doesn’t happen by magic. Maintaining this beauty is the work of thousands of people who move around places like Beverly Hills and Laurel Canyon every day. These workers, mostly Hispanic, also take care of the neighborhoods’ children, scrub toilets, prepare food. They are a vast and, too often, under-acknowledged support system.