Work Ethic 

Rosy Cortez

This piece explores the artist’s mixed emotions about her mother’s work ethic as a warehouse worker for the last 20 years. Like many immigrants in the Inland Empire, her mother has found a job in a mega warehouse, building boxes. Her mothers job has provided for her family and brings her a sense of fulfillment. She instills the same strong work ethic in her children. Yet, it is painfully obvious that she is dispensable to such a corporation, which not only exploits workers with low pay and boxed-in working conditions but simultaneously degrades the local environment.