Two Kinds

Something I want to talk about is the vast difference between the social classes of the Hispanics I know. I think it's fascinating and worth talking about, so on the pain of whatever, here I go.
I guess it used to be weird for me to imagine illegal immigrants outside of construction workers or the eight guys in one pickup truck at the gas station or the pregnant women with 6 kids in the mall food court. Well, all of those people are real, but they are only one part of this thing. About half of my coworkers at my Mexican restaurant were the people who ride bicycles to work and never go anywhere without their five closest friends, but those guys were busboys, cooks, and dishwashers. The other half of my coworkers--servers, hosts, and management--were a very different sort. They were upper-class immigrants, and they acted like it. I know it's ridiculous to think all Hispanic immigrants should be exactly the same, but that's not what I'm getting at. The thing here that I think is interesting is the two kinds. Two. There were not a bunch of small cliques at my restaurant, nor at the other restaurants in the chain. There was the upper-class and the lower-class, and the two did not mix.
Let me give some background on this.
The inequality of wealth is higher in Latin America than anyplace else in the world. There are the rich and then there are the destitute, and in most areas, that's just the way it is. If someone is born in poverty, there is a more-than-good chance he or she will die in poverty. That's why they come here--a few years in the US(even as a busboy) can completely turn around somebody's life. When they cross the border, though, that inequality remains, and there are huge differences between the classes.
The lower-class guys in the kitchen of my restaurant almost all came from rural areas/farms/la rancha. Most of those guys never went to school or dropped out really young--some of them can't read. A lot of them left behind a wife and children at home, and they send all the money they can live without back to them. Three or four kitchen guys usually share an apartment, shop at Hispanic grocery stores, and never have to learn a word of English. They usually stay just a few years and then return home with the money they earned and buy some land or a house. It works out great for them if they can pull it off.
That's one kind.
The story was totally different with the waiters I knew. Busboys, cooks, and dishwashers rarely assimilated into US culture at all; waiters usually tried to assimilate as much as possible. While none of the cooks at my restaurant cared whether they showered between shifts or not, the waiters were some of the most body-conscious people I've ever met. Maybe this dichotomy exists in all kinds of restaurants, but in my case, it was mainly a class thing. I've never met people who cared as much about brand names and pampering as my fellow servers, and then I found out that my fellow servers came from the richer areas of Latin America, and shit did they care about money. None of the waiters planned to return home after they'd earned their money. Half of them were illegal, but they'd made the US their home, and waiting tables in a Mexican restaurant was their life career.
I didn't realize that my coworkers were segregated during my first weeks on the job. I kept asking questions that I know were idiotic in hindsight like "Why doesn't Aléjandro(the busboy) become a server since he knows the menu so well?" It took going to parties to which only servers, hosts, and managers were invited for me to see that one side of my coworkers did not mix with the other side. Just like most US citizens shun the Hispanics who don't speak English and live below the poverty level, most wealthier Hispanics I knew wouldn't have much to do with them. In my restaurant, they even made up a name for lower-class guys, "cacheguilos." When most of the people I know complain about illegal immigrants, they target the first group. My family and friends were surprised that most of the waiters in a large chain restaurant were in the same illegal category as the custodians at the mall, but it's true. The second group escapes discrimination because they do not fit the stereotype, and they try damn hard to keep it that way.