The summer of 2009 I spent in Houston working with janitors as they fought to renew a union contract. That July 4th, local pastors held a press conference supporting the janitors. Several union janitors were asked to attend. That’s when I met Carmen Sanchez. I picked her up and drove her to the event. Carmen was our shortest member, in her sixties, direct, well groomed. She was from Chihuahua, Mexico. She was always at union events. She’d been a janitor for 12 years. That afternoon, driving her home, my car got a flat tire. I called AAA, but it was clear that due to the holiday help would be a long time coming. So it was that I found myself with Carmen Sanchez in the middle of downtown Houston on July 4th. I thought I’d just get Carmen a cab and have her on her way home. But she refused. “I don’t have anyone waiting for me at home,” she said. That day, Houston dripped with humidity. She took out a jug of ground-oatmeal water. …