Sign dancers hope for change

The immigrant danced on a dirty street corner Tuesday while Barack Obama made history.

He wore black jeans. He wore a white straw cowboy hat. He wore a smile.

Among his many burdens, he carried a sign that marketed a payday loan company. He turned it to and fro, as if dancing with it.

The dance pays Juan Lozano $8 an hour. He is 38 years old.

He took this job a year ago, five months after he came to America.

He rides the bus to work every day. He rides with people who don't have jobs. He talks to them. He feels for them.

He hopes for more. He believes in Barack Obama.

"I don't know a lot about the economy," Lozano said in halting English. "I watch on TV. I see the news. He's going to better the economy."

Lozano stands at Charleston and Nellis boulevards. That's all he does. He was a waiter in Mexico. He wants to be an accounting assistant.

"I want to study something," he said. "I need to stay here because I want to stay better."

Arthritis and diabetes plague Randy Lynch, another dancer.

He's 52 years old. He dances with a sign for an apartment complex near Decatur Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.

He gets $35 a day. He carries a cell phone. He has almost no teeth left.

"Yeah," he said. "I voted for him. I think he's going to do the country good."

Lynch has been doing this dance since October. Before that, he was on disability.

He feels lucky to have a job.

Same with Julie Erwin, a dancing Statue of Liberty.

"I'm kind of enjoying this, you know," she said. "Keeps me in shape. It's a job. Puts food on the table. A roof over my head."

Erwin is 35. She was laid off in October, which meant she didn't have enough money to bail her boyfriend out of jail. He got drunk and stupid, is what she said.

So anyway, she was walking by a Liberty Tax place on East Tropicana Avenue last week. She saw the dancing Lady Liberty. She went inside.

"That was last Monday," she said. "I started on Tuesday."

She gets $7 an hour.

She thinks Obama will make things better, but he probably won't fix everything.

"Nobody can fix everything," she said. "You're the only one who can fix your stuff."

She said she'll probably have this job until tax season ends in April.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.