Jairo Alvarez

About Jairo Alvarez

Before six the Harbor Freeway is still only a hum a mile east, and Westmont is quiet enough to hear a gate latch. Jairo Alvarez begins there — one truck, one lawn at a time, mowing while the dew is still on the blades, edging the walk, trimming around fence posts and the mailbox, hauling the cuttings out. Starting early means finishing before the heat settles over the neighborhood, and it means leaving a street a little better than it woke up. There is something steady in the routine of it, yard after yard, block after block. By mid-morning the grass has dried, the lines run straight, and the day is already good.