Daniel Trujillo and Paul Madrid took over the Eastside Cutters barbershop more than 20 years ago, just a few miles from the casinos of the Las Vegas Strip, where they both once worked.
Their profits bought them spacious ranch homes in subdivisions near their children’s public schools. They tucked away enough money to take their families on the occasional vacation. They survived several boom-and-bust cycles — a defining feature of Nevada’s economy.
The walls of the shop are covered with Mr. Madrid’s paintings of Mexican folk heroes, including Emiliano Zapata and Frida Kahlo, a display of an abiding ethnic pride.
A painting on the shop’s window advertises another important aspect of their lives. Across the swirl of a barber pole, in ornate cursive, it reads: “The Working Class.”
“That’s who we are, man, and we never forget it,” Mr. Trujillo, 51, said. “We want to work. We want money. We want freedom. That’s it.”
“Nobody here ever got a great inheritance,” Mr. Madrid, 54, added.
That identity, a badge of honor for Mr. Madrid and Mr. Trujillo, is a source of intense interest for two other men: Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. Democrats’ support among Latino men, particularly those without a college degree, has eroded in the last several years, as Mr. Trump’s G.O.P. has tried to rebrand itself the party of the working class. President Biden’s re-election could hinge on his campaign’s ability to reverse this trend in several battleground states, including Nevada.
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