Breathe
By Marcelina Bautista Bautista
In this article I want to talk about my experience in the organizing process that led me to the great commitment I made since I knew I could do something for my fellow domestic workers, which has not only been to defend their labor rights but in some cases even their dignity.
I remember the first day Mrs. Olga told me: "Here you will be fine, if you want to go with your aunts on Sundays it's fine, otherwise after breakfast you just clean the kitchen, pick up the beds, take Yudi out and go to your room to rest". What I wanted was to be with my aunts and cousins.
I wondered if it was the work I wanted to do for the rest of my life, but I also thought that I would not be able to better myself, I wanted to go to school, but I did not know how to speak Spanish and I was afraid of it. At the same time, I perceived a society that did not value our activity, since work in the home was widely devalued and considered a "natural" extension of women's work.
For society, this work was invisible and of minor importance, associated mainly with women, especially low-income women and racialized people. It was common for domestic workers to be seen more as "helpers" than as workers with rights.
In addition, domestic work was carried out under exploitative conditions, with long hours, very low wages or even in the form of payment in kind. More of us workers lived in the houses where we worked, which made it even more difficult to separate our personal and working lives. There was also a paternalistic relationship on the part of employers, who justified the lack of labor rights with the idea of providing "protection" or "care" to women workers.
Awareness from my reality.
Along the way I had a key formation in the Young Christian Workers (YCW), an international movement that promoted the organization and formation of young workers from a social justice perspective and in my beginning it was the answer to my concern about my work and its value.
When I arrived in Mexico City as a domestic worker, I found in the YCW a space where I could reflect on my work reality and that of my fellow domestic workers. There, I received training in labor rights and community organizing, which allowed me to understand that my situation was not individual, but part of a structural problem that affected thousands of domestic workers in Mexico.
The YCW was fundamental in my awareness and leadership process. Through the "see, judge and act" methodology, I learned to analyze the sector's working conditions, identify injustices and take action to transform them. It was in this context that I began to organize with other domestic workers, sowing the foundations of what would later become this struggle in unionism and the creation of the National Center for Professional Training and Leadership of Domestic Workers A.C. (CACEH).
Meeting with other domestic workers to share our experiences and realities.
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