![]() ![]() It’s work that we don’t see, because our culture takes it for granted and it’s hidden behind the closed doors of private homes. ![]() Today, the sector of more than 2 million workers continues to be disproportionately immigrant women and women of color, defined by poverty-level wages, high rates of abuse and few mechanisms for recourse. Black women, concentrated in paid and unpaid domestic work, were intentionally written out of basic labor laws, like minimum wage and the right to a safe workplace. In the U.S., that history is deeply tied to the legacy of slavery. While domestic work can range from house cleaning to elder care, there are millions of “Cleos” - domestic workers - in the United States today, experiencing the same dualities and navigating the same complexities as she does, every single day.Īs work in the home, domestic work has been and continues to be associated with women’s work, and by extension devalued. Although the story is set almost 50 years ago, the very same story could be set today, in any city in the United States. We see her as she works - sweeping the driveway of dog droppings and gently singing children to sleep, and also in ways that we don’t commonly see domestic workers, as she makes a date with her first love, exercises by candlelight at night, gossips with her friend, and experiences the most profound forms of loss imaginable.īy seeing the world through Cleo’s eyes, we gain unique insight into our own world, as she both sits at the bottom and in the center of a world defined by a hierarchy of power and privilege. Cleo’s life is full of the complexity every domestic worker experiences: She is both part of the family and not, her relationship with her employer is both intimate and distant, and she is both vulnerable and powerful. Roma centers on the story of Cleo, an indigenous woman who works as a live-in domestic worker for a middle-class family in 1970s Mexico City (Cleo is played by Yalitza Aparicio, who herself comes from Mexico’s indigenous community). With Roma, Cuaron captures the reality and brings our families and relationships into focus in an unprecedented way. From the beginning and to this day, one of the greatest challenges has been helping people see and understand the unique and complex nature of their work. ![]() For the past 20 years, I have worked alongside domestic workers - the nannies we entrust with our children, the housecleaners who bring sanity to our homes, and the caregivers who care for our disabled and elderly loved ones. When I emerged from the theater after seeing Roma, the new film by Alfonso Cuaron, I couldn’t speak. Ai-jen Poo is the executive director of National Domestic Workers Alliance and co-director of Caring Across Generations. NDWA is partnering with Roma and Participant Media to amplify the impact of the film, which centers on the role of domestic workers in our lives. ![]()
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