“Echarnos la mano”. Organizational Experiences Pertaining to Life Sustainability of Migrant Mazatec Women Working in Domestic Settings in Popular Neighborhoods of Puebla (Mexico)

Abstract

We analyzed the experiences of collective organization surrounding work for the sustainability of life, of Mazatec women domestic workers who migrated internally to the city of Puebla, Mexico. Many of them began to “work at home” (i.e. house cleaning, cooking, caring for children) from an early age and, although this work has been their most regular work experience, they also engaged in commerce or handicraft making, and permanently, in unpaid work in their own homes and communities.

We propose to define these organizational forms as domestic politicity, a dynamic that transcends formal channels of expression and is anchored in daily experiences of organization around networks of reciprocity, cooperation and care, which are not exempt from conflicts. These dynamics have direct antecedents in the community networks built historically, which are updated in different ways when they reach the big cities, and especially in contexts of exacerbated crises such as the one caused by the pandemic.