BioPic Assignments

Here are sample text and media projects from the Introduction to Chicana Studies class at the University of New Mexico.  I think the students did a wonderful job on this assignment.

“HOUSEWORK DILEMMA”

(Zoe Baird’s nanny): Race and class intersect and create a diversity of women experiences.  Women do not universally experience housework in completely similar ways. Chicana/Latina housekeepers would like to sustain the label of “housekeepers” and abolish the term, “maid.” Upper-class women hire working-class colored women to complete their housework, which creates an escape.  Chicana women want to redefine the “mistress-maid relationship” into “employee-employer” relationship, which would eliminate labor power and create a “true sisterhood that’s more attainable” (Garcia, 179).

 Group members: Marisa Abeyta and Gregory Rivera

"DOUBLE WORK DAY"

The ILGWU limited Chicanas and Latinas in multiple ways including gender and racial discrimination.. Chicana and Latina women organizing in the ILGWU also faced a double workday at home and limitations in the ILGWU, whose leadership was primarily white men.  Work in the factories was oppressive and the women were not paid living wages. The women then did most of the work at home as well as caring for their children. The ILGWU was a hierarchical and oppressive in and of itself because white men were at the top and Chicana/ Latina leaders were at the bottom.  At the same time, the male leaders were undermining women’s efforts to organize. The Chicana directors had no real power at the Justice Center in Los Angeles in the 1990s but worked under the supervision of white males.  Workers who showed more independent thinking were blacklisted or publicly humiliated. The organization often assumed ignorance on the part of the Latina workers and believed that many lacked previous experience organizing politically.   



Group members: Esli Beltran, Lynea Gonzales, Carolina Rodriguez, Olivia Chavez and Ashley Aragon 

 "DOUBLE SHIFT"

Alma Garcia discusses the work of Chicana scholars who examine Chicana and Mexican women in the labor force who raise upper class white women's children.  Her research highlights Mary Romero’s scholarship on the concept of “double shift,” primarily when she references Zoe Baird.  Zoe’s family was paying an undocumented woman below minimum wage for her childcare services. Not only do women work for low wages in domestic services, they also lack support from their partners in household care.  In our biopic, Alma is represented as a nurturer and a protector of her community. Because of her experience as a community activist, she has seen what effects these issues have on the Chicana community and has served an important role in advocating for social justice.

Group members: Cody Holpp, Olivia Summa, Charlotte Reyna, and Senaida Garcia

“SISTERHOOD"”

The feminist movement has enabled some women to “escape” the drudgery of housework by hiring other women - women of color – as domestic workers. Herein lies another facet of the “housework dilemma”. There is no collective solution to the problem of household labor because “women do not universally experience housework in completely similar ways: race and class intervene and create a diversity of women’s experiences”. Womanhood is not a universal condition. The reality of white women and minority women’s daily lives is shaped in part by their gender, but is shaped even further by their belonging in a racial category.

Group members: Derek Hanley, Nina Peterson, Janet Avila, and Laura Baldwin

"LEADERSHIP"

Many critics of Chicana and Latina workers believe that these groups are not capable of speaking out about their oppressions; that Latina women lack the concept of unionization. However, the Latina women in ILGWU demonstrated that they can organize in the workplace.  In addition, the Latinas of Los Angeles who protested against Forever 21 demonstrated their skills as leaders of social justice movement. They faced barriers from the union bureaucracy to organize their strikes but they stood their ground and made progress. These Latinas like any other ethnic group who have faced oppression, have educated themselves about their issues and have mobilized unions and formed strategies to achieve a solution. The leadership of the Latina garment workers is to be commended for their strength, persistence, and courage to make a difference for themselves and other women.

Group members: Ashley Visitacion, Brianna Gallegos, Rachel Leos, Emily Bregin, and Alysa DeMema.