Mary Romero - The Maids Daughter: Living Inside and Outside the American Dream

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THE MAIDS DAUGHTER

LIVING INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE AMERICAN DREAM

Mary Romero

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org

2011 by New York University
All rights reserved

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs
that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Romero, Mary.
The maids daughter : living inside and outside the American dream / Mary Romero.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8147-7642-1 (cl : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8147-7725-1 (e-book)
1. Women household employeesUnited StatesHistory.
2. Hispanic American womenEmploymentHistory.
3. Minority womenEmploymentUnited StatesHistory.
I. Title.

HD6072.2.U5R674 2011
331.4816408968073dc22 2011005653

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After working on a project for two decades, the list of thank-yous is incredible. Where do I begin?

The easy start is to list institutional support, which was scarce. The much longer list is of all the persons who contributed to this project by agreeing to be interviewed; colleagues who assisted in helping me make contacts with the children of domestic workers; those who shared useful background information on UCLA and LA and provided sincere interest and insights over the yearsI am sure to miss a few, and I apologize in advance. And of course, I want to acknowledge the warriors who took their editorial swords and helped me get to the finish line. I thank Aiden Amos for assisting with all the formatting challenges, Andrew Katz for his copyediting, and Despina Papazoglou Gimbel for her editorial assistance.

I am grateful for the Summer Stipends I received from the University of Oregon and two from Arizona State University. I spent the first stipend transcribing tapes and the second one transcribing and putting the narrative into order. Receiving a sabbatical at Arizona State University is greatly appreciated. However, the real financial acknowledgment goes to Eric Margolis, my husband and soul mate, who was pleased to use our own finances to cover travel for the project over the past two decades.

Several colleagues and research groups provided me the opportunity to get feedback on the project during various stages of interviewing, coding, and analyzing the narrative. One of the first places I found extremely useful comments and support was during my visiting year at Macalester College as the McKnight Professor in St. Paul in 199293. Michal McCall offered an intellectual environment that every academic should experience at least once. I was fortunate to be visiting the same year that Darrell Moore was a predoctoral fellow. The Center for Advanced Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, invited me to participate in its Theorizing Female Diversity Seminar. Abby Stewart invited me several times to present at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and every time was a rewarding experience. I am indebted to her for inviting me to participate in the Nags Heart summer seminars. The participants at the two workshops we directed on narrative offered valuable critique and support. I am grateful to Evelyn Nakano Glenn for inviting me to participate in the 2001 Workshop Series, Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley. I thank Julia Wrigley and Annette Lareau for inviting me to participate in the ASA Grant for the Discipline Conference on Pushing the Boundaries: New Conceptualizations of Childhood and Motherhood. Again, I received valuable feedback from both Julia and Annette, as well as from the other participants. Although I have not yet met Katharine B. Silbaugh, I am grateful to her for reaching out to me and inviting me to participate in the Symposium on the Structures of Care Work with feminist legal scholars writing on care work. Joyce Chinen at the Womens Studies Department, University of Hawaii, has always been supportive, and she graciously arranged a brown-bag seminar during my visit to Honolulu in 2002. I had the honor to speak to domestic workers in Mexico City at El Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir in 2003. I thank the Latino Studies Program at New York University for inviting me to present my work in 2005. I treasure the conversation with Renato Rosalto about my work and am thankful that he suggested that I think about family stories in organizing the book. I am grateful for being invited to present at the Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar on Globalizing the Americas: World Economies and Local Communities, University of Toronto, in 2007. Working with Valerie Preston and Wenona Giles on the Global Migration Systems of Domestic and Care Workers at York University in 2008 was very helpful in pushing me toward finishing the book.

Many wonderful colleagues hosted visits to their campus to present my research in departmental brown bags and classes. The list is long, and I hope I have not forgotten to acknowledge your support: Mara Soldatenko, Judy Howard, Lora Bex Lempert, Rhonda Levine, Alejandro Lugo, Ginetta Candelaria, Marixsa Alicea, Jodi A. OBrien, Vilma Ortiz, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Dula Espinoza, Lisa Armstrong, France Winddance Twine, and Maura Toro-Morn. Many of these colleagues provided audiences that included the adult children of domestics or assisted in making direct connections. I appreciate Gayatri Patnaiks interest in the project and her comments.

I want to thank several scholars who took time out of their busy schedules to discuss my project. Along with making me a delicious brunch, Ruth Behar spent an afternoon with me discussing her own experiences writing a narrative. I am grateful to Mike and Mara Soldatenko for their feedback on my project, and they shared insightful ways to analyze the transcripts. Of course their knowledge of UCLA politics was invaluable. One of my strongest cheerleaders and a dear friend is Marion Goldman, who constantly pushed me to write the book. Thank you for not losing patience and for believing in me. I recognize a promising young scholar and an accomplished artist, Xuan Santos. His masterful painting of the maids daughter will not be forgotten. I owe you much. I thank Michael Elgin for sharing his photographers skills and his excitement about the project.