Sixty years of life dedicated to three generations of a family fit in a worn and faded canvas suitcase. “Cata, that suitcase is mine, give it to me. You don’t take anything from here ”. They would fit, but in that house nothing belonged to him, not his years, not his wishes, not an old bag. Catalina Acosta, a domestic worker, 80 years old, originally from San Luis Potosí, says that her employer would not let her leave and that she owes her three months’ salary, the employer affirms that the woman has senile dementia: the policewoman fills out her report.
It is already dark and the silence of Castaños street is interrupted by sighs of relief and a little crying. Marcelina Bautista Bautista, director and founder of the Support and Training Center for Hoga Employeesr (CACEH), explains to Catalina Castro that they will fight to be compensated for the years of work for that family. According to the activist’s calculation, more than 269,000 pesos would correspond to her.
A few days ago, Marcelina Bautista, one of the main defenders for the rights of women domestic workers in Mexico, he received a complaint from a colleague. Her aunt, Catalina Acosta, whose real name is different, but is omitted to protect her integrity, was not allowed to leave the house. I was calling his cell phone number, but it was off. He dialed the employer, but either did not respond or prevented them from contacting him. “My aunt is already of legal age,” Angelina Castro told her.
“We will do this,” Marcelina Bautista told him. It was not easy to get to the home, it is located in a residential area on one of the hills of Naucalpan. There is no public transport, it is only accessed by private car, something that the domestic workers who work in those houses, in which from the outside it is difficult to imagine that they harbor laughter, coexistence.
In front of the door, one of them rings the bell. The employer goes out and recognizes Andrea Castro, she is a little surprised to see that she is coming with another woman, but she does not care. He tells him to wait for his aunt there on the street, he surely comes by public transport and the covid-19 pandemic continues, so he cannot even enter the patio. He doesn’t know, but they are after Catalina.
From Coxcatlán to Naucalpan
“I was a brute, I was a brute! Why did I leave? Catalina Acosta, the victim, reproaches herself for what they have done to her. “They don’t thank me for being here, they behave very badly with me. The lady hit me and that her son, the tall boy, also gave me a slap one day. I endured and did not accuse ”.
She was 19 years old when a friend told her that there was work in Mexico, as the capital in the interior of the country is called. The job was in a house; it was nothing new, for many indigenous women as she is the only option.
Since then, he left the Nahua community of San Andrés, in the municipality of Coxcatlán, in the Huasteca potosina. “It is a very beautiful place,” he says. She and her friend started working with that couple who had a baby of a few months and a girl of three years. The abuse was from the beginning, so his partner left early and she was in charge of all the work.
At one time there were already six boys and girls who he had to take care of, in addition to the man and the lady, and the whole house. It was the sixties, “there were no disposable diapers, they were all washed by hand and ironed. Also the other clothes, the pajamas, everything. It never stopped, it ended at 11, 12 at night. I took care of the six children and now they take me out that way ”.
Catalina Acosta’s words have that silhouette that only forms another native language. “My language is Nahuatl, but they wouldn’t let me speak it.” Her youth, her little command of Spanish, her precarious economic situation, centuries of indigenous oppression, her condition as a migrant, as a woman, everything was laid out so that she was easily violated.
“One day the lady hit me with a hose and again, with a broom,” she says crying. He tells it with the palms of his hands extended, as if it were a cry in form. “4,000 pesos they paid me” per month.
Complaints in CACEH
The day before, Angélina Castro was able to speak with her aunt. “Fix your things, we’re going to get you tomorrow.” When she and Marcelina Bautista arrived, the domestic worker I was nervous and indecisive. Breaking three decades of relationship is not easy. “It is that I have not fixed all my things. But I do want to go. I don’t know how I’m going, can you help me? ”He asked his niece.
“We are going to support her to get out. Tell the lady: ‘I want to go, they are coming for me’. Tell him that we have already done his calculation and they have to give him a compensation of this amount for all the years that you worked here ”, instructed Marcelina Bautista.
Catalina Acosta had told him many other times that she already wanted to go to her hometown. At age 80, work and abuse weigh more. It is difficult to act in these situations, sometimes the workers, at the decisive moment, do not dare to leave, explains the founder of CACEH.
“In fact, they do deprived of their liberty, which is a crime, is kidnapping ”. But it is a private address, if the employee says she wants to stay, the authorities cannot enter, she explains. “They do it because they are being pressured or threatened.” Because starting a life at 80 may be exciting, but it’s scary.
Marcelina Bautista was also a domestic worker and suffered many of these types of violence. In 2000 he founded CACEH, where they provide training so that they know their human and labor rights.
From there, she has promoted the leadership of other household employees. One result of this work is the formation of the National Union of Domestic Workers (Sinactraho). But also a reform to the Federal Labor Law to recognize their rights and the creation of public policies such as the pilot program of affiliation to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS).
It is common for them to receive complaints about unjustified dismissals or lack of payments. But even also of deaths and accidents in the workplace or of retained workers. These cases advise them and, most of the time, they accompany them legally and physically, such as Catalina Acosta’s, in which they moved to the house where she worked to make sure she could leave, although it was not easy.
A study conducted by CACEH revealed that domestic workers are exposed to at least 17 forms of violence. The spectrum of psychological, physical, emotional, economic, occupational and sexual assaults has several manifestations.
The Federal Attorney for Labor Defense, the local Conciliation and Arbitration boards or the Conciliation centers —in the states where they have already entered into force— are other places where they can report. If it involves crimes such as illegal deprivation of liberty, they must file a complaint In an agency of the Public Ministry or call 911, the service that they will provide in that emergency number is the dispatch of a patrol.
“They don’t come back here”
“She can’t go”, “we don’t mistreat her, she has senile dementia,” the employer tells Angelina Acosta. “I already told other relatives of hers that I am going to take her with them, but when I can”, “I don’t have to pay compensation. My lawyers will see that, I have two “,” Take it for me, you take away a problem from me. “
“I give him everything: he doesn’t pay for food, no electricity, or services, I even take her to the doctor”, “if you take her with you, don’t come to complain about all the bad things I have. They don’t come back here “,” you haven’t been nice to us, we’ve given many of you work at home and we even send them to school and in the end, they leave ”.
Soon after, a man leaves the house, another one that Catalina Acosta raised. “She is not my employee, so I am not going to pay”, “I also live here”, “she has only taken care of me since I was a child, and that’s it”. The domestic workerMeanwhile, he finished gathering his things. His room was in a part of the house that can be reached by going down some stairs. To get out, you have to upload them.
The 80-year-old woman came from downstairs with some cardboard boxes and a canvas suitcase. When she saw her, her niece tried to help her, but the man prevented her from passing. “No, Cata, she can’t come in because it’s my house. Either way. Oh, and, Cata, that suitcase is mine, give it to me ”.
The sirens alerted everyone. Skidding, they parked outside the house and several policemen got out of them. “No, we didn’t want this!” The employer pointed out in a low voice. The policewoman in charge identified herself and said that she had responded to the call of the owner of that house, denouncing that several people wanted to enter her house by force. “But I see that the situation is different,” he said. “I just want to go, miss. It’s not fair, ”Catalina Acosta told him as soon as he saw her. “They mistreat me, I just want to go.”
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx