Paid to Care

Rachel Randall is a Reader in Latin American Studies at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). She is the author of Children on the Threshold in Contemporary Latin American Cinema and a coeditor of New Visions of Adolescence in Contemporary Latin American Cinema.

Insightful...Nuanced analysis. (CHOICE) Marxists continue to state the theoretical mantra that so-called ‘reproductive labour’ is by definition already paid for in the wage earned by the worker as the return on labour power. Rachel Randall’s book about cultural representations of paid domestic workers in Latin America can be seen as a valuable contribution to this complex debate, by drawing attention to an equally uncomfortable theme for materialist analysis-human emotion. (Latin American Review of Books) Randall’s book engages with previous research on marginality, class, and gender in Latin America and makes a significant contribution to the discussion of domestic workers’ rights, especially in light of her examination of rights that are not even spoken about by labor unions (such as: who has free time? what kind of family is a domestic worker supposed to have?). The book also makes a methodological contribution to the different forms of oral documentation (written, filmed, or virtual) and allows an enlightening discussion on the process of publication of others’ life stories […]. Randall allows us to look at both sides of the coin and examines, on the one hand, the intervention on domestic workers and the way their life stories are framed and told or filmed, and, on the other hand, the waves of influence of each publication of a life story in a film, testimonial book, or post on social networks. (EIAL) This book is an important contribution to scholarly discussions around care work, paid domestic work in particular, and how these reflect perpetuating and unresolved societal inequalities and hierarchies. The author convincingly argues for focusing on representations in the cultural realm to better understand prevalent societal attitudes and dispositions towards issues that have been addressed legally yet not resolved. (Journal of Gender Studies) [This book] is a must read...It is very well researched and offers lucid arguments that throw new light on a topic that hasn’t been adequately addressed. Randall leaves no stone unturned and clearly demonstrates how this inheritance from the colonial period continues to define our social relations in the home up to the present time. (Hispania)

• Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Paid Domestic Workers’ Testimonios in Latin America Chapter 2. Labors of Love? Live-in Domestic Workers in Latin American Fiction Film Chapter 3. Immaterial Labors: Spectral Domestic Workers in Brazilian and Argentine Documentary Chapter 4. Domestic Workers in the Digital Domain Conclusion Appendix 1. Latin American Testimonios Exploring (Paid) Domestic Work and Published in the Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries Appendix 2. Filmography: Latin American Fiction Films Released since 2000 That Feature Paid Domestic Workers in Key Roles Appendix 3. Filmography: Contemporary Latin American Documentaries That Focus on Paid Domestic or Care Workers Appendix 4. Filmography: Other Films or Television Shows Notes References Index