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Show THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HONORS COLLEGE "AGUANTAMOS PORQUE NO NOS QUEDA DE OTRA" (WE HOLD UP BECAUSE WE HAVE NO OTHER OPTION): EVERYDAY RESISTANCE IN THE LIVES OF IMMIGRANT LATINA U.S. HOSPITALITY WORKERS Alonso Rafael Reyna Rivarola (Dolores Delgado Bernal, Julie Stewart) Department of Sociology University of Utah "Where there is power, there is resistance" -Michel Foucault (1978) Immigrant Latina workers in the United States have often been rendered invisible by mainstream society. These w o m e n of Latin-American descent, especially when fulfilling service occupations, such as hotel housekeeping jobs, are expected to work in silence and in deference to those in "higher" positions of power (e.g. supervisors and customers) (Romero, 1 992; Ville-nas, 2006). What many fail to recognize is that immigrant Latina service workers are a resilient population, enduring mundane, repetitive, and dangerous labor that has been deemed "low-skill" by the industrial capitalist complex and a patriarchal society (Romero, 1992; Hondagneu- Sotelo, 2007). In this study, I present the testimonios of immigrant Latinas working in the U.S. hospitality industry. I chose to focus on immigrant Latinas w h o have at some time worked as housekeepers during their years laboring in the hotel industry, because housekeeping labor has a long-standing history of being a gendered and racialized occupation (Hondagneu-Sote-lo, 2007). Drawing from sociological and critical Latina/Chicana feminist literature, I present and discuss the testimonios of four immigrant Latinas w h o reflect on their work experiences in the U.S. hospitality industry. The respondents focus on their working conditions as well as the roots and their engagement with resistance in their everyday lives. Alonso Rafael Reyna Rivarola Dolores Delgado Bernal Julie Stewart 237 |
