Marcelina Bautista came from the State of Oaxaca to Mexico City when she was 14 years old to work and help her family financially.
Her first job was as a domestic worker.
"For 22 years I did the work with zero rights," Bautista says in a conversation with lawyer Alexandra Hass within the framework of Imagina Latin America, a collaboration between Hay Festival, the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and the Open Society Foundations.
“After years of struggle, today we are in a visible space.
We talk about ourselves as women with rights,” she adds.
Over time, Bautista has become a recognized social fighter in Mexico and Latin America.
She founded the Support and Training Center for Domestic Workers and the National Union of Domestic Workers, the first organization of its kind in Mexico.
Bautista highlights the importance that the work of domestic workers "be recognized as work and not as help."
"You have to see the role we have as workers and the role our employers have," she says, and states: "We work so that others have well-being and so that our families get ahead," she says.
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