Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis
Cornejo Villavicencio reflects on her relationship with her mother, whom she describes as undergoing a “feminist awakening” at age fifty-three. After her father lost his job, Cornejo Villavicencio’s mother began working outside the home, and she has since developed a more independent spirit. This, at least initially, made Cornejo Villavicencio assume that her mother had it easier than her father due to her more domestic status. In her eyes, her mother was somewhat protected from the racism and abuse that her father faced, since she worked exclusively in the home. Cornejo Villavicencio also admits she retains some trauma and resentment toward her mother over having been left behind in Ecuador as a toddler. She struggles with the idea of being “psychologically damaged” by this experience and wonders if that means that every undocumented immigrant child can claim a similar docket of mental illnesses. Life as an undocumented person is often uncertain, and people learn not to become too attached to material things as a result. Additionally, in the current political climate, family separation and traumatic deportations are becoming increasingly common.
Cornejo Villavicencio then transitions into a discussion of the undocumented community in Miami, Florida, with a focus on healthcare and alternative medicine. The vast majority of undocumented individuals are unable to purchase health insurance, even if they can afford it, and so they are often forced to resort to alternative and dubiously legal means of seeking treatment. Many local stores will provide pharmaceutical-grade prescriptions to trusted buyers, and many documented friends, relatives, and children will acquire prescriptions that they themselves do not need on behalf of their loved ones.
Other sources of alternative medicine include small shops called botanicas that are founded on either the vodou or Santería religions. These shops combine Catholic iconography with anti-colonial and Indigenous folk knowledge in order to provide a more accessible form of healing. Cornejo Villavicencio expresses doubt regarding the efficacy of things like energy stones and herbal remedies, but she does not judge or condemn those who turn to alternative medicine due to a lack of other options. She is quite surprised to discover that many of the underground pharmacies are able to provide name-brand prescription drugs, including high-level antipsychotics and other medications that have known severe side effects.
However, for all that alternative medicine is often the only option for undocumented people, there are also those in the community who try to take advantage of desperate individuals. These so-called “notarios” charge exorbitant prices for treatments and rituals that do not truly work. Cornejo Villavicencio does not dismiss the possibility of spiritual cleanses or rituals working, but she does worry that many of the self-proclaimed natural and spiritual healers are more interested in money than anything else.
Medicine and healthcare are often particularly salient topics for undocumented women, many of whom have had to watch their husbands die or deteriorate due to diseases brought on by arduous and unsafe working conditions. Yet for all that having their husbands pass away is a form of trauma, many of these women confide in Cornejo Villavicencio that the chance to start working outside of the home and live independently is a freeing experience for them as well. Cornejo Villavicencio‘s own mother enjoys makeup and expensive clothing, which Cornejo Villavicencio and her father tease her about mercilessly. However, after interviewing a number of women in Miami who have lost their husbands, she begins to wonder if the reason that her mother enjoys dressing up in her daily life is because she has nowhere else to go to feel special or important. Being a wife and mother is...
(This entire section contains 1041 words.)
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something that is often expected of women, but it is not necessarily what makes every woman happy. Finding some sense of independence and autonomy is especially difficult for undocumented women, who are so often confined to the home. Marriages between immigrants often struggle as a result of the changed dynamics in the United States, with men devoting themselves to work and women being expected to provide support and keep the home running effectively.
The most common source of work for undocumented women is domestic cleaning services, which comes with its own dangers. Many of the women that Cornejo Villavicencio interviews either know someone or have themselves been abused or taken advantage of. While men’s labor is often recognized as difficult and physically demanding, women’s work is rarely afforded the same recognition. Worst of all, the lack of legal protections and status prevents most women from being able to stand up for themselves in nearly any circumstance.
Analysis
Health insurance and fair access to medicine are things that many Americans struggle to obtain, but undocumented Americans face even more challenges due to their legal status. Cornejo Villavicencio remarks that she does not think alternative or naturopathic medicine is inherently bad or ineffective but that choice is an important factor. For white Americans and documented people, the choice between chemotherapy and crystal therapy is just that: a choice. Undocumented individuals do not have the same luxury, so they are forced to rely on scientifically unproven and potentially exploitative methods of healing due to a lack of options.
The connection between labor, health, and interpersonal relationships is explored both broadly and through the specific examples presented by Cornejo Villavicencio and her interviewees. The arduous labor that many undocumented men perform traps them in an unfulfilling cycle of work and sleep, with little time for recreation or family bonding. Women, then, become the primary caretakers within the home, trapping themselves in an equally unfulfilling pattern in which they remain devoted to caring for others over themselves. For those women who do work outside the home, the stress is even worse, and relationships between once happy couples deteriorate as a result of this shared dissatisfaction. It is often only after the death of one partner—usually the man—that these stifled individuals begin seeking self-fulfillment. Cornejo Villavicencio admits that she once found her mother’s “feminist awakening” comical and trivial, but she now recognizes that her mother is finally living for herself for the first time in decades. Life is difficult for undocumented individuals, so the small joys that come with self-actualization are often the hard-won results of years of frustration.
