Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

324 reframing latin america
Both sexes have always worked in the campo and it’s not fair to overlook
women. Men do not work harder than women; it’s just different kind
of work. The man goes out to the fi eld and works under the hot sun. He
handles the oxen and the plow, and he works the soil. Everyone recognizes
that his work is very hard. But in the house the work is also hard because
we get up before the men do in order to fi x their breakfasts. We prepare
their meals for the campo and we work all day around the house, sweeping
and cleaning, washing, and especially grinding corn. There is always some
grinding that has to be done. And then about 12:30 we have to go out into
the fi eld with the food for the men if they are close enough to walk to. When
we return there are more chores: getting dinner ready, getting a change of
clothes ready for him, and many other things. It’s all work, both fi eld and
house. Yet there is more work in the house than in the fi eld. At least one
can rest out there, but here if you rest you don’t get your chores done by the
time the men come home. You don’t want to be in the middle of washing or
something like that when they get in from the fi eld.
The work in the fi eld is that of the oxen; it is only for brief periods of
time and after that the men can go back to resting. When they do work it’s
intense, from sunup to sundown. For example, the soil has to be plowed
while it is still moist, and that may last for only a few weeks. That means
that the soil is plowed for the fi nal time and the crops are planted all within
one month. During the planting season if you never went out into the fi elds
you would never see any men in the village; they leave before dawn and
return home after nightfall. Corn doesn’t take as much time as jitomate
[tomatoes]. With jitomates there is something that has to be done to the
plants, like tying them up against the poles or giving them water when they
are thirsty. The yield is much greater from jitomates than corn so it is worth
the extra work.
Whereas a man’s work is limited to three or four periods a year, a
women’s work is never done.—Celsa
We get to rest only when there is no meal to fi x. And when is that? We get
no vacations from work, no long breaks like the men, yet the government
never mentioned us when it talked about the campo. Take Mother for example.
Although she doesn’t do too much any more because she is too old,
in her lifetime she has never rested more than a few days when she went
to visit her son Víctor in Veracruz or when she gave birth. It would be diffi
cult to fi nd another person in all of Mexico who has worked as hard as my
mother. Her spouse, don Miguel, is also a hard worker. There are few men in