A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY
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This multimedia project showcases the hands of four housekeepers who currently reside in Los Angeles. Through written and audio elements, the female immigrant working class experience is explored to highlight the importance of underrepresented groups who have and continue to contribute so much to our society.
There are a multitude of studies related to poverty, social class, immigration, and labor. In addition to those many, there are also news articles, novels, documentaries, films, poems, and memoirs about these same topics. I knew these aspects firsthand while brainstorming how to best present this project. They motivated me to keep the conversation going by contributing a work of my own.
My Broadcast Journalism and Narrative Studies majors at USC taught me a great deal about the art of storytelling. Through journalism, I learned about the utmost importance of getting as close to the truth as possible. The trial and error that came with each piece I created proved to me that research should guide, inform, and ultimately protect one’s work. Valuable technical skills like interviewing, audio, and video take time, but are always worth the extra effort. It forced me to think critically about the world we live in.
Humans work in newsrooms so obviously and inevitably, humans choose which stories get read, broadcast, and shared. Humans, of course, are flawed. The resulting consequence is that not all stories are created equal, especially in the news media.
One of the greatest lessons I learned from Narrative Studies, however, is to write the story you want to read. The program instilled in me a deeper curiosity for life and how language informs people of quite literally, everything. Each class I enrolled in took me on an adventure across different genres, offering me a profound look into the lives of others. The world seemed to grow larger and larger, but was held back in by the universalities that bind us all together.
The marriage of these two studies informed how I chose to present the voices of the four housekeepers who proved their generosity even further by sharing their lives with me. A straightforward account by way of the classic inverted pyramid most news stories follow would be too flat. On the other hand, it would feel wrong for me to fictionalize their realities when the circumstances they have faced deserve mention for what they are rather than for what they are not. There are some things you can’t just make up.
I noticed that the dialogue around poverty, especially when it comes to immigrants was far removed from those actually experiencing it firsthand. Creative nonfiction allows for me to present the events these housekeepers have lived through in a clear, and understandable form. I believed there needed to be a way to elevate these women on a platform that could be easily accessed by most people -- a website. Not only does this form integrate the skills I’ve acquired in both studies, but it immerses the audience of this capstone in more ways than one. Along with the site to maneuver, there is text to read, photographs to view, and audio to listen and read along to.
The entire capstone as a whole took four months to create and complete. However, I thought of the project over a year ago during the spring of 2017 in a journalism class titled “Storytelling for Latino Audiences.” In the fall, I read The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson in a contemporary prose class and was positive I had to bring my idea to life. I outlined and planned for it in November.
Beginning in January of 2018, I scrounged the internet for articles and studies about housekeepers, poverty, Hispanic families, and a combination of all three. Pieces from publications like the Atlantic and the New York Times, among many others, filled me with inspiration and gave me insight on how to tell important stories with empathy. Throughout the semester, I read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich and Working by Studs Terkel to instruct the language of my project and to educate me on how to portray the realities of the working world.
With the help of my mother, I scheduled interviews with a few of her housekeeping friends who were willing to speak to me on the record. I spoke to each woman in person and was blown away by just how much they were willing to share. I made a note of the date and length of the conversations. Each of the interviews were transcribed in full and translated from Spanish to English. The stories were written based off of the interviews. When I had questions or was unsure about a fact, I researched online along with asking the interviewee again. A complete list of the interviews, books, articles, and research I conducted and consulted are listed below.
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Interviews
Aroche, Ruperta. Personal Interview. 26 Jan. 2018.
(44 minutes and 21 seconds)
Machado, Maria. Personal Interview. 18 Feb. 2018.
(31 minutes and 6 seconds)
Padilla, Alicia. Personal Interview. 28 Jan. 2018.
(43 minutes)
Trejo, Maria. Personal Interview. 8 Feb. 2018.
(41 minutes and 26 seconds)
Books
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed. Holt Paperbacks, 2001.
Terkel, Studs. Working. The New Press, 1972.
Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.
Vintage Books, 2011.
Articles
Aviv, Rachel. “Mother for Hire.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2017,
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/11/the-sacrifices-of-an-immigrant-caregiver.
Blakemore, Erin. “The Brutal History of Anti-Latino Discrimination in America.” History.com,
A&E Television Networks, 27 Sept. 2017, www.history.com/news/the-brutal-history-of-anti-latino-discrimination-in-america.
Bloom, Ester. “The Decline of Domestic Help.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company,
23 Sept.
2015,www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/decline-domestic-help-maid/406798/.
Cortes, Luba. “My Undocumented Mom, America's Housekeeper.” The New York Times, The
New York Times, 23 June 2016,
www.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/opinion/my-undocumented-mom-americas-housekeeper.html.
Lee, Michelle Ye Hee. “Analysis | Donald Trump's False Comments Connecting Mexican
Immigrants and Crime.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 8 July 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-comments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/?noredirect.
“Readers Share Stories of Bonding with Longtime Nannies, Housekeepers.” Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2009, www.latimes.com/style/la-hm-housekeep21-2009mar21-story.html.
Reilly, Katie. “Donald Trump: All the Times He's Insulted Mexico.” Time, Time, 31 Aug. 2016,
time.com/4473972/donald-trump-mexico-meeting-insult/.
Research