Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This research is based on thirty oral histories of Latina day workers in San Jose, California , 2014 to 2015. This paper documents the lives of Latina workers who have turned to day labor as one means of surviving the economic downturns. This study addresses a gap in the research literature of day workers by focusing on women’s daily life struggles and the survival strategies they create to cope with their everyday challenges. The objective is to record, document, and analyze the world of the Latina day workers, a world that existing research has overlooked. My research contributes to the existing social science literature on Latinas by examining the lives of a group who have not been included in the literature on day workers or Latina workers. This research examines several key questions: Why and how did these Latinas turn to day labor? What was the nature of their employment prior to and during their seeking day work? What cultural meanings did these women construct in dealing with each other, their work places and their interactions with male day workers at the center and their employers. The lives of Latina day workers are ones of isolation, job degradation, economic insecurity, and vulnerability to sexual harassment and abuse. A significant number of Latina day workers, like their male counterparts, are undocumented and this contributes to the precarious nature of their employment.