Abstract

The door opened and a woman of about sixty years of age, with a beautiful smile, appeared. She asked if we were the people recommended for the job of a maid and we said yes. She invited us to come in and immediately started to show us around her four-bedroom apartment while speaking about the demands of the job she was offering; cleaning, cooking, washing and ironing for her three male adult children, herself and even her mother, an older lady who required special care. She offered a wage that was below the minimum salary in Spain, justifying this because of the extra expenses she said she would have by having one more person in her home; the job entailed sleeping in the apartment because of the need to care for her mother at night. Before we left, the lady also warned: ‘I don’t care if you are illegal, I know the difficulties of being Brazilian. 1f you do not speak Spanish well, no problem, it is just important to understand very well what we tell you. Another thing is that with three sons at home, you will have to learn to behave like a respectable person so that there won’t be any kind of problem OK?’ (Excerpt from field diary, Madrid, 31 May 2008)