Working Women

Gloria Maria Tellez. Late 20s. In our banks. Sitting outside her house as I pass her at a New York pace on my way to the Internet Café. “Adios Margarita!” “Adios Gloria!” I see that she is selling fried plantains in little baggies, with the bottle of vinegar on the side. Each baggie = 1 cord = 1/18 of the $. So I shout trying to be friendly, “Working?”… “Always!” She says with a big smile.

Maria Cleotilde. More like 60 years old. In our banks. We visited her recently because she has a niece who is behind in her payment. We find her with hands painted green and sticky glue all over. She’s working alright! She is making leaves out of manila file folders. Cuts them out, paints them green. With newspaper and homemade glue, she sticks a wire in them, so they will stand up in the cemetery. They are little memory cards that people write on and put next to a grave. So we are talking with her, with her crossed eyes and darling half-smile, she promised us that her niece would pay. As if I care if the niece is going to pay? She must have had about 200 leaves sitting there that she had done in that day. “How much do you sell them for Dona Cleotilde?” “45 cords, for 12 dozens.” WHAAT!!!?? That is $2.50 this women makes for 144 of these cut out leaves that she makes all day long with her bare, old, little frail fingers!!!! “And how long have you been doing this for?” “Ohh about 20 years,” she says. “No… more.”

Erika Flores. Mid 20s. Maybe younger. Also in our banks. She has 2 young daughters, and a 1.5 angel son. Single, working mother, she sells clothes. We also found her working in the house. Washing clothes, cleaning dishes, caring for the kids. She is caring for one more these days: Andrea, who is 8, is the severely handicapped daughter of Erika´s older sister, Terliz, who is also in the banks. We learned today that Terliz (the reason for our visit) left for Panama on Tuesday. She left her two daughters, the other with her mom, to go look for work. Working. Erika doesn’t know when she will return or if she will return. And that day Erika was working against the tears to tell us the events that have just unfolded in her life.

Ivonne Gebara. 60s maybe 70s. Feminist Theologian from Brazil. Just came through Managua and I had the chance to go hear her speak twice. A very impressionable woman. She stood there poised, proud, and profound, with a professionally grey skirt-suit, and a beaded necklace and earrings. Both nights the room was packed with about 70 people, majority women. She spoke on “The Nutrients of Spirituality” and “The Nutrients that the Roman Catholic Church gives us today in Latin America.”…(or doesn’t give)… She emphasized the importance of our spirituality coming from the present day, our sacred bodies as women, the heaven that exists here on Mother Earth, and the need of the poor (esp. women) for salvation and liberation and resurrection TODAY. I felt I had a strong understanding of her Spanish when I heard her say:

Shared bread (“give us this day our daily bread”) doesn’t come by petitions. But when we sit and say “how much bread is here?” and then we share what is.

Working to share her ideas on feminist theology with those who are interested, willing, and open to listening.

Yuvelka Calero. 22 yrs old… “My age!”…I thought while standing in her new house. A humble place on the edge of the city, quiet, tranquil, fertile ground – lemon trees, jocotes, pitayas, tamarindo (mmm blessed fruits of Nicaragua!). Her husband, a taxi driver, picked us up for the visit, and upon arrival, her daughter Marianna (4yrs) runs out to me with a hug, “friend!” ;) We meet her at the door, she´s soaked, clearly she´s been washing the clothes, “Here I am, working!” She exclaims happily to us. She whipped us up a fresco de naranja (freshly squeezed o.j.), and I was able to chat with her for about an hour outside. By “chat,” I mean “listen”… as she told me her life happenings from the last 8 years, when she met her husband. He was a bus driver and she a “cobrera” (the person that collects the bus money). “Really?” I asked. “I´ve never seen a woman collect the money before!”… “I used to dress up as a guy!!” She says, “I had my woman clothes underneath the whole time!” She noted that most of the guys knew she was a woman and mistreated her anyway. That was when she was 15 years old, after she had spent years working in a breakfast place, and selling various items in the street. The family of her husband has dropped them both off the radar; because they have always believed that her real work on the buses was prostitution. After assuring me that, of course, it was not, she told me how her spouse had already had 2 wives, a child with each of them, before they got married. He slept with them both and other multiple times while she was pregnant with Marianna. But “He has changed. He is almost a different man. He has apologized in the church and I know he loves me very much.” She isn’t able to work now, she told me, because he husband won´t let her. He doesn´t want her to face the same hardships as she did working on the buses. So instead, she says, “I do everything here! I cook, I clean, I do the laundry and iron, and I watch the girl. I like being with her. Who can care for her better than I? And who would care for her, when he (spouse) is working from 4am to 11pm?” …. He´s working all those hours right!? Even though his taxi shift is from 4am to 2pm?!? I didn´t say that to her. She believes in him. I just thought about how hard she has worked in this life. And how when she was 19, giving birth to Marianna, I was prancing around Boston College planning concerts.

I cherish these women.