Mothercoin

 
"Muñoz offers valuable insights on a thorny social issue. Feminists and immigrant rights activists will savor this thought-provoking cultural analysis."
—Publishers Weekly

"Muñoz lays bare how essential motherhood is to the functioning global economy. Especially in the wake of the pandemic’s massive disruptions towork and childcare, Mothercoin is an affecting, essential read.”—Booklist (starred)"Moving narratives from women working in “a largely invisible industry. Muñoz, a scholar of Latin American literature and culture, makes her book debut with a sensitive investigation of the lives and work of immigrant nannies. Identifying herself as “a native Houstonian of European ancestry” who is fluent in Spanish, the author met nannies when she took her children to a local park. Beginning in 2010, she began to interview them, and she also reached out to some of their employers. Those interviews—recorded, transcribed, translated, and edited—form the basis of the text, which Muñoz has interwoven with historical, political, and economic context…. A perceptive look into a hidden world."—Kirkus Reviews
"I found the subject of this book so essential to the understanding of female labor, its social value, and its implications in our everyday lives, that I would recommend Mothercoin as a mandatory reading for every freshman class in College in the U.S. This is an account that affects all of us, and the stories collected by the author bring forward uncomfortable questions that must be raised."—Anadeli Bencomo, Professor, Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Houston
"Beautifully written, a perfect balance between the humanity of the women portrayed in it, and the self-consciousness of the author about her own role in that context. A timely, important work, and I can't wait to see it out there, sparking conversations around one of the most important gears that keep this country running."—Eileen Truax, author of We Built the Wall, Dreamers, and How Does it Feel to be Unwanted
"Elizabeth Cummins Muñoz has taken her time with Mothercoin, a decade-long study, and the result is an artfully woven collection of women’s accounts of life in the US domestic workers’ industry that are vulnerably honest and realistically explore what mothering across class and nation requires in today’s world. The exchange of caregiving for ‘coins’ that must stretch to sustain the giver, family members near and far, and even entire countries’ economies— those that have become dependent on the women’s remittances—is one that comes with inevitable loss, sacrifice, and uncertainty. Mothercoin lyrically captures the depth of these experiences in a moving and richly educative work that is sure to attract popular and academic readers alike. This is the kind of book whose stories remain with you."—Maythee Rojas, author of Women of Color and Feminism