Landscapes of Un-Caring: Latina Caregivers' Experiences in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Keywords: care labor, essential labor, immigration, portraits, COVID-19
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 22

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated racial and economic inequities in the United States, revolving around labor as much as it has health. Responding to networks I have from working at an immigrant-facing community organization in Tacoma, Washington this research focuses on the intersection of “essential” and vulnerable, immigrant Latina caregivers who are often ignored, or perhaps, more severely, never included in #HealthcareHeroes rhetoric. This research combines artistic portraiture and ethnographic methods to center caregivers as essential workers deserving of respect, attention, and artistic portrayal. Applying theories of racial capitalism and feminist care labor this work contributes to the growing body of scholarship on the ways in which the pandemic has highlighted racialized landscapes of uncaring. This project offers the opportunity to learn how caregivers continue to build landscapes of care as they navigate precarity to care for themselves, their families, and clients when the state and their employers fail to care for them back.