Spaces of in/difference and domestic labor in 21st century Latin American cinema

decolonial perspectives

Abstract

Contrary to the hegemonic theories of feminism —Eurocentric, white, universalizing women—, we offer a decolonial perspective of recognition of difference, based on the experience of racialized women in the Latin American context. We seek to understand how 21st century Latin American films feature women who perform paid domestic work and coexist between the spaces of the house where they live and/or work and the spaces of the city in La ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, 2001 ), La teta asustada (Claudia Llosa, Peru, 2009), El Niño Pez (Lucía Puenzo, Argentina, 2009), Que horas ela volta (Anna Muylaert, Brazil, 2015). In different ways and with different degrees of visibility, these films draw attention to the different ways in which the characters reinvent forms of struggle and survival in the midst of the multiple oppressions that cross their lives as domestic servants.