Gabriel Garcia's Summary

In Garcia’s study, she points out the different experiences that Latina girl’s and their mothers went through in terms of housework and outside labor. Mothers, for example, did paid labor outside the home and saw it as a necessity to being a good mother. Young Latina’s, however, often worked the “second shift” as well as their current job. This “second shift” is a term that was “introduced by sociologist Arlie Hochschild to describe the additional and unpaid labor done by some family members when they arrive from work.”(413) Some of these unpaid job duties include grocery shopping, cooking, running errands, household work and caring for the children. Latina mothers believed that working outside the home was essential to being a good mother as it allowed them to financially contribute to the family whether they were single or married women.
For example, sixteen year old Yvette recalled a story during her youth. While she was playing tag with her friends outside, her father asked her to help her mother finishing cooking and cleaning. He stated that it was required for her to learn about that “stuff” since she was a girl. She disobeyed his orders and eventually received a spanking from her mother. This demonstrates the influence that parents have towards their children by reinforcing the narrative that young girls need to learn the essentials of cooking and cleaning in order to prepare for their future marriage. Another reason as to why this narrative was reinforced by their families was the mother’s desire to restrict their daughter’s time in order to sexually “protect her” as well as have her do household work at home. Garcia concluded that Latinas/os were generally more loyal to their families and therefore required them to place a stronger emphasis on the “practice of gender to demonstrate the centeredness of their families in their