LITERATURE + LECTURES

Brazos presents an Author Appearance: Mary Romero - THE MAID'S DAUGHTER.

At a very young age, Olivia left her family and traditions in Mexico to live with her mother, Carmen, in one of Los Angeles's most exclusive and nearly all-white gated communities. Based on over twenty years of research, noted scholar Mary Romero brings Olivia's remarkable story to life. We watch as she struggles through adolescence, declares her independence and eventually goes off to college and becomes a successful professional. Much of her extraordinary story is told in Olivia's voice and we hear of both her triumphs and her setbacks.

In THE MAID'S DAUGHTER, Mary Romero explores this complex story about belonging, identity, and resistance, illustrating Olivia's challenge to establish her sense of identity, and the patterns of inclusion and exclusion in her life. Romero points to the hidden costs of paid domestic labor that are transferred to the families of private household workers and nannies, and shows how everyday routines are important in maintaining and assuring that various forms of privilege are passed on from one generation to another.

Through Olivia's story, Romero shows how mythologies of meritocracy, the land of opportunity, and the American dream remain firmly in place while simultaneously erasing injustices and the struggles of the working poor.

Mary Romero is professor and faculty head of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. She is also a faculty affiliate of Women and Gender Studies, Asian Pacific American Studies, and African and African American Studies. She received the American Sociology American Section on Race and Ethnicity Minorities 2009 Founder's Award. In 2004, she received the Society for the Study of Social Problems' Lee Founders Award, the highest award made by theSociety for the Study of Social Problems for a career of activist scholarship. Romero is a former Carnegie Scholar, Pew National Fellowship for Carnegie Scholars, Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.