Teachers and ‘New Evangelizers’ for their Faith: Filipina Domestic Workers at Work in Italy

Abstract This work investigates how Filipina domestic workers can interpret their work and the migrant experience in light of their largely accepted role as the ‘new apostles’ or evangelizers for the Catholic Church. It examines traditional interpretations of servant‐hood, and analyses how gendered understandings of servitude can influence some Filipinas' notion of a subservient self and beliefs about their work as domestic helpers. Notes 1Caritas di Roma. “Immigrazione. Dossier Statistico 2000.” October 2000. 2Chell‐Robinson, Victoria. “Female Migrants in Italy: Coping in a Country of New Immigration.” In Gender and Migration in Southern Europe: Women on the Move, edited by Floya Anthias and Gabriella Lazaridis. New York: Berg, 2000: 103–23; Andall, Jacqueline. “Cape Verdean Women on the Move: ‘Immigration Shopping’ in Italy and Europe.” Modern Italy 4, no. 2 (Nov. 1999): 241–57. 3See for example, Anthias, Floya. “Metaphors of Home: Gendering New Migrations to Southern Europe.” In Gender and Migration in Southern Europe, 15–47; Constable, Nicole. Maid to Order in Hong Kong. Ithaca, NY–London: Cornell University Press, 1997; Parreñas, Rhacel. “The Global Servants: (Im)migrant Filipina Domestic Workers in Rome and Los Angeles.” Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1998. 4Anthias, “Metaphors of Home.” 7As quoted in Garcia, Mauro, ed. Readings in Philippine Prehistory. Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild, 1979: 303. 5Menez, Herminia. Explorations in Philippine Folklore. Quezon City, Metro Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1996. 6Ibid., 88. 8Loc. cit. 9Menez, Explorations in Philippine Folklore, 93. 10See Claussen, Heather L. Unconventional Sisterhood: Feminist Catholic Nuns in the Philippines. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001; Eviota, Elizabeth Uy. The Political Economy of Gender: Women and the Sexual Division of Labour in the Philippines. London–New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd., 1992; Corpuz‐Brock, Jane. “Gospel, Cultures, and Filipina Migrant Workers.” International Review of Mission 85 (1996): 63–84. 11Bourdieu, Pierre. Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977). Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 12See Cuchapin, Pagasa. “I Nuovi ‘Eroi’ Etnografia Dell'Immigrazione Filippina In Italia.” Ph.D diss. Roma: Università degli Studi di Roma, La Sapienza, 2000: 216–17; Miralao, Virgina A. “The Family, Traditional Values and the Sociocultural Transformation of Philippine Society.” Philippine Sociological Review 45, nos 1–4 (1997): 189–215. 13Parreñas, Rhacel. Servants of Globalization. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001: 2. 14Warner, R. Stephen, and Judith G. Wittner, eds. Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1998; Williams, Raymond Brady. Religions of Immigrants from India and Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988; Feher, Shoshanah. “From the Rivers of Babylon to the Valleys of Los Angeles: The Exodus and Adaptation of Iranian Jews.” In Gatherings in Diaspora, 71–94. 15See Park, Kyeyoung. “Born Again: What Does it Mean to Korean‐Americans in New York City?” Journal of Ritual Studies 3 (1989): 287–301. 16See for example, Ralston, Helen. “Religion in the Life of South Asian Immigrant Women in Atlantic Canada.” Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion 4 (1992): 245–60. 17Williams, Religions of Immigrants from India and Pakistan, 3. 18See for example, Abusharaf, Rogaia Mustafa. “Structural Adaptations in an Immigrant Muslim Congregation in New York.” In Gatherings in Diaspora, 235–61; Park, “Born Again”; Leon, Luis. “Born Again in East LA: The Congregation as Border Space.” In Gatherings in Diaspora, 163–96; Chai, Karen J. “Competing for the Second Generation: English‐Language Ministry at a Korean Protestant Church.” In Gatherings in Diaspora, 295–331. 19Levitt, Peggy. “Local‐Level Global Religion: The Case of U.S.–Dominican Migration.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37 (1998): 74–89. 20Williams, Religions of Immigrants from India and Pakistan: 12–13. 21See Miralao, “The Family, Traditional Values”, 204–06. 22Levitt, “Local‐Level Global Religion”, 81. 23See Chai, “Competing for the Second Generation”, 298. 24Leon, “Born Again in East LA”, 188. 25Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, 192, emphasis added. 26See Sentro Pilipino. Commemoration Book, 2001. Roma, 1991–2001. 27Claussen, Unconventional Sisterhood. 28Williams, Religions of Immigrants from India and Pakistan. 29Ephesians 6: 5–6. Letter of St Paul to the Ephesians. 30Layosa, Linda R. “Anywhere, Everywhere: The DH's Saga.” In From America to Africa: Voices of Filipino Women Overseas, edited by Lorna Kalaw‐Tirol. Makati: FAI Resource Management, 2000: 154. 31Parreñas, The Global Servants, 89. 32Williams, Religions of Immigrants from India and Pakistan. 33Miralao, “The Family, Traditional Values”, 196–97. 34Ramirez, Mina. The Socio‐Cultural Presuppositions of Filipino Outmigration. Quezon City: Scalabrini Migration Center, 1987: 34. 35Excerpt from the homily of Pope John Paul II, 2 June 2000, Jubilee of Migrants and Itinerant People. 36See Tacoli, Cecilia. “Migrating ‘For the Sake of the Family?’ Gender, Life Course and Intra‐Household Relations Among Filipino Migrants in Rome.” Philippine Sociological Review 44, nos 1–4 (1996): 12. 37See Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals, translated by Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. 38Abu‐Lughod, Lila. “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women.” American Ethnologist 17 (February 1990): 41–56; Ortner, Sherry B. “Towards a Feminist, Minority, Postcolonial, Subaltern, etc. Theory of Practice.” In Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1996: 1–20. 40Ibid., 84, emphasis in the original. 39Parreñas, The Global Servants, 84. 42Constable (ibid.), quoting Jingco. 41Constable, Maid to Order in Hong Kong: 192. 43Sarti, Raffaella. “Telling Zita's Tale: Holy Servants' Stories and Servants' History.” In Narratives of the Servant, edited by Regina Schulte and Pothiti Hantzaroula. Badia Fiesolana, Florence: European University Institute, 2001 (European University Institute, Paper No. 2001/1): 19. 44Ibid. 45Abusharaf, “Structural Adaptations in an Immigrant Muslim Congregation”, 239. 46Katzman, David M. Seven Days A Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978: 163. 47New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. 48See Claussen, Unconventional Sisterhood. 49Illo, Jeanne Frances. “Fair Skin and Sexy Body: Imprints of Colonialism and Capitalism on the Filipina.” In Women and Gender Relations in the Philippines. Selected Readings in Women's Studies. Quezon City: Women's Studies Association of the Philippines, 1999. Vol. I: 48. 50Claussen, Unconventional Sisterhood, 16. 51Illo, “Fair Skin and Sexy Body”; Eviota, The Political Economy of Gender. Women and the Sexual Division of Labour in the Philippines; Corpuz‐Brock, “Gospel, Cultures, and Filipina Migrant Workers”, 65. 52Ramirez, The Socio‐Cultural Presuppositions of Filipino Outmigration, 34, 36. 53Barker, Nicholas. Interview. Beyond Human Endurance. Discovery Channel documentary, 2003. 54See Andres, Tomas Quintin. Dictionary of Filipino Culture and Values. Quezon City: Giraffe Books, 1994; Miralao, “The Family, Traditional Values.” 55Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice. 56Lazaridis, Gabriella. “Filipino and Albanian Women Migrant Workers in Greece: Multiple Layers of Oppression.” In Gender and Migration in Southern Europe, 49–79. 57Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, 192. 58Miralao, “The Family, Traditional Values”, 197. 59Hochschild, Arlie Russell. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983. 60Ibid., 109, emphasis in the original. 61Ibid., 68. 62For more on Filipino cultural values, see Andres, Dictionary of Filipino Culture. 63Bustiger, Rudiger. Personal communication via email, 20 March 2002. 64Eviota, The Political Economy of Gender, 42. 65Castro, Maria Garcia. “What is Bought and Sold in Domestic Service? The Case of Bogota: A Critical Review.” In Muchachas No More: Household Workers in Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Elsa M. Chaney and Mary Garcia Castro. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1988: 105–26. 66Ibid., 112. 67 Associazioni cristiane dei lavoratori italiani–Collaboratrice familiare; colf is a euphemism for maid. 68Andall, Jacqueline. “Catholic and State Constructions of Domestic Workers: The Case of Cape Verdean Women in Rome in the 1970s.” In The New Migration in Europe: Social Constructions and Social Realities, edited by Khalid Koser and Helma Lutz. London: Macmillan, 1997: 127. 69See Leon, “Born Again in East LA.” 70Abu‐Lughod, “The Romance of Resistance.” 71Rafael, Vicente. “‘Your Grief is Our Gossip’: Overseas Filipinos and Other Spectral Presences.” In White Love and Other Events in Filipino History, edited by Vicente Rafael. Durham, NC–London: Duke University Press, 2000: 204–27. 72See Ileto, Reynaldo C. Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840–1910. Quezon City and Metro Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1979; San Buenaventura, Steffi. “Filipino Folk Spirituality and Immigration: From Mutual Aid to Religion.” In New Spiritual Homes: Religion and Asian Americans, edited by David K. Yoo. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press and UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1999. 73Rafael, “‘Your Grief is Our Gossip’”, 211–12. 74Smart, Ninian. “The Importance of Diaspora.” In Migration, Diaspora and Transnationalism, edited by Robin Cohen and Steven Vertovec. Cheltenham, UK–Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 1999: 422. 75Ibid., 426. 76Corpuz‐Brock, “Gospel, Cultures, and Filipina Migrant Workers.” 77Ibid., 79–80. 78Sarti, “Telling Zita's Tale”, 19. 79Cuchapin, I nuovi “eroi.” Etnografia dell'immigrazione filippina in Italia, 156. 80See Anthias, “Metaphors of Home”; Constable, Maid to Order in Hong Kong; Parreñas, Servants of Globalization. 81Many of the youth are second‐generation Filipinos in Italy. 82See Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice.

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