Essential Labor

February 14, 2022
Journalist Garbes (Like a Mother) mixes memoir and cultural analysis in this probing if uneven look at “the state of caregiving in America.” Drawing on her parents’ experiences as Filipino immigrants recruited to work in the U.S. healthcare system, she discusses how caregiving in America is “racialized and gendered” and compares the “communal solidarity” of life in the Philippines with how modern American families are “siloed off from one another behind fences, out of sight and out of mind.” She also critiques Western culture’s prioritization of “the rational, well-contained mind” over “the messy, unruly physical body,” and argues that mothering is skilled labor because it “cultivates bodily knowledge that informs how we show up in the world throughout our lives.” Elsewhere, recollections of how the differences between her body (“a little too brown, a little too round”) and her mother’s (“petite, hairless”) made “body acceptance a long, emotionally turbulent process” and of the sex talk her parents gave her (“My virginity was a beautiful gift from God—a precious flower—that no matter who asks for it, I should give to just one person. My husband”) lead to insightful discussions of how she is raising her daughters differently. Though the segues from personal reflection to social criticism can be awkward at times, as in the chapter on disability, aging, and the “inherent worth” of human bodies, Garbes’s call for care work to be more valued in American culture is persuasive and well rendered. This encomium to mothers and caregivers hits home.

March 15, 2022
Weathering the COVID-19 crisis made space for Garbes (Like a Mother, 2018) to honor care work in all its forms, including mothering. She begins each chapter of this slim and affirming book with a brief personal narrative drawn from her identity as a daughter of Filipinx immigrant parents who are both care workers, before reflecting on the power that mothering holds in creating a better world, one which respects care as the critical infrastructure making all institutions possible. Garbes thoughtfully but not bitterly critiques the twin forces of capitalism and colonialism that render care work invisible, especially devaluing the women and people of color who shoulder so much of it in and out of the home. Maintaining an inclusive premise for the book, Garbes defines mothering as an action not confined to gender or biology. Topical reflections from a diversity of authors further lend to the book's inclusive vision of care work and nourishing community--a vision Garbes commits to raising her own two daughters toward with sincerity.

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May 1, 2022
A celebration of caregiving. Garbes, a Filipina who describes herself as "a woman of color, a writer, and a mother," melds memoir with social, political, and cultural critique to offer a thoughtful analysis of the social and personal complexities of mothering. Growing up with a mother who was a nurse and a doctor father, she admits, "one of the luxuries of my childhood was to remain oblivious to all the work that went into raising me." Raising a child and caring for a home are only parts of what Garbes means by mothering, which, she writes, includes anyone engaged in "the practice of creating, nurturing, affirming and supporting life" within one's family and community. The author argues persuasively that "the global economy is driven as much by care as so-called productive labor." Garbes gives a historical overview to trace how care has become "gendered and racialized." Her mother immigrated as part of a wave of Filipina nurses, recruited aggressively by hospital administrators, paid low wages, and often treated with hostility and resentment. As the author reports, 92% of domestic workers are women, and "fifty-seven percent of them are Black, Latina, or Asian American/Pacific Islander. We entrust the safety and cleanliness of our homes to Latinx workers, who comprise 62 percent of house cleaners." As the global pandemic revealed to economically comfortable women who suddenly had to take on the work of primary caregivers, teachers, nannies, and house cleaners, servitude characterizes many workers that they depend on. Besides throwing necessary light on the need to recognize--and appropriately compensate--the value of mothering, Garbes draws on her personal experiences to consider "the details of caregiving, the small decisions that make up each day" in shaping children's lives. The issues she has faced include talking about bodies and creating a world "that makes it possible for all bodies to thrive"; accepting one's body and appetites; and fostering a love of nature. A sensitive reflection on essential work.

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