All of the readings explore how migrant labour affects the family structure of the migrants, but Hondagneu-Sotelo’s piece struck me particularly due to the concept of “transnational motherhood.” The reading reminded me of the film “Under the Same Moon,” a 2007 melodrama that I watched in high school Spanish class. The movie, which can be found on Hulu, follows the journey of a young boy as he crosses the US border to find his mother who also immigrated illegally and is working as a housekeeper for a white family in Los Angeles. The director of the film, Patricia Riggen based the movie after what she noticed living in L.A. for several years. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she comments “[a]ll these people risked their lives crossing the border, leaving everything behind, for love… For the love of their families who they’re going to go reach, for the love of their families who they leave behind and send money to. But it always has to do with love and family” (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-mar-16-ca-moon16-story.html).
The feminization of the global labor force, demonstrated in part by the demand for domestic workers in cities such as Los Angeles, has in some respects given Mexican women greater autonomy to migrate independently, while also altering patterns of care in what Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo refers to as “transnational motherhood.” In her 1997 article, “The Meanings of Latina Transnational Motherhood,” Hondagneu-Sotelo defines transnational motherhood “not as physical circuits of migration but as the circuits of affection, caring, and financial support that transcend national borders, provides an opportunity to gender views of transnationalism and immigration” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/190339?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents). Despite changes in the global economy allowing women more job opportunities and mobility, there is still much improvement to be done regarding social equality, specifically lack of consideration/exclusion of the workers with family needs (like health and education services).
Although “Under the Same Moon” sentimentalizes transnational motherhood, its use of melodrama it also challenges the norm of migrant work, specifically feminized migrant work. The use of space and parallels specifically highlights the paradox of the immigrant domestic labour demand paired with the social exclusion of its workers. For instance, the movie continuously alternates between the mother in LA and her son in Mexico on his journey, the two often unknowingly mirroring each other. One such scene is when Carlitos, the son, crosses the border illegally lying in the backseat of a car in darkness, which then switches to Rosario singing her employer’s son to sleep and kissing him goodnight. When her employer returns and shows affection towards her son, Rosario saddens, clearly missing her son. She then asks for a raise, in order to send money to her son, which her employer denies. This event in turn mirrors the reality for many migrant worker women, who separate from their families due to financial necessity and are forced to become a part of a cheap labor force that abuses them economically and socially.
Transnational motherhood not only affects the mothers but also their children. In fact, the aforementioned Los Angeles Times article states that Ligiah Villalobos, the writer of “Under the Same Moon,” “wanted to explore the theme of abandoned children,” quoting ““As an adult, there have been a lot of issues in my life as a result of feeling this kind of abandonment twice from both parents… And so that is actually what I wanted to explore, that sometimes parents feel like they’re making the best decision for their children, and it may not necessarily be the case.” The film itself is a strikingly similar depiction of the reality of Latino women that Hondagneu-Sotelo discusses in “Maid in L.A.,” domestic care workers that work in homes in which labor exploitation is neither noticed or monitored. As wealth accumulates in global cities, so does the need for inexpensive labor to execute society's care labor, resulting in two coexisting but socially and financially segregated communities in a divided physical territory that harms both the workers and their families. In other words, although transnational motherhood defies gender norms to the extent that the mother is migrating to provide for her family, that defiance should not come at the expense of their and their family’s well being. Thus a society that requires labour must humanize their workers and allocate resources accordingly.
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