Filhos biológicos, netos, bisnetos, “filha de leite” e filhos da “patroa”: a vida entre o cuidado como “obrigação”, “ajuda” e “profissão”

Abstract

In this article, part of a broader research on the topic of cross-nursing, I analyze the trajectory of a black woman, now elderly, from the Rocinha favela, in Rio de Janeiro. Based on her narrative, I seek to reflect on the plurality of forms and relationships through which care work is exercised, analyzing its insertion in different “circuits of care”: as “help”, “obligation” and “profession” (Guimarães and Vieira, 2020). The care she provided throughout her life involved her biological children, neighborhood children, a “foster daughter”, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and the children of her employers, since she worked as a domestic worker for many years. If in the context of “care as “help” the relationship is one of symmetry and voluntariness, in the experience of “care as a profession” the relationship was crossed by hierarchies and inequalities. Even so, the decisions and the way in which care should be exercised were in dispute, pointing to the fact that social markers of difference, such as class, race and gender, should not be naturalized. Because when articulated, depending on the context, they can enable action even from a limited point of power (Benítez, 2019, Piscitelli, 2008).