Abstract
This chapter discusses the first results of our ethnographic case study on the female cross-border experiences in the Paraná Tri-Border Area (between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay) conducted between 2017 and 2019. Through the life histories of 30 Paraguayan women, it analyzes the impact that a productive and reproductive work overload has on the configuration of the spatial, labor, and life experiences of these women. It synthesizes the profile of our interviewees, characterizing the empirical sample that supports the coming chapters of this volume. Furthermore, it sets out some theoretical concepts that support our analysis: using Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology, it defines the concept of the social field, the capitals that form it, and the notion of trajectory. By delving into the empirical data, the chapter analyzes the accounts given by our interviewees on their families’ rural origins, mobility strategies, and insertion into the labor market. These issues will be correlated with the women’s current work overload, the gender mandates they experience, and the sexual division of labor among families. Finally, we will conclude by showing how the transgenerational obligation of sustaining family care is, contradictorily, a factor that impinges on the women while simultaneously being an element of female agency.
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Notes
- 1.
It is common for women to combine these commercial or domestic service work dynamics with small-scale smuggling of a variety of products (see Chap. 7).
- 2.
Sonia, Talia, and Lirio each had one child. Mía, Shakira, Angélica, Fiona, EA and EPM were mothers of two children each. Sofía, María 2, Clara, and Alicia had three children, while Rojo had four, and María 1, Rosa 2, Guerrera, G., Lirio Blanco, and Orquidea had five. Amada had six children, Silvia had nine, and Eulo had fifteen.
- 3.
Among the 26, three stated they now lived in Brazilian cities (two of them in Foz de Iguazú, one in San Miguel de Iguazú). All three had lived in Ciudad del Este before moving to Brazilian territory, but none of them was born there.
- 4.
He also served the army in the Chaco War (between Paraguay and Bolivia, 1932–1935). But Paloma did not remember having talked much about this topic with him.
- 5.
This is due to the possibility that passengers—according to Paloma, mainly Brazilians—take the taxi and conceal smuggled merchandise (legal products but pushing the legal quantities or illegal elements). These products can be detected at border controls, causing the driver to lose both license and vehicle.
- 6.
Since the mid-twentieth century, internal migration in Paraguay has been marked, firstly by rural-rural migration (1950–1960), a result of the colonizing project “towards the East” by Stroessner’s dictatorial government (1954–1989). Since the seventies, it has predominately been rural-urban, driven mainly by advances in agroindustry and the settlement of Brazilian colonists in rural areas (Riquelme & Vera, 2015).
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Acknowledgments
This chapter was translated from Spanish to English by Christine Ann Hills and Menara Guizardi. The authors thank the National Research and Development Agency of Chile (ANID) for funding the studies that gave rise to this chapter through the Fondecyt Project 1190056, “The Boundaries of Gender Violence: Migrant Women’s Experiences in South American Border Territories” (2019–2023).
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Guizardi, M., Nazal, E., Magalhães, L. (2021). Embodying Family Care. In: Guizardi, M. (eds) Ultra-Intensity Patriarchy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85750-9_5
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