The Sounds of Rebellion: A Radionovela by and for Migrant Domestic Workers

Abstract

When the world went into lockdown in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic sensitized people to how power dynamics and access to capital play a role in how we access housing and experience being at home. This article focuses on the creative ways that migrant domestic workers are negotiating their relationships with the houses in which they live and work in the context of economic, social, and physical vulnerability and deep-seated inequalities. It introduces the work of a Madrid-based migrant women’s collective of domestic workers, most of whom are migrant women from Latin America and the Caribbean, called Territorio Doméstico. The article focuses on their latest performance project, the radionovela Querían brazos y llegamos personas, an eight-episode audio soap opera released in November 2020 over SoundCloud and later adapted for a stage performance. Written and performed by domestic workers during COVID-19, Querían brazos y llegamos personas is an important cultural product that demonstrates the connections between home and power, home and migration, and home and gendered labour politics.