Nahua childcare work with disabilities. The case of the mothers of Huasteca Potosina, Mexico

Abstract

The present article deals with the female care work implemented in relation to the care of children with disabilities within the indigenous Nahua context of the Huasteca Potosina. Care is taken up again as a relational practice, historically and culturally imposed as a woman’s duty. The investigation approaches from an anthropological and gender perspective, to the work of social reproduction carried out by the Nahua women of the Huasteca Potosina, who have assumed a double working day: on the one hand, to sustain, and to maintain the organization of their domestic unit and on the other, they work as caregivers of their children with disability. These activities, when considered as belonging to the female gender, have been undervalued by the family group and by the women themselves.