Aug. 2021 - Present
Araceli Herrera took bus route 97 in San Antonio, TX for several years to and from her job until VIA Metropolitan Transit suspended it in 2003. She was an undocumented domestic worker that relied on this route to work and so did many others. Herrera organized, protested and met with VIA Metropolitan Transit officials to keep the route and won. She realized the strength of organizing and created Domesticas Unidas in 2012.
I had the chance to produce a short documentary of Herrera’s origin story for my documentary class last semester.
Herrera’s main goal is to work with National Domestic Workers Alliance to give domestic workers the right to accessible health care.
As I remain in Texas, I will continue to document and work with Herrera and her organization. Meeting her was one of my favorite memories and experiences from 2021.
Araceli Herrera, Evangelina Villanueva and Olivia Cruz, of Domesticas Unidas are holding a graduation on Feb. 26, 2022, to celebrate the 30 domestic workers that completed the eight-month workshops. The courses consists of learning how to efficiently take care of elders, child care, values as housekeepers, fair pay and empowering domestic workers rights to a safe workplace.
The most important lessons Domesticas Unidas teaches in these workshops are leadership, processing trauma and preserving their culture by supporting one another in the community.
Photos from left to right: Araceli Herrera, Evangelina Villanueva and Olivia Cruz outside of the Living Church at Woodlawn Pointe.
This is the second part of Herrera’s work to push a Bill of Rights for domestic workers in San Antonio, TX. She is in the stage of creating a proposal and meeting with the Domestic Workers Alliance to fulfill this bill that allows domestic workers the rights to healthcare such as paid sick days, health insurance and family care benefits.