1. Marcelina Bautista Bautista was born on 25 April 1966 and is a Mexican human rights activist and trade union organizer.
19 Facts About Marcelina Bautista
1. 2.
Marcelina Bautista worked as a domestic worker for 22 years, starting at the age of 14.
3.
Marcelina Bautista put herself through school, graduating from the Ibero-American University and started organizing her fellow workers.
4.
Marcelina Bautista founded the organizations Centro de Apoyo y Capacitacion para Empleadas del Hogar in 2000 and Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras del Hogar in 2015.
5.
Marcelina Bautista Bautista was born on 25 April 1966 to a Mixtec peasant family in Tierra Colorada Apasco, Nochixtlan, Oaxaca, a town with around 500 people.
6.
Marcelina Bautista grew up alongside 11 siblings speaking Mixtec, and had aspirations of becoming a lawyer.
7.
Marcelina Bautista moved from Oaxaca to Mexico City at age 14.
8.
Marcelina Bautista knew very little Spanish and wandered the streets until she found a sign reading "looking for a servant".
9.
Marcelina Bautista was employed as a domestic worker for 22 years, doing childcare and housework.
10.
Marcelina Bautista was underpaid by her employer and beaten for not knowing how to use a washing machine.
11.
Marcelina Bautista spent three years learning about Mexican labor laws and the Constitution.
12.
Marcelina Bautista earned a diploma in Communication and Civil Society from the Ibero-American University.
13.
Marcelina Bautista started organizing domestic workers around the same time, meeting at a north side park in Mexico City.
14.
Marcelina Bautista continued organizing domestic workers and has become one of the primary activists fighting for their rights in Mexico.
15.
Marcelina Bautista was a regional coordinator of Red Internacional de Trabajadoras del Hogar from 2009 to 2013.
16.
Marcelina Bautista participated in the creation and approval of the Convention on Domestic Workers, which set labor standards for domestic workers and was adopted by the International Labour Organization in 2011.
17.
Marcelina Bautista was the regional coordinator for Latin America for the Federacion Internacional de Trabajadoras del Hogar from 2013 to 2016.
18.
Marcelina Bautista founded the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras del Hogar in 2015.
19.
In 2019, Marcelina Bautista was invited to attend the 91st Academy Awards by Alfonso Cuaron, director of the 2018 film Roma, which follows the life of a live-in housekeeper.