The Maid's Daughter - Ch. 2 Becoming the Maid's Daughter

Ch. 2 explores the timeline of Olivia evolving into “the maid’s daughter”. Olivia left her familial surrounding in El Paso to join her mother, literally living with her in the maid’s quarters in several residences during her upbringing. She has so much pressure to assimilate. Olivia always feels like an outsider but quickly gains the skills to adapt to the different situations. This is very much a case of code-switching, adjusting her personality to compliment situations and/or people. At times, Olivia is treated like the American children by the employers but not as an equal amongst the children. She always feels as though she is the other, and it doesn’t help that her mother is strict with her and not the other children. As Olivia ages, she is able to notice the blurred lines within her mother’s and employers’ relationships. There are lines of delineation that her mom and her must respect in regard to the employers, but when it comes to the employers and their children, the respect is not reciprocal. Olivia speaks of the employers buying her gifts to win her over, or as she sees it, out of guilt (p.59).

One family Oliva and Carmen end up living with is the Smiths. Eventually Mrs. Smith begins to act as a mother figure/liaison for Olivia and her teachers. Olivia resents that her mother can’t have this position and Mrs. Smith for taking over like that, making decisions for Carmen and Olivia and what is best interest in her (Mrs. Smith’s eyes). As Olivia is of teenage years, the neighborhood moms stereotype her, giving her a role as a caregiver/baby sitter. The women do this because as the daughter of a maid who is nurturing, Olivia should naturally be this way as well. Olivia complies to make money, but this helps form her identity of what she doesn’t want to be in the future.