Jaqueline “Jaki” Serrano found support in her neighbourhood’s gender violence group, now the seamstress shares inspiration and information globally as a member of HomeNet International’s Gender Committee.
“I have many, many colleagues who have been beaten by their partners,” said Jaki with a grimace. “There is a lot of violence, physical, economic and also verbal.” One colleague’s husband broke her sewing machine to prevent her from working. “This is really awful because you know the sacrifice we make to buy our machines.”
“To my fellow activists, I say we don’t have to support any kind of violence. You have to keep moving forward,” said Jaki, 44.
The path to this hard-won wisdom was filled with obstacles. At 12, when her family moved from Bolivia to Argentina, Jaki began working in the textile. She married very young and, at 18, had the first of her four children. Her husband allowed her the bare minimum for family expenses. She sewed at home, earning very little and working excruciating hours from 4:30 a.m. until midnight. “We had no rest and not enough time to care for our children while they were growing,” she recalls.
Her husband, who had an alcohol problem became abusive. Jaki left him once, but without support, had to return. Then she discovered Las Mariposa de Villa Paris, a support group for women facing gender-based violence in Almirante Brown Patido (region), about 44 km from Buenos Aires. Through workshops and courses, she realized she had the right to more household money. “I got empowered to learn that we can fight for ourselves, without having to depend on anybody else,” she said.
Her domestic situation did eventually improve; the couple lives on the same property, Jaki in the front, her husband at the back. However, she still endures prejudice from neighbours and colleagues. “Husbands have forbidden their wives to hang out with me. I often feel segregated, too. But then some women come to me for advice.”
Jaki was also empowered to improve her work life at the Mariposa meetings. There, she met activists from the Excluded Workers Movement (MTE) who told her and other neighbourhood seamstress about their Federation of Cooperatives of Seamstresses, Workers of the Garment and Textile Sector (FECOSET), Through the federation, women work together in a clean and well-equipped space, with no intermediaries and decent salaries.
“I thought this was too good to be true,” Jaki says, grinning. It wasn’t. In 2016, she and about 40 Bolivian and Argentinian women became part of the federation and set-up a hub. A rooster crows in a neighbouring yard as if to punctuate what she is saying.
Under the federal government’s Potenciar Trabajo job assistance program they received 73,000 pesos each monthly. They decided to use this to buy property in 2017 in nearby Villa Paris. There was a four-by-four room with a kitchen and toilet, but no space to sew. With advice from husbands in construction, the women began building a large workspace. It was hard work and there were financial problems; some women left. In 2020, during COVID, they won a large contract to sew sanitation kits; this drove them to rent a place. The federation offered encouragement, money and machines. But it was difficult to get more contracts and due to escalating rents, they moved premises two more times, ending up in Glew City, where this interview took place.
When Argentinian President Javier Milei took office in December 2023, the number of orders drastically decreased. Only 15 of the original 40 workers are now left. But instead of despairing, they stepped up their commitment to deliver good quality items in record time. They won a provincial contract for 30,000 shirts which they filled in two weeks.
In 2023, Jaki went global when the federation’s president invited her to HomeNet International’s Second Congress in Nepal, where the Gender Committee was born. It launched in September 2023 with Jaki as Argentina’s representative. She attends monthly meetings with her global colleagues. They have access to lawyers who inform them about legislation and rights, they share information and are gathering information to move forward. The Gender Committee recently completed a survey concerning home-based workers challenges, particularly related to violence.
Jaki’s responsibilities continue to grow in Argentina as well. In 2024, she became the treasurer of the federation’s southern areas, and she’s the spokesperson for their new brand: Carpincho (named for a large guinea pig-like mammal). She smiles and become animated when speaking about the brand. They use social media, websites including ecopop plus exhibits to promote it. And all their products now bear the logo. They manufacture 80 articles, including clothing, belts and bags, but the volume is low. Jaki says it hasn’t been easy to launch the brand. “But these are good quality clothes made by the popular economy workers and at a low cost.” Her voice rings with optimism.
She has other reasons to be optimistic. Their dream of owning a work building is close to being a reality. They will leave the rental space and move into Las Luceros later this year.
