Maria Elena and Alberta Sosa both work for wages to maintain the household and their children. Maria Elena does laundry, cooking and sells foods, and Alberta is a construction worker. According to both Alberta and Maria Elena, it is the responsibility of the male head of household to maintain the household. It is the wife's responsibility to support him. While Maria Elena contributes equally towards maintaining the family, they still voice a belief that the man is dominant because of his superior capabilities. Their acceptance of the traditional male-female relationship is evident in small ways during the day. The majority of the meals are made for and eaten by Alberta, who is always served first. If Alberta needs help in town with his work, one of the boys goes along with him. Any physical discipline that is necessary with regard to the children is done by Alberta. However aside from these small
instances, the daily responsibility of the household rests squarely on Maria Elena's shoulders.
Maria Elena has control over all monies that Alberta contributes, as well as her own wages. She decides on food purchases and any major and minor purchases of furniture, clothes or medicines. She also controls the children's labour in that she asks them to stay home from school to care for each other or the home, to run errands, and to help Alberta. For her, running the household is more important than the children's schooling. In this way one could say that they fai l to plan in a way consistent with logical management of their children's future. However to say this would be to fail to recognise that her choice is consistent with the objective chances of her family's future. Perhaps what Maria Elena has done is to make a 'virtue out of necessity'.
Both Maria Elena and Alberta travel to the coast of Oaxaca for business, and it is a mutual decision as to how and when they will go. They also decide together who to ask to become
compadres
when they are looking for influential patrons, although Maria Elena does determine when to ask a patron. Clearly, Maria Elena takes the major role in economic decisions within the household. While she will often speak about her husband as being the authority figure this relationship is one of equals. Whenever6.
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something is out of kilter, it is left to Maria Elena to decide on the actions and resources which are available to help them.
The relationship between Maria Elena and her older daughter is a collegial one. Because the daughter is working outside of the home she is old enough to cooperate in household decisions with her mother. They are great friends and support each other by exchanging money, food, and daily help. The daughter will often get Maria Elena's goods out from the pawn shop, and will buy her items now and then for her home. Maria Elena also has an older son who also works and l ives at home. He, however, contributes nothing to the household. He lives a separate and distant life, except for the fact that he expects to be given room and board at home.
Summary
Some key points are essential to an understanding of the domestic exchanges which occur within these households. Husband-wife relationships are built around the ideology of patron-client contracts with the husband being the authority figure and the patron while the wife plays the part of the client; at least in public. In private these roles temporarily overlap when the husband cares for the children (for instance, when the wife is ill). Even in instances where the wife is earning nearly equal amounts to her husband in terms of household income, the husband will take the role of patron rather than colleague. Most often this type of contract is characterised by an inflexible sexual division of labour which is complementary, but which highlights the segregated type of family organisation which has been discussed in many Mexican ethnographies. Men are expected to bring home the wages. Women are expected to cook, clean, care for the children, care for clothes, and to give sexual services. Embedded in these tasks is the responsibility to have food available for cooking (even when there is no money) and to have proper clothing for her family. Given that households are not self-sufficient for basic resources, the obligation to provide these items is the core of exchange relationships. In a strictly economic sense, Colonia women are in a weak position. However, exchange relationships based on other forms of capital give them a source of power in two ways, firstly because they are able to meet their household
responsibilities apart from any dependence upon their husbands and secondly, in fulfilling their responsibilities they are seen to be livi�g up to the ideal role model as expressed in the concept of