Stephanie Brewster / Elena Poniatowska

The purpose of the documentary The time of the ant, by the young filmmaker Stephanie Brewster Ramírez, premiered at the Cineteca Nacional, is to make visible the domestic work that almost always falls to women.

In Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Querétaro (so industrialized), women with a stable economic situation have to who helps themand it is common to hear their lament: Today I can’t see you, because the girl didn’t come.

Leaving the town, coming to look for work in the big city, seems to be the destiny of thousands of Girls who are hired by some housewife.

In New York, a Mexican or Central American migrant has the possibility, thanks to her dollars, of parking her car (which she bought herself and learned to drive) and cleaning an apartment in four or five hours. It is a luxury to have someone at her service who sweeps and changes the sheets, and only those who have a comfortable economic situation can provide it.

In Mexico, the female population is larger than the male population. The destiny of the Girls that come from the countryside is domestic work. The majority is dedicated to the call to do, but in many cases it even includes the care of the newborn or the disabled. That responsibility, called domestic forceusually becomes a phenomenon that we call pineapple. In Mexico, the lullaby does not reach the eme of motheralthough sometimes it surpasses it. I loved my nana more than my motherconfessed a good boy who became Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

The proper functioning of the home is not precisely about class, but about gender, because even wealthy employers take responsibility for their homes and the behavior of their children. It is the employer who pays the salary, grants permits, decides schedules and indicates the day of departure. The owner goes to the supermarket, opens the freezer, hangs up the clothes, says what she is going to feed and runs out shouting: Micaela, I’ll entrust you with the children..

Social class is what determines commitment, days off, salary and hours of rest. The boss considers that it is normal to have another human being at her service.

In Mexico, social classes are much more separated than in the United States.

Meet Stephanie Brewster, the filmmaker behind the film The time of the ant, It has been, in these, my last years, an undeserved gift. His presence stimulates and fascinates all my people and includes half of Monsivais, a kitten that could only be called Wow, because his brother, Monsi, disappeared during the pandemic. Already if Monsi he dressed in smoking. Black and white, it seduced the faithful and the six blessed women who attend mass in San Sebastián.

The world of to do or domestic work was filmed with great sensitivity and intelligence by the young filmmaker Stephanie Brewster, who aptly titled it The time of the ant.

Next to the writer María Teresa Priego, Stephanie participates in the program Openlyon Channel 14. Finding it on Fridays at Diego and Marta Lamas’s table is an unexpected joy, a miracle of Juan Diego’s tilma in Tepeyac.

Tall, dynamic, her questioning eyes bring a lot of loyalty inside. And a lot of wonder. Stephanie interrogates as only innocent saints do or as I did in 1953, when I entered the editorial office of a newspaper. Stephanie, generous, engaged, listens to her interlocutor as if he had the tables of Moses in his hand. I am excited by her commitment to The time of the antbecause the presence of the filmmaker in my life and in that of many others has been a lemon popsicle, a red balloon that rises to the sky, a bench in the sun in La Bombilla park, a gift that I greatly needed.

Graduated in philosophy, Stephanie Brewster graduated with a thesis on cinema and philosophy at Ibero and spent two years at the Higher School of Cinematographic Studies in Paris. She filmed the French pianist Fabrice Eulry, who played 24 hours non-stop, and worked on the film We have the meat, by Emiliano Rocha Minter. Thanks to his master’s degree in communication at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, he traveled to Berlin. He knows Carlos Reygadas well (whose film Heli I loved it) and he was his assistant in the set of Our time. Now, Stephanie puts before our eyes The time of the ant, that will stir many consciences, because in that very good film, Stephanie offers the daily lives of 10 women who are neither very rich nor very poor. Finally, domestic work is not an exclusive issue of one social class, it occurs at many levels, because a number of women who have their own home or live in a neighborhood dedicate themselves to the housework.

Oh, the chore! How right he was Cri-Crí when singing: They want the broom and the dustpan! Taking care of children and the house has always been in the hands of women. The one who sweeps, dusts, washes the sheets and cuts the vegetables is almost always a woman.

Because?

Because caring is associated with love, self-denial, sacrifice, giving up a career or even the impossibility of exercising a talent. How many times have I heard it said: I drew very well, but I couldn’t get into San Carlos, I wanted to be a pianist, I dreamed of becoming an actress. Until very recently, the resources of a middle-class family were allocated to the male’s career, although the so-called little woman was more engaged and obtained better results. When José Alfredo Jiménez sings: But I’m still the king! It gives us a very current philosophy lesson, and we only have to accept reality. The girl first Miss and then lady, you will leave home to get married, therefore, it is not a good investment. That premise was analyzed very well by Rosario Castellanos in her memorable speech before traveling to Israel as ambassador of Mexico. Strong, ugly and formal men are the providers; the women, sweet, obedient and submissive, unravel the beads of the rosary of five Mysteries in which the our parents and the God save you Mary They begin the long day of housework.

The purpose of Stephanie’s documentary is to reflect on the care that we women give, or have already given. In Mexico, caring all the time without sharing tasks is totally normal. A Mexican household, even made up of college students, follows the rules to the letter. Taking care of the children, feeding and cleaning the house, shopping, carrying and bringing children is the mother’s job. The same thing happens with pets: the mother is responsible, in the end. Housework is accumulated following the immutable law that the man goes out to work all day and that does not allow him to take care of the child all night, because the next day he will have to go to the office. Not sharing household chores is normal in a Mexican home, and that hasn’t happened long ago in homes in the United States, because we saw Obama wash, iron, and take his daughters to school.

By tradition, men are the providers; women, caregivers. If these roles were imposed by our society, the 10 women selected by filmmaker Stephanie Brewster (who come from different social classes and practice various professions) give us the pattern of her work. The time of the ant. Three are mothers and two are mazahuas. Their age range is from 17 to 34 years old, and to me they turn out to be very young women.

The topic is broad, but Stephanie gives us a very good idea of ​​what happens to several protagonists and shows them to us with the accuracy of a well-directed and well-focused camera. The time of the ant It is important because it shows the lack of responsibility of the State in Latin American countries that forget to provide daycare centers, children’s homes, homes for the elderly and spaces for the disabled.

In Mexico, 78 percent of care work is done by women, and 22 percent by men, and they throw away their apron as soon as they leave the house. Rosario Castellanos’ speech at the National Museum of Anthropology, on February 15, 1971, resonated as the starting point for some changes in the situation of women, because Rosario demonstrated that self-denial is a crazy virtue that has killed creative capacity. of many women.

Rosario Castellanos would have liked Stephanie Brewster Ramírez’s film, which is applauded by non-feminist viewers. Thank you, Stephanie, for making the issue of care visible and confirming that it is essential to get our act together, because eventually we are all going to need it.