Freedom’s Promise at Work

Few things inspire more pride than a paycheck earned from a job well done, as five immigrant women are discovering as they launch a house-cleaning cooperative in the San Fernando Valley. Cleaning houses may seem like drudge work, but to the women who last year launched Miracle Workers it is a respectable path to financial security. And similar cooperative efforts may become more and more common as Southern California’s diverse communities of immigrants pool their talents and resources to strike out on their own.

With a church as their base and backed by grants from the National Catholic Churches’ Campaign for Human Development and Valley Organized in Community Efforts, or VOICE, the women began learning all aspects of running their own business--from bookkeeping and financing to advertising. All the women are poor. All are immigrants. Most have no business experience, little formal education and limited English skills. Hardly the portfolio of skills for success in today’s economy.

What the women share, however, is that classic American drive to succeed on their own terms. Tired of working for a few dollars a day in garment factory sweatshops, women like Juana Acosta gambled on themselves. So far, the bet appears to be paying off. Their clientele is growing slowly and customers are happy. More importantly, they have hope. Says 26-year-old Margarita Villa: “From here, I can finally see the future.”

It may well be a future in which cooperatives like the Miracle Workers are more common. In fact, the women borrowed their business model from Solano County in Northern California, where eight housecleaning and landscaping cooperatives employ more than 100 people. As immigrant communities grow, they tend to establish their own business and support networks. Entrepreneurial ventures like the Miracle Workers give recent immigrants the opportunity to learn skills, practice a new language and make connections.

Although their achievements may feel miraculous, the women of the Miracle Workers are really just fulfilling the promises of freedom and initiative this country makes to immigrants and natives alike. They are promises too often taken for granted, but the Miracle Workers demonstrate how real they can be.