The Blooming Queens of Clean, a 15-member all-immigrant, all-women ‘green’ cleaning co-operative, officially inaugurated its home and office cleaning business in Ulster County last week.
Business is booming. “We’re getting at least two or three requests per day,” says Marta, the co-op member who translated for the two other members, Ruth and Reyna, at this interview.
There are regular momentary intermissions while the questions are relayed into Spanish by Marta in order to glean the sentiments of the other members at the table.
Spanish is a musical language, with most of its words ending in O, A or S. The letter Rs roll easily off of the tongue. Unless the speaker pauses to search for clarity, one word hurries into the next, creating long strings of multisyllabic rhythms. Because all the women are from South and Central Americas, the royal lisp of Spain when pronouncing “th” is almost gone.
There are more pauses when Ruth is talking. Her deliberative style may have recommended her as a resolver of conflicts when the group voted to structure and appoint roles in their business. Ruth is from the city of Chiquimula in eastern Guatemala. Reyna — the name means queen — is from Chilpancingo, about 100 kilometers inland from Acapulco in Mexico.
While Marta handles the translating between Spanish and English, she also speaks K’iche’, a major indigenous language of many Central American peoples. Marta says there are over 100 dialects of K’iche’, a regular tower of Babel spilled across Central America, 5000 years in the making
“So far, in the co-op we have two types of the Mayan language,” says Marta, “which are the Maya and K’iche’. All the woman understand and speak Spanish. We have maybe half of the team that Spanish is their first language. And the other half it’s either K’iche’ or Maya.”
While most of the women have a passable understanding of English, far fewer can speak it, which is an obstacle. Many USA-born, English-only speaking Americans have a curious habit of mistaking anyone else’s inability to speak English for stupidity, while interpreting their own inability to speak another language more generously.
The inability to understand another person often smoothes the way to dehumanizing or exploiting them. Las Reinas Florecientes is able to surmount this issue through the miracle of modern technology.
“I would say that our women understand English,” says Marta. “It’s just maybe sometimes they are not quite confident to respond in English yet … so they are using a translator app as a backup.”
“If Martha wasn’t here, today, we’d be doing all of this through a translation app,” explains Ulster Immigrant Defense Network program development director Stephanie Kristal, who also sits at the table today. Her Spanish is only so-so.
“There are apps where you can speak in English,” says Kristal, “and then you can have the Spanish back in audio, or vice versa, or you can read it and you pass it back and forth.” Instant translation between languages via handheld cellular devices connected to the Internet is science fiction no longer.
Expanding opportunity
The idea of the cleaning-service co-op started at the instigation of the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network with the assistance of Tamika Dunkley, leader of the women-owned, minority-owned Seasoned Delicious, a purveyor of seasonings for cooking. Dunkley is currently the Democratic candidate running for the seat of retiring county legislator Brian Cahill of the Town of Ulster.
“It’s very difficult to find work opportunities that are legal for immigrants at various stages pursuing their citizenship,” says Kristal. “The co-operative model, and this particular LLC, is a way for people to set their own living wages, determine their own governance, and do it legally — and of course pay taxes. The business will be paying taxes, and each woman will be paying taxes.”
The Blooming Queens of Clean decided to emulate the model of 100-member “Si se Puede Women’s Co-operative,” a successful all-women, all-immigrant cleaning service based in New York City. “We wanted to be very conscious of helping people to move on to pathways towards economic mobility,” says Kristal. “So that’s kind of how it evolved. As the saying goes, you can either give people fish or teach people how to fish.”
“Si se puede” is a rallying cry popularized by the United Farm Workers union. It translates to “It can be done,” and is the direct forerunner to Barack Obama’s “Yes we can.” The phrase is now inextricably linked to Cesar Chavez and worker organizations.
It’s so difficult for undocumented people or asylum seekers to gain legal employment without being exploited, “not having access to benefits, and all of that,” says Kristal. “This is a way for people to make money and to earn a living legally.”
A woman’s empowerment
The co-op’s dedication to sisterhood is equally important. All 15 women who staff the Blooming Queens of Clean are involved in every aspect of the operation. Everyone is an owner.
“Everyone has a voice,” says Marta. “We established voting procedure, and any decision that needs to be made, it’s the 15 women who decide.”
A question about whether the 15 women voted to exclude men elicits an immediate burst of laughter.
The co-op model the Queens follow currently proscribes the involvement of men, but the members plan to grow out of that. “We want to empower all people,” says Marta. “The idea is to have them be able to have their own businesses, to make available to them a better standard of living and to motivate the younger generation.”
Reyna’s point of view is that it’s easier (“mas facile”) for men to find work, at least where she comes from.
“In the tradition that Reyna comes from,” Marta explains. “Women are housewives. Got to raise the children. Got to attend to the husband. But here, it’s equal opportunity. All of the women, you know, we are all working towards a woman’s empowerment. So that is, you know, it’s just women coming together to work.”
“And I think the other piece, too,” interjects Kristal, “is that some of the women have children. So that makes it more difficult to work, and how many hours they can work. So the arrangements that need to be made are different.”
Working together
Only three of the women, including Ruth, are licensed to drive. The ability to travel is the main immediate obstacle facing the group of women. While the co-op cleans houses and offices anywhere in the county, the farthest out they have gone so far has been Tannersville.
“Transportation is a real issue right now,” says Kristal. “The other two share their car with their partners, and so we’re also looking for a car to be donated The idea was to help with driving lessons. And then to help people get learner’s permits. Under state law, all New Yorkers age 16 and older can now apply for a standard non-commercial driver’s license or learner’s permit regardless of citizenship or lawful status. A Social Security card is not required.
The UIDN declined a 2003 Volkswagen because the vehicle had a manual transmission. As an interim measure, some of the money raised through a GoFundMe fundraiser will go to hiring drivers as a temporary measure, says Kristal. “Also, we’re asking for drivers from the community to volunteer for this first year.”
The women received a donation of 21 vacuum cleaners from Shark Vacuums.
Once the women demonstrate a viable business model, Marta says the intention is to expand into other industries like construction, home healthcare, landscaping and cooking — the kind of work most readily available to immigrants.
Kristal doesn’t believe their business model wherein each co-op worker receives an equal share of all profits should be perceived as a threat to traditional private business in Ulster County. “Helping people to empower themselves to move towards economic mobility helps takes the strain off resources on a city and county and local government and state government level,” says Kristal.
Reyna hopes that they can allow more women to join. She wants to help out as many women as possible. For the present, membership has been capped at 15.
“When I met the women, at first when I start talking to them, I have this connection with them,” recalls Marta. “First of all, I was born in Guatemala. My mom speaks K’iche’. She understands English but doesn’t speak English. These ladies represent my mom and they represent my mom’s neighbor. They represent also what was expected from my mom. So that connected me right away with them. I have this huge respect for everyone. They’re like my parents. I’m here for them and you’re here for me.”
The obvious sense of solidarity among the women of the Blooming Queen’s cleaning service is familial in expression. “Like family, they know each other now,” says Marta. “Where they need help, what their strengths are. That to me is going to be the biggest help for the success of the co-op. Everyone working together.”
Add to that an increase of joy. Since the co-op began operations, one of the women has welcomed a newborn. “There are many children already, but now there is a newborn,” says Marta. “So we now have a co-op baby.”
To look into the cruelty-free non-toxic cleaning services offered for the home or the office go to the website at bloomingqueensofclean.com/.
Join the family! 
