Political mobilisation, trade union organisation and continuities in the struggle of chambermaids. dialogue between Teresa Pàmies' Camarera de Cinco Estrellas (1984) and current testimonial narratives

Abstract

The reality of women workers has been constantly represented in Spanish fiction over the last century. Through the analysis of Teresa Pàmies' novel Camarera de cinco estrellas (1984), this article aims to analyse the discourses surrounding women workers in the hotel and catering sector and their connection with the struggles of the present-day waitresses in their articulation through testimonial narratives. The search for common concerns, problems and reflections in the experience of the protagonist of the novel, a Spanish worker who emigrated to London in the early 1960s, and the chambermaids who express their problems through the testimonial compilations Las que limpian los hoteles: historias ocultas de precariedad laboral (2015) and Somos las que estábamos esperando. Mujeres que no se rinden (2020) allows us to point to a tradition of struggle and resistance of women workers that has been expressed through the literary and cultural sphere.