Working Childhoods Remembered

This paper discusses unpublished memoirs written in mid  20^th century Mexico, in which the authors, writing for their immediate family, recall their working childhoods from adult perspectives. The arc of the authors’ life stories and recollections traces a dramatic change in Mexican and western, concepts of childhood. The authors’ childhood was a time when most children were expected to contribute to sustaining the household, through chores or with paid work, often both. By the time these writers composed their memoirs in mid or late life, the prevailing concepts of childhood were reconceived as a life stage that should be protected from work and devoted to innocent play and education. Indeed, the authors’ children belonged to a generation that had grown up in contexts shaped by that ideal, even if their family’s economic circumstances meant that they had to work at a young age.

Viewed across generations, and the profound social discontinuity in concepts of childhood, these authors, who came from all walks of life and regions of Mexico, portrayed a spectrum of attitudes about their childhood labors. Some asserted that childhood work had made a positive contribution to their adult identities and success. Others expressed regret that their early entry into work had cut off their education or exposed them to significant suffering.  Thus the issue of childhood work can be seen as an important experience that compelled these authors to undertake their memoirs, and one that begs the question: why did they write?