Women in Argentina claim labor exploitation by Opus Dei
Former Opus Dei domestic workers (from left) Lucia Giménez, Alicia Torancio, and Beatrice Delgado pose for a photo in Buenos Aires on October 21. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Lucía Giménez still suffers pain in her knees from the years she spent scrubbing floors in the men’s bathroom at the Opus Dei residence in Buenos Aires for hours without pay.
Giménez, now 56, joined the conservative Catholic group in her native Paraguay at the age of 14 with the promise she would get an education. But instead of math or history, she was trained in cooking, cleaning, and other household chores to serve in Opus Dei residences and retirement homes.
For 18 years she washed clothes, scrubbed bathrooms, and attended to the group’s needs for 12 hours a day, with breaks only for meals and praying. Despite this, she says: “I never saw money in my hands.”
