Chap­ter 6: Inti­ma­cies pro­vides a deep explo­ration into the rela­tion­ships that unfold with­in a Bev­er­ly Hills fam­i­ly and their Mex­i­can house­keep­er, Car­men, and her daugh­ter, Olivia. The Smith fam­i­ly, includ­ing a father who works as a Hol­ly­wood agent, a moth­er, and their four chil­dren, share their home with Car­men and Olivia, who occu­py the maid’s quar­ters. This domes­tic set­up serves as a reflec­tion of the broad­er soci­etal dynam­ics in Amer­i­ca, where con­trast­ing cul­tur­al iden­ti­ties coex­ist with­in the same space. The inter­ac­tions between the two fam­i­lies reveal the ten­sion that aris­es when dif­fer­ent racial and social back­grounds col­lide. Olivia, as she grows old­er, begins to nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of her iden­ti­ty, strad­dling two worlds: one shaped by her Mex­i­can her­itage and the oth­er shaped by the priv­i­lege of being around a wealthy, pre­dom­i­nant­ly white fam­i­ly. The per­son­al iden­ti­ty strug­gles she faces speak to broad­er soci­etal issues sur­round­ing race, priv­i­lege, and the immi­grant expe­ri­ence in Amer­i­ca.

As the sto­ry pro­gress­es, the pow­er dynam­ics between Olivia and the Smith fam­i­ly evolve, espe­cial­ly as Olivia grows more aware of her role with­in their house­hold. Despite being in a low­er social posi­tion as a housekeeper’s daugh­ter, she begins to rec­og­nize her influ­ence with­in the fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly in rela­tion to the Smith chil­dren. The fam­i­ly often turns to Car­men for author­i­ty and guid­ance, a role that her own par­ents are unable to ful­fill. Olivia’s strug­gle is root­ed in her desire to con­nect with her Mex­i­can iden­ti­ty while nav­i­gat­ing the expec­ta­tions placed on her by the white, upper-class world in which she finds her­self. This dual strug­gle leads her to a career in pub­lic rela­tions, rep­re­sent­ing the con­flict between her mes­ti­za her­itage and her desire for social mobil­i­ty. Her jour­ney, which even­tu­al­ly leads to a more priv­i­leged career, high­lights the ten­sion between her cul­tur­al pride and her aspi­ra­tions with­in a sys­tem that often mar­gin­al­izes her back­ground.

Beyond the inti­mate sphere of the Smith house­hold, the chap­ter explores the larg­er issues of race and class that define Lati­no and white rela­tion­ships in Amer­i­ca. The inter­ac­tions between Lati­no work­ers and their white employ­ers often car­ry an under­ly­ing ten­sion. Lati­no work­ers, despite their crit­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions to the suc­cess of their employ­ers, are fre­quent­ly mar­gin­al­ized and treat­ed as invis­i­ble in Amer­i­can soci­ety. Romero cri­tiques the racial hier­ar­chies at play, illus­trat­ing how the pres­ence of Lati­no work­ers in pre­dom­i­nant­ly white house­holds chal­lenges the illu­sion of class mobil­i­ty and afflu­ence. The work­ers con­tribute great­ly to the func­tion­ing of these house­holds, yet their roles are often reduced to that of sub­or­di­nates whose work is under­val­ued and under­ap­pre­ci­at­ed. This cre­ates an uncom­fort­able con­tra­dic­tion, as the labor of these work­ers sus­tains the lifestyle of the afflu­ent, yet they con­tin­ue to face sys­temic dis­crim­i­na­tion due to their race and social class.

The chap­ter also high­lights the essen­tial, yet often unseen, labor per­formed by Lati­no work­ers across var­i­ous sec­tors of soci­ety. Romero delves into how these work­ers sup­port the pros­per­i­ty of their employ­ers while being exclud­ed from the priv­i­leges that their labor helps to sus­tain. Despite their vital role in main­tain­ing Amer­i­can house­holds, they are fre­quent­ly mar­gin­al­ized, with their con­tri­bu­tions over­looked and unrec­og­nized. Romero urges read­ers to reflect on the sig­nif­i­cance of this labor, stress­ing that it is not just the work itself that should be acknowl­edged, but the indi­vid­u­als who per­form it. By ignor­ing these work­ers and fail­ing to rec­og­nize their worth, soci­ety con­tin­ues to per­pet­u­ate divi­sions based on race and class. The chap­ter chal­lenges the tra­di­tion­al Amer­i­can nar­ra­tive that empha­sizes hard work while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly devalu­ing the con­tri­bu­tions of those who per­form essen­tial ser­vices.

The con­clu­sion of the chap­ter reflects on how per­son­al rela­tion­ships and inter­ac­tions between peo­ple of dif­fer­ent races and cul­tures can help to bridge the divide that exists in soci­ety. Romero uses the expe­ri­ences of indi­vid­u­als like Julia Rodriguez as exam­ples of how these inti­mate con­nec­tions can chal­lenge sys­temic racism and empow­er mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties. Through the sto­ries of these indi­vid­u­als, the chap­ter empha­sizes the pow­er of shared expe­ri­ences in break­ing down racial bar­ri­ers and fos­ter­ing mutu­al under­stand­ing. It sug­gests that while the divi­sions between dif­fer­ent racial and eth­nic groups are often deeply entrenched, rela­tion­ships across cul­tur­al lines hold the poten­tial to dis­man­tle these divi­sions and pro­mote a more inclu­sive soci­ety. Romero’s work calls for a rethink­ing of how race, iden­ti­ty, and labor inter­sect, advo­cat­ing for a soci­ety where racial divi­sions are replaced by uni­ty and mutu­al respect.