Guatemalan Immigrant Works to Secure a Safe and Humane Environment for All Workers in Santa Fe

Iris Madely Alay was born to a single mother in rural Escuintla, Guatemala, and dropped out of school at age ten to help raise her siblings. “I liked school, but I had to leave,” she said. “I had a sad childhood because I didn’t have my father around, and my mother had to dedicate herself to work to support us.”  

By 14, Madely Alay was married, and by 17, she had two children. In 2001, she and her husband left their kids with family and moved to Santa Fe. They hoped to make enough money to return to Guatemala with enough savings to have their own home and provide for their children. “We dreamed of having our own home,” Madely Alay said. “We dreamed for our children to be OK.”  

After arriving in Santa Fe without legal status and not speaking English, the couple struggled, and Madely Alay’s husband began using drugs. Eventually, she left him. To support her children—two in Guatemala and a new son in Santa Fe—she dedicated herself to working. She began cleaning hotel rooms alongside other undocumented women. But the conditions were terrible. “They weren’t giving us cleaning supplies or gloves, and they knew they could take advantage of us since we didn’t have papers,” Madely Alay said. “We weren’t being paid anywhere near enough for the hours we worked.” 

By 2005, Madely Alay and most of the women she worked with had quit. They approached Somos Un Pueblo Unido (Somos), a community organization that helped them file a formal labor relations complaint against the hotel, and the group won back pay for the hours the hotel hadn’t compensated them for.  

“Somos helped us understand our rights, and what was possible for us to do,” Madely Alay said. “We couldn’t find any resources. We were stronger together.” 

Shortly after the victory, Madely Alay met her future husband, who also lives in Santa Fe, and in 2017, she became a Lawful Permanent Resident in the U.S. 

Madely Alay is still active with Somos and after many years of working in the hotel industry as a maid, she now works at a retail thrift store. Madely Alay recently became a U.S. citizen, and now has three American-born children and has finally been able to visit her two adult children in Guatemala.  

“This country has given me so much,” she said. But she does wish the city could provide more assistance to service employees. “Santa Fe could be more welcoming for workers if there was more support for families,” she said. She’d like to see better childcare options and youth activities to help kids stay out of trouble.