Limpiadores

At five in the morning, before any professor or student enters the building of the well-established SAOS University in London, a lot of work needs to be done: Cleaning toilets, corridors, desks and even the streets outside. But those who prepare the working places of thousands of Londoners, mostly stay invisible earning 2£ less than the minimum wage of 7.20£ in London. They come from different Latin American countries, but their determination to fight labor exploitation derives from the common experience of discrimination within a country that needs their work, but does not want to value it. When an empowering resistance grows, the prestigious university, well known for championing in human rights, must take sides. But instead of showing solidarity with the workers, the university impairs the conflict.

After moving from Cuba to London seven years ago, Fernando Mitjáns studied postcolonial culture and global policy. He felt the need to portray the huge gap between expectations and reality of migration from Latin-American countries and found himself in the middle of this worker’s struggle.