Our hands were always in the hot, almost boiling water.
Our poor hands were cooked and the skin was white
and thin like a sheet of paper. Our hands would hurt, they were sensitive.

White hands

Excerpt from an interview with a former brusher-woman

The memory of pain in their hands due to continuous contact with boiling water is very frequently cited by the former brusher-women.

Credits: “Una lira al giorno per sedici ore di lavoro”, intervista a Caterina Chiapasco in Nuto Revelli, L’anello forte, Einaudi, Torino, 1985.