Puerto Rican Women Built a Government That Actually Worked. 1960. Brooklyn. Carmen worked 6 AM to 2 PM at a tobacco factory. One dollar ten cents an hour. Her neighbor Rosa worked the opposite shift. Same job. Same poverty. Neither could afford daycare. So they made a deal. When Carmen worked, Rosa watched the kids. When Rosa worked, Carmen did the same. No money. Just trust. Within months, fifteen women in one building joined. They called it el sistema. The system. But childcare was just the be