Conducting feminist research in the country of one's familial past

How does one navigate the terrain of research in the native country of one’s parents?  As the daughter of immigrants from Peru, my fascination with the country has existed since childhood.  Returning to Peru now as a feminist researcher who was born, raised, and educated in the United States, I encounter a series of methodological dilemmas as I try to make feminist sense of a country my family left decades before.  As I currently embark on research about the human rights of domestic workers in Lima, Peru, I must grapple with a series of conflicting realities because I have such an intimate connection to this place.   

In my paper, I explore, but do not necessarily resolve, a series of questions:  How have frequent trips to Peru to visit family since childhood made Peru both familiar and unknown to me?  How do I conduct ethical research with domestic workers given our economic and material distances?  How do domestic workers interpret my research as a Peruvian-American feminist scholar?  How does having familial origins based in one of the region’s poorest country to currently residing in the most powerful country in the region (if not the world), produce new challenges in terms of reconciling the power between researcher and subject?  What is a feasible way to conduct research that is sufficiently transparent and ethical given the marginalized community of primarily indigenous women I am working with and study?  What is my responsibility to the domestic workers I interview?  How do I explain the research to family members in Peru who employ and have problematic relationships with their own domestic workers?