(We will watch this film in class on Wednesday; access Google Docs to view the rest of Tuesday's Power Point notes)
Maquila: A Tale of Two Mexicos: Director: Saul Landau
Producer: Saul Landau
Genre: Documentary
Produced In: 2003
Story Teller's Country: United States
Tags: Politics, Human Rights, Globalization, Mexico, AmericasSEND MAILSynopsis: "Maquila: A Tale of Two Mexicos" is an exploration of corporate globalization's impact on Mexico's people and environment. The stirring documentary focuses on the quandary facing indigenous farmers in Mexico's underdeveloped, predominantly agricultural southern regions. Besieged by the army and hobbled by antiquated agricultural practices, many have no alternative but to flee the countryside to the industrial north for employment in maquiladoras, U.S.-owned factories. There, they endure long hours, low pay and dangerous working conditions, including exposure to toxic chemicals. Archival footage provides historical background and extensive interviews allow those at the heart of the issues to speak for themselves - army officers and indigenous peasants, workers and bosses, developers and city officials, victims of environmental disasters and the factory managers who allow the release of deadly pollutants. The film presents the roots of the violent confrontation between the Mexican Army and Mayan peasant farmers, and also reveals how young women maquila workers in Juarez are robbed of their dignity and sometimes subject to rape and murder. "Maquila" is a film by Saul Landau and Sonia Angulo. For further information on how to help maquila workers to improve their conditions and win a living wage, please visit the Maquila Solidarity Network site.
(From Stumbleupon.com)
A small fence separates densely populated Tijuana, Mexico, right, from the United States in the Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector. Construction is underway to extend a secondary fence over the top of this hill and eventually to the Pacific Ocean.
12 comments:
This really is a tale of two Mexicos in my opinion. Some city workers came from the countryside and say that there is more opportunity and the only downfall is there is a lack of security, especially for the women. The other side look at the countryside as a seasonal job that provided peace and stability, as long as the rain came. While they view the factories as unsafe and dangerous, run by owners who are only looking out for Mexico as a whole and not its workers.
I mean I don't want to sound mean and cold-hearted about the Maquilo working conditions, but at least they have a job. Many of the people living throughout the rural parts of Mexico are barely surviving. They are working on less than $3 a day and still need to support their families. Yes, the conditions in the factories are poor. And yes, it does not have the security it should, but the people are trying to make something of themselves. That's all that matters. Right?
From Mostdangerouscities.org:
"Ciudad Juarez is an insanely dangerous border town in Mexico, with recent arising problems of drug cartels, gang warfare, as well as many dangers for female factory workers.
Ciudad Juarez is a border town between the United States and Mexico that has grown especially dangerous in recent years. It is plagued by poverty and common violence, and is a site for drug smuggling and gang warfare.
Juarez became more dangerous after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented in 1994, when thousands of new people flocked to this location for jobs that were established. Many women started working in factories, but at a cost. Hundreds of these factory worker women have since been murdered in Juarez, and over 3,000 have gone missing. Over the past ten years, there have been over 400 known cases of sexual homicide of women, some of their bodies later being discovered in ditches around this city.
In the past few years, Juarez has become a main site of narcotic-related warfare. About 1,600 people were murdered in drug-related incidents in 2008, and then this increased to about 2,600 in 2009. It does not look like these rates will lower any time soon.
There are also problems with the local authorities, because Juarez is a very difficult city to maintain an effective police force. Many officers have been assassinated, and the department is known to be corrupt. Many of the business groups in Juarez are seeking UN intervention to help solve these problems.
Juarez has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with about 130 per 100,000 inhabitants. Since the recent escalation in violence, the vast majority of Juarez residents have had to change their daily routines. Most people try to refrain from going out at night; even during daytime, people risk being kidnapped or hit by bullets just by walking down the streets. There have also been recent incidents of car bombings, so no one is safe in such unpredictable situations."
the global recession brought a double-whammy to Juarez, which had a near 100% employment rate when the film was made. As the NY Times reports:
"The global recession has pummeled this place. From 2008 to the middle of last year, the city’s maquiladoras cut 30 percent of their work force, or about 72,000 jobs.
Some of those positions are returning. José L. Armendáriz Bailón, president of the local maquiladora association, said 20 of the largest factories were rehiring. But unemployment in the city, at 7 percent, still remains above the official national rate of about 5 percent, though either figure would be envied in the United States, and some economists contend that the Mexican average is actually higher than reported."
I respectfully disagree with Carolyn's statement that "the people are trying to make something of themselves." The people that work at these factories are there because they have no other choice. They need money, no matter how little the factories pay them, no matter how they are treated. They are driven by desperation and the need to support their families. They are not trying to make something of themselves; they are trying to survive. This means that they will put up with the risk of being raped, verbal harassment. This means that many people have to put up with the sometimes deadly results of breathing the toxic fumes or handling contaminated water. This means that these people may die; as described in the video, many women were killed after they were raped, and many have died from exposure to toxic fumes. These people may have a job, but it comes with a heavy price.
It's not reasonable to think that workers conditions will improve anytime soon. The whole reason why these Maquilas are being created is because they don't have to worry about worker's rights or safety in these cities and country. So unless people are willing to pay more for their products it's naive to think that workers will have fair compensation and conditions and at the same time Americans will be able to enjoy cheap products. It's pretty clear that people would rather have cheap products rather than human rights for workers that seem to be a world away and though this might not be fair, one group is going to lose whether it be the consumer or the worker.
As we have said multiple times, Mexico is in a weird spot today. It had been on the rise to quickly become a first world country, but ever since the economic crisis it has king of stuttered. These kinds of institutions, earily similar to what we hear about over in China and other third world countries, are the kinds of things that are holding Mexico down. Generally, you do not hear about anything close to these conditions in the US, the UK, or Germany or France or such, and these are nations that are definitaly first world. So, if Mexico is going to want to make that next step and get into the ring, these Maquilo's are going to need to be stopped.
Bad conditions, bad pay, bad rep.
I don't agree with Carolyn that all that matters is that the workers are living a little bit better than before. It's like when a lot of companies outsource jobs to other countries and treat and pay their workers very poorly. They're being paid more than they were before, but that's still very little to live off of, and the only reason they take that job is because they need it. But just because they take it doesn't mean that they should be treated or paid so poorly. Just because they're poor doesn't mean that they should be treated poorly, and the companies should be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of people like this.
I see workers going to Maquilas on boarder towns see the lesser of the two evils when supporting themselves and their families. There is less opportunities in the countryside to make any wages. While to risks of taking jobs in Maquilas come the risk of poor working conditions, environmental problems, the safety of women, and the recurring problem of drugs, the little amount of money workers get establishing to work harder for their families in order for a better lives producing global products, which in turn more or less benefit the workers in the long run.
A job is a priority for people to be able to survive in a capitalist world, however job security must exist for every human being. The corporations and owners of the business must provide safety conditions and governments must enforce it very seriously. Many people have lost their lives while on the job due to the poor job conditions. Owners of business and factories need to treat people (producers of their goods) as valuable beings and not as disposable objects. The world is upside down because governments, and business people only care about their profits without concern for life. This is extremely sad and we as humans of this planet need to be conscious about it and work for a different world where all humans can live with respect and dignity.
Jessica, as described very well the circumstances for many mexican women. It is not their choice to have to travel far away for many and live their families behind. Most Mexicans are very family oriented people. They do not have any other choice but to risk their life to make a little money so they can send it to their families. I would like to see conscious people with agency that become allies to these women workers and demand for protection and security. I would also like to see the Mexican goberment taking accountability and making policies to seriously protect them. This situation is not acceptable and goes against human life.
Hi! I'm not in your class, but I found this article compelling. I am a conservative and I feel such despair for the factory workers in Mexico. Mexico has a real problem with corruption. Corruption has eaten through its entire society: from simple city office clerks all the way to their police force, political elites, and their judiciary. I do not know how the average person in Mexico is supposed to change this, but my father was a constitutional attorney and a WWII veteran and he used to say to me, "Lisa, you get the government you deserve." What he meant by that was that every person in a society has a responsibility to PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOUR LEGISLATORS ARE DOING. He taught me to go to sites like Gov.com and read the bills that congress was trying to pass, and he taught me to write to my representatives when I strongly disagreed with an issue. In other words, he taught me to PARTICIPATE in the government of our society. Because if we just sit back, like absentee landlords, and let a professional political class decide everything for us they will do what is in THEIR best interest, and not in ours. All you have to do is look at history, and not distant history, to realize that many people in power are selfish, dishonest, and greedy. I wish with all my heart that the Mexican people would ban together and through their numbers put a stop to their exploitation. When America was industrialized, the workers were terribly exploited, as well. I'm also pro-union.
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