Last week we went to visit a Maquiladora located in the neighboring municipality of Emiliano Zapata. The maquiladora makes swimsuits for brands such as Trina Turk, Ralph Lauren, Polo, and Victoria's Secret.
When we first walked into the maquila we were greeted by a male supervisor. I looked over his shoulder and saw through a glass window. It appeared almost identical to the images I had seen in movies and photos in classes at school; rows and rows of women with dark skin color working at sewing machines. The male supervisor gave us a tour of the factory and even let one of us take pictures. The pictures are located at the program blog: migrationglobalization.blogspot.com.
We walked around the exterior parts of the factory seeing how the fabrics are first cut, where the shipments leave and come in, and where the swimsuits are stored. We examined many swimsuits including a Polo top that would be exported to the United States for the summer season and cost $65 USD.
An interesting and very important fact about this factory and which is worse in other maquilas is that these women are paid between 50 and 70 pesos per day or about $5 to $7 USD and for working 48 hours per week, monday to friday. They get a total of 45 minutes of break throughout the day. Their worday is from 6 AM to 4:36 PM exactly.
Obviously this was one of the better maquilas made evident by the fact that they even let us come in, give us a tour, and take pictures. This is one of the few that also actually gives the workers the benefits that they deserve under the Mexico constitution. The majority of factories do not give these benefits such as childcare, paid vacations, social security, pregnancy leave, etc.
The whole experience of being in the maquila was somewhat surreal. The skin colors and gender signifying the power dynamics within the factory were so evident that it was overwhelming. The women were working at the sewing machines and had darker skin colors. The men were located on the jobs around the periphery of the factor, on big machines. The supervisor had a lighter skin color than all the rest. Also, on the second floor where the offices are located, there was a giant glass window for observing the workers, like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when the rich girl's dad has all the women workers in his factory try to find the golden ticket.
It was just weird.
We got back from this little journey and had a discussion about what to do about these factories. Of course I argued not to buy new clothes but to buy used and not support the clothing consumer industry. But I'm not going to get into it all right now because it is so complex.
Come back soon, I will be posting some more stuff about my weekend trip to Puebla and Tlamacazapa!
