Weeks 3 and 4: Learning about maquiladoras and a visitor from Guerrero

By Matt Kraft

A visit at a maquiladora outside our city of Cuernavaca

These last two weeks have definitely been a learning experience. One of the first things that we did was go to a maquiladora, which is basically a factory where they mass produce products as quickly and efficiently as possible. We were lucky enough to see the inner working of this maquiladora thanks to a community organizer, Juana de los Angeles Garcia Marenco. She had been helping the workers with such things as nutrition. We learned a lot about the daily life of a maquiladora worker as well. This maquiladora specifically made swimsuits that would be sent of to the US for the 2009 swimsuit season. The pay was competitive for the maquiladora business. The human resource manager told us that the workers get about 820 pesos per week. 420 pesos is the base and all the rest is made on the efficiency and quality of the swimsuits made that week. The workers also get benefits like daycare and social security. Nevertheless, they are only making about $80 dollars a week. The crazy thing about that is the workers could never fathom buying one of the swimsuits that they spend all day making. First off, none of the products they make can stay in Mexico, not even the extra fabric stays. It is all sent back to the States. Secondly, it would take a week’s wages or more to buy the swimsuit. We, in the US, are the ones that reap the benefits of their low labor wages. These are the same swimsuits we see in Walmart, Sears, and JC Penny for those great prices we all love. In the end, the whole maquiladora experience was very enlightening.

Just a couple of days ago, we heard from a woman, Nadia Alvarado, who works on anthropological studies of African influence in the state of Guerrero. She herself has African blood and it was very interesting to hear about how that has affected her and others. The presence of African slaves is somewhat of a taboo subject. Many believe that they just blended into the rest of the population, but in fact there are places like la Costa Chica where the African blood and culture is still very prevalent. The tough thing for Nadia is that there is not much in the way of African Studies for this region.

I found it incredibly interesting that racism there in Guerrero is very similar to what’s in the United States. These black features can be the source of ridicule from others or even from your own family. The racism has been internalized to the point where families are critical of its own members. Nadia, being the lighter of her siblings, said that people would make hurtful comments and also treat her in a better manner than her sister. You can see how this would tear at a family’s fabric. I am already very excited to head there and learn more about the subject after our spring break.