The "Maquilapolis: City of Factories," documentary made me feel empathy
for the women factory worker’s (“maquiladoras”). I felt the struggle of some of the “maquiladoras”
and their families. One single mother’s
story, Carmen Duran shared her daily struggle as she raised a family of three
children by herself. I could not believe
the amount of work that Carmen had to do in order to keep her family fed on a
wage of $70 a week. The mother worked
night shifts and when she finished with her work in the factory she picked up
her children in the morning and got them ready for school. She cooked, cleaned, and dropped her children
off at school. I admired the mother’s strong
will, because sometimes she would only get one hour of sleep before she
repeated her tough, daily cycle. I wondered
if the children’s father contributed financially or completely abandoned his
family? In addition, I saw the “maquiladoras”
use advanced leafleting tactics by creating a documentary that allowed woman to
tell their stories of abuse as “maquiladoras.”
The documentary exposed the corporations that the “maquiladoras” worked
for, by showing how the corporations polluted the air and rivers adjacent to
the nearby homes of the “maquiladoras” and their families. The documentary was effective, because it
educated other women “maquiladoras” about labor laws and rights that were being
taken advantage of by the corporations. The
documentary also showed how it attracted lawyers to help educate and empower
the women to fight for a larger severance pay after the corporations abandoned
Tijuana to get cheaper labor in other countries.
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