Articles & Resources on the Lives of Women, Workers and Families at the Industrializing Mexican Border

The Maquiladora Industry

Q. What is a Maquiladora? 

A. Assembly factories that are usually owned by U.S. based multinational corporations (MNCS) to produce and export a variety of household electrical, technological and automotive parts and supplies for export and consumption in the U.S. market and elsewhere.  Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) foreign investing companies may employ Mexican workers and promise to comply with the host government's relevant labor, health and safety laws under the companion agreement NAALC (North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation).  Labor activists sometimes refer to maquiladoras owned and operated at the border by abusive MNCs as sweatshops.

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RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY: Articles

Elvia R. Arriola, Accountability for Murder in the Maquiladoras, 5 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 603 (2007)

En español

(La Responsabilidad por los Asesinatos en Las Maquiladoras: El Vínculo entre la Indiferencia Empresarial y la Violencia de Género en la Frontera Entre Estados Unidos y Mexico (2010 (pdf).

Elvia R Arriola, Voices from the Barbed Wires of Despair: Women in the Maquiladoras, Latina Critical Legal Theory and Gender at the U.S.-Mexico Border, (pdf) 49 DE PAUL LAW REVIEW 729-815 (2000).        (Synopsis)  

Josefina Castillo, Globalization: Casino Economy at a Global Scale

Maude Barlow, "What is the FTAA?," (pdf) Council of Canadians, 2000  

Maude Barlow, "Summing Up the Summit in Quebec," (pdf) April, 2001

WOB Appendix:  The Dead Women (html) (Word doc)  (compiled 2007)

Updated: The Dead Women of Juarez (2010)

Elvia Arriola, "Becoming Leaders: the Women in the Maquiladoras of Piedras Negras, Coahuila," reprinted from Frontera Norte-Sur, October 2000  en español

Elvia Arriola, "Looking Out from a Cardboard Box: Workers and their families in the Maquiladoras of Cd. Acuña, Coahuila," reprinted from Frontera Norte-Sur, December 2000 en español

Elvia Arriola, "Of Woman Born: Courage and Strength to Survive in the Maquiladoras of Reynosa and Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas," reprinted from Frontera Norte-Sur, April 2001  en español

Raúl Ramírez Baena, "Maquiladora Workers Can't Meet Basic Needs on Plant Wages," reprinted from Frontera Norte-Sur, July 6, 2001

RESEARCH: WORKERS STORIES/ WORKERS LIVES :

(Some of this material contains only interviewer's notes; WOB is seeking funding to be able to translate taped interviews with workers who agreed to share their experiences in the maquiladoras.)

Interviewed in Piedras Negras, Coahuila (Eagle Pass, TX) and Reynosa, Tamaulipas (McAllen, TX)
Amparo (Spanish)

Juan Pablo

Raquel

Marina

Paty

Sofía

COMMENTARY: LINKING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN -- THE CASE OF THE CIUDAD JUAREZ MURDERS

Diana Washington Valdez, The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women (2006)

Harvest of Women: Safari in Mexico (e-book) (2004)

Jillian Richmond, Is there a connection between NAFTA and the maquila murders? (2002)

Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Making a Killing: Femicide, Free trade, La Frontera (Univ. of Texas Press 2010).

Kathleen Staudt, Violence and Activism at the Border: Gender, Fear and Everyday Life in Ciudad Juarez (Univ. of Texas Press 2008)

Nadia Sarria, Femicides of Juárez: Violence Against Women in Mexico (August 2009)

Olivia Wood,  An Investigation into Exploitation of the
Mexican Female Body along the U.S.-Mexico Border (dissertation) (pdf)

Julia Monarrez Fragoso, "Feminicidio sexual serial en Ciudad Juárez: 1993-2001" (pdf) en español

The Juarez Project (Women Still Being Murdered) (2008)

Frontera-NorteSur, International Court Holds Mexico Accountable for Femicides (Dec. 2009)

Frontera-NorteSur, Chihuahua Nominee for Mexico's A.G. position has negative record on human rights and femicide investigations (2009)

Kent Paterson, Juarez Mothers Demand Justice for Murdered Daughters  (American Program Report, May 2008)

OTHER RESOURCES

In Memoriam: The Pink Crosses Projects (Voces Sin Eco, family based organization began painting pink crosses on black telephone phones in 1998 to draw attention to the unsolved murders of daughters, sister, mothers.)

In Memoriam: The work of Artist Diane Kahlo.

Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (Our Daughters Come Home)

CASA AMIGA (see Cinco Punto Press's Facebook Note on the death of Casa Amiga founder Esther Chavez Cano 1933-2009)

AMIGOS de Las Mujeres de Juarez

AUSTIN Tan Cerca de la Frontera

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DOCUMENTARY FILMS ON THE MAQUILADORAS, NAFTA, ETC.

The Morristown Project: Video Letters/Cartas between American and    Mexican workers in the Maquiladoras by

Independent filmmaker Anne Lewis (Trailer)

To buy or use contact alewis615@earthlink.net. 

• Letters from the Other Side (2006) (Heather Courtney)
• Los Trabajadores/The Workers (2000)
• Maquilas: A Tale of Two Mexicos(Saul Landau) (2000)  Review)
• Srta Extraviada(Young Missing Woman) (2003) .  The filmmaker, Lourdes Portillo,
• Debbie Nathan, Missing the Story (pdf) (review of Señorita Extraviada) from The Texas Observer, August 30, 2002 ( en español)

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REFLECTIONS FROM TRAVELS TO THE BORDER

Brian Jones (Oct 2008 -Reynosa)

Judy Rosenberg, CFO Organizing in Nuevo Laredo (2002).