This film truly opened my eyes to what a maquiladoras is and how it affects women on the Mexico/United States border. I had recently learned about maquiladoras last year in another women’s studies class, but only read various texts and articles. Actually seeing the different factories and communities and how they affect the lives of women was heart breaking. It was startling to see how the factories tempered with the health and lives of women and their children. One woman for instance experienced severe health problems from the content of lead in factories. She was forced to take a leave of absence from her job and quit soon after. If she would have continued working, the possibility of contracting leukemia would have gotten greater and greater.
The communities were greatly affected by these factories. When a rainy day would present itself, the factories would dispose of their water runoff channels and release them into the streets and streams of the communities. Years ago, children used to bathe in the streams, but now most communities fear the possibility of contracting something. It is no longer a safe and healthy environment.
The premise of the movie was to get the Environmental Board of Mexico to look at how the communities have been affected by this runoff and to make changes. There are various sites where bins of toxic waste are just sitting in fields and contaminating the surrounding areas. The communities are trying to clean up this mess and once again be able to live in a clean community. In addition, various families won settlements from one factory for health problems that have affected their work and cost them their jobs and salaries. This was a very significant movie in my opinion.
4 comments:
Along with that these females risk so much for a very low income. They sacrifice their lives so they could forth a better future for their children. These females view these jobs as the only ones that will hire them therefore they deal with all its circumstances. Even though the circumstances are horrible they do their job. I believe that the "manquiladoras" are horrible jobs that need better circumstances and stongly disagree with its impact towards the lower minority society.
I agree with your outlook on this video. It is heart breaking to watch and see the everyday struggles the working mothers are going through. The thing that startled me the most was how sick some of the workers were getting from the lead in the factories. It really amazes me how much the big cooperations take advantage of their workers, especially women.
I agree with your comments about this movie also; I had not heard of maquilapolis until I saw this film. It is really upsetting that so many of these women are having health problems from the pollution from working in these factories, and that their rivers and water has also become polluted from the nearby factories who don't seem to care about the affect these toxic chemicals are having on the surrounding environment and the people living there.
This film was eye-opening for me as well. On top of the low income, the exposure to chemicals and rain water danger, but when they were laid off with no warning and without a severcents package. They are still fighting these factories. I think these women are great examples of the spirit of women. They want to care for their families and live happy healthy life.
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