Maquilapolis

Allison Terlizzi 

            The documentary we watched in class called, Maquilapolis, primarily filmed two women factory workers who have experienced the devastating effects of globalization firsthand in Tijuana. They work in a maquilapolis, or “the city of factories”, where there is little else to work for besides minimum wage jobs in large corporate factories in unsafe work environments. The treatment of the women in the video was baffling to me. While in production, one of the main characters, Carmen recounts not being able to drink water or take breaks during her shift. Her mistreatment also included not having a severance package, even though by law it was required. She and other women in the video are responsible for performing cheap labor for the benefit of only the consumer nations while they themselves have next to nothing.

            Carmen and the other factory worker, Lourdes, are both agents for social change to counteract the devastating effects that globalization has had in Tijuana. They are advocates, “promotoras” as they call themselves, as women who have worked in the factories and have learned their rights. Promoting the law upheld by Tijuana, they are standing up against worker violations, and environmental degradation in the workplace by involving the government and filming the documentary to expose the unsafe conditions.

            One thing that stood out to me was both the dependence of the women on the companies and the company’s reliance on the women workers. Once the company started outsourcing to China, they valued the women in Tijuana less and less, leaving the women workers with no means of making a living. On the outside, there appears to be a parasitic relationship with the factories as parasites of the women, but at a closer glance it is symbiotic because the women need the factories equally as much, only because it is one of the only lines of work they can become involved in. This was a harsh reality for me to accept while watching the video, but in countries where there is no economy to begin with (or globalization has erased what economy they had made for themselves) it seems like factory work as a result of globalization is the only option for these women to make any sort of a living. What I’m wondering is what a “maquilapolis” looked like before these companies came in and devastated the environment and perhaps the existing jobs in place. There wouldn’t be any sizzling wires in the streets where children play- that’s for sure. If the pay and conditions of these workers weren’t so poor, would globalization and outsourcing to countries like this actually have been a positive change?

            This documentary highlighted the greed of multinational corporations in today’s world. By paying workers the bare minimum wage and keeping their facilities under dangerous conditions to the point where the workers couldn’t put their own clothes in the same wash as their children’s, corporations aim to maximize profit and minimize cost. It is important to keep making documentaries like this to reveal the conditions where common products like cell phones and TVs come from. The film also portrays how unsafe modern luxury electronics we use can be to us consumers, even after the process of making them is finished. It is no surprise that there may be a link between cancer and cell phones.

            It is clear that the people of Tijuana have no political or democratic say on how there are treated. They have no voice for change and the government is acting as a puppet for the corporations. This reminds me of what is going on in the United States today with people’s frustration with Wall Street and the lack of regulation and control over how corporations invest and spend other people’s money. One woman recounts how they go to vote for who they want to be in office, and fight for change but in reality they act as “sheep”, with no say and solely exist for the services they provide. In this way, the women of Tijuana have very limited agency, and their identities are now shaped on the work they provide for the corporations. It is hard to believe they even hold onto a culture of their own. From the video it looks like globalization has taken even their culture away from them and they live their lives only to survive.

            Globalization turned Tijuana into a city of factories and cheap labor and it is clear from the interviews that these people don’t even have hope of getting out of it. I found this aspect to be the most heartbreaking part of the documentary because these people cannot even see a way out, nevertheless a reversal back to society before globalization changed them. Thankfully they were able to make this film and expose the devastating effects globalization has had on their city, thus perhaps inspiring change.