Trip to Nogales, Mexico
On my class trip to Nogales, a few things peaked my interest. I was fascinated to learn about the maquiladoras, colonias, and the story of Jose Antonio Elena Rodríguez. In the book Lives on the Line, Miriam Davidson ,the author, either similar or the same topics. There are plenty of connections to make.
A maquiladora is a giant factory made by an international company where multiple workers come to create a product for that foreign country. While in Nogales, my classmates and I were visiting the maquiladoras and I noticed there were a lot of women. In the book the author talks about how when maquiladora first moved to Mexico the majority of the workforce were young women. She explains that they want young single women because they were “supposedly [...] better at fine finger work and tedious tasks, and they were less likely to complain or cause trouble than men.” (pg 26). The author also talked about how the employees are paid very little for working in such poor conditions. When my classmates and I visited the maquiladoras in person, our tour guide explained that the workers are still underpaid He said they get paid about four US dollars a day. Because of this, and other working condition problems, the bosses of these maquiladoras make sure the workers do not unionize. Our tour guide said that workers are fired and/or blacklisted if they are found being a part of a work union. Although it has been twenty to thirty years many of the problems are still the same.
When we went to look at maquiladoras we were also near an edge of a cliff that overlooked a colonia. The colonia was called Colonia Colosio. A colonia is a section of land that people can by pieces of and build houses on. In the book, Davidson talks about how the plots are first come first serve, have no running water, electricity, and that each house is self built. In current day Nogales, our guide told us that the people still have to get their own water and build their own houses. When looking out at these houses, I could see that each had a big metal container that I was told was there to hold their water. Davidson tells a story in her book about a woman who moved to Nogales and lived in a Colonia as well. She talked about how when she was first building on the land she was not sure if her land would be taken over by someone else when she had to go back home. This was when she was first clearing off the land so she could build a house. She also mentioned since there was no running water she would have to walk to get it from a truck and walk back and keep it in a container at home. We didn’t end up meeting anyone who lived in one but I imagine their story is similar although probably slightly better since that was in the late 80s/early 90s.
When we first came to Nogales we walked along the border and looked at the art. Most of the art was inspired by a boy named Dario Miranda Valenzuela. In 1992, a boy was throwing rocks at the wall and was shot by an officer from the US side while the boy was from the Mexican side. The officer said that he feared for his life but many don’t believe that a man with a gun and a butler proof vest would be afraid of a boy with rocks. This story is similar to the one of Dario Miranda Valenzuela who was also wrongly shot by a patrol officer. When Valenzuela was trying to cross the border patrol officers popped out and in fright he turn to run. While he was running he was shot multiple times in the back even though he had no weapons and posed no threat to the officers. Sadly it seems the story of an innocent mexican being killed by patrol officers are all too common.
Reading “Lives on the Line” helped me pay attention to details I would have otherwise not paid attention to. The book also helped structure and give context to what I was seeing. For example, I wouldn’t have noticed that most of the workers leaving the maquiladora were women. Having information to go into the experience with, helped me not just glaze over the trip and remember it as something fun but I can look back and think of specific things I had learned. Knowing this information also helps me understand why things were happening. Having this history let me view the trip in a completely different way than if I had not read about it at all.