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on the Border
The U.S.-Mexico border is a true contact zone. It is a physical place where two distinct cultures meet, conflict, and ultimately collide. For its inhabitants, the border is never an easy place to live in. In fact, Gloria Anzaldúa, who calls herself a “border woman,” describes the U.S.-Mexican border as a “1950 mile long open wound…a vague and undetermined place” (1, 3-4). Currently, a powerful characteristic that defines life on the border for many of its residents is the growing number of maquiladoras that have become a standard sight in any border town. Maquiladoras are essentially foreign owned factories that employ workers in U.S.-Mexico border towns for cheap labor. The border and the maquiladoras seem to share a unique synergy in today’s society. They are tightly tied together, each having mutual positive and negative qualities. For example, while the physical border can be a place of excitement and learning about another culture and way of life, the psychological border can be restrictive, an all-encompassing dividing line between those who are and those who are not. It separates “us from them” (Anzaldúa 3). Similarly, while the maquiladoras have brought jobs and economic commerce to border towns, they have also been characterized as having unhealthy working conditions that are detrimental to the workers and surrounding community. Today, the maquiladoras have certainly become a topic of much discourse because of their possible harmful effects on people’s health. An important issue is their effect on women’s health, since women compose the majority of the workforce in the maquiladoras. The influx of maquiladoras in the U.S.-Mexico border region has caused several concerns for the health of women workers and of the border community.
The maquiladoras are unique institutions that characterize U.S.-Mexican border towns today. U.S. and other foreign companies build their factories in the border towns in order to take advantage of tax breaks and cheap labor in Mexico. According to researchers Sylvia Guendelman, Steven Samuels, and Martha Ramirez, the maquiladoras are fundamentally assembly plants where companies import parts duty free to be constructed in Mexico and subsequently reexported into mainly U.S. markets (501). The maquiladoras emerged in the latter part of the twentieth century. As researchers state, they have grown slowly at first, beginning in the 1970’s, but recently have experienced rapid growth, which is expected to continue after Mexico and the U.S. signed NAFTA (312). The economic crises in Mexico in both 1982 and 1991 have added to the growth of the maquiladoras. These depressions have left many people in Mexico out of work and poverty-stricken. Consequently, numerous Mexicans, especially young women, migrated north to the border towns to acquire jobs in the maquiladoras, places needy for workers (Guendelman, Samuels, and Ramirez 501). Of the over half a million workers in the maquiladoras, the majority are women, especially healthy, young women. Reasons for employing mostly women range from their smaller hands suitable for intricate assembly work to their reluctance to defy authority (Moure-Eraso et al. 313). The turnover rates for these workers are particularly high. For example, a study done by Guendelman, Samuels, and Ramirez showed that in one maquiladora, the quitting percentage after one year was 68 percent and after two years, 81 percent (506). Clearly, working on the border in the maquiladoras is a necessary but difficult task for many border women.
There exist many controversies over the positive and negative impacts of the maquiladoras on the border community, especially in regard to health consequences for the area. The maquiladoras are often characterized as “sweatshops” where large corporations only concerned with making a profit exploit Mexican workers (Guendelman, Samuels, and Ramirez 501). The atmosphere inside these “sweatshops” directly relates to their effects on the community. The working conditions and environmental concerns point specifically to the impact the maquiladoras have on the health of the border population. For example, horrible working conditions, such as insufficient ventilation, few breaks, unsafe noise levels, hazardous machinery, long hours of repetitive assembly work, and exposure to toxic chemicals could influence health conditions of the workers (Guendelman and Silberg 37). In addition, environmental consequences are potentially immense, as there have been frequent cases of improper disposal of waste and as a result, pollution of the area (Moure-Eraso 315). These characteristics are point to definite areas of health concerns. The maquiladoras provide an atmosphere that potentially fosters health hazards along the border.
Inside the maquiladoras, many female workers complain of health symptoms that began occurring after they had started to work there, which suggests that the adverse working conditions directly impacted their health for the worse. Although symptoms vary from each worker and each type of maquiladora (i.e. electronic, textile, etc.), there are some aliments common to the fundamental job. Many workers report irritation of the eyes as well as eyesight deterioration (Guendelman, Samuels, and Ramirez 502). These symptoms could be a result of the poor air quality and long, intricate handiwork that maquiladora workers often must do. In addition, author Norma Iglesias Prieto points that maquiladora workers often complain of “nausea, headache…sneezing and coughing…skin irritation, shortness of breath, irregular menstrual cycles, irritability, and insomnia” (22). These symptoms may be the result of the general atmosphere inside the maquiladoras as well as hazardous chemicals that workers are frequently exposed to. In addition, workers regularly suffer from high levels of stress and fatigue. For example, Angelita, who worked 48 hours a week in a maquiladora making cassettes, states that although she made more money, she physically exhausted herself so much that she “felt like her lungs were collapsing” (Prieto 4). Furthermore, Prieto explains that management and even the workers themselves seldom recognize or report symptoms of stress and fatigue (22). Perhaps this is because the focus in the maquiladoras is on production quotas, not the physical and mental health of the workers.
Women who work in the maquiladoras and experience negative health symptoms often have some options to acquire medical assistance; however, certain de facto policies and procedures reduce their ability to obtain suitable medical care. Author Altha J. Cravy explains that Mexico does have a federal health care and social services provider called the Intituto Mexicano de Seguro Social (IMSS) that was created in 1943 (32). Legally, IMSS insurance covers all maquiladora workers (Guendelman, Samuels, and Ramirez 502). The IMSS program theoretically exists to assist maquiladora workers with their health care needs. In addition, many maquiladoras, especially larger ones, have their own in-house health services. Furthermore, according to the 1995 study done by Balcazar et al., having an in-house doctor or nurse actually lowered the likelihood of work-related injuries and sickness (Guendelman, Samuels, and Ramirez 507-508). Again, theoretically, the in-house health care system is supposed to be a benefit to the workers of the maquiladoras. However, in many cases, both the IMSS and the in-house systems do not work properly due to a variety of factors. Often, maquiladora employers want to keep their workers out of the IMSS system, because health problem reports would be traceable to their particular factory and therefore drive up insurance rates (Border). Consequently, maquiladora workers would possibly be discouraged from reporting work injuries or health problems to the IMSS. In fact, in a study done by Guendelman, Samuels, and Ramirez, only 1.7 percent of workers who reported health problems in a particular maquiladora were referred to the IMSS system for further medical assistance (508). Because of these factors, the in-house health care systems must carry the burden of health cases. However, many smaller maquiladoras do not provide any in-house health care at all (Guendelman, Samuels, and Ramirez 507). Also, when it is provided, in-house health care is often understaffed or staffed with physicians that are not trained in occupational medicine, constrained by a tight budget, and badly equipped (Cravy 92). The health care system for the maquiladoras is often inadequate, thereby becoming a detriment to workers in need of health care assistance.
Women who work in the maquiladoras complain of a poor working environment and report many physical aliments. Nevertheless, when compared with women who work in traditional, service occupations along the U.S.-Mexico border, controversies exist to whether the health of women who work in the maquiladoras is much worse than women who work in the service sector. Researchers Brenda Eskenazi, Sylvia Guendelman, and Eric P. Elkin point out that obviously the work conditions and requirements differed between maquiladora and service workers. For example, according to their study, maquiladora workers work an average of hours per week longer than service workers (670). However, a study done by Guendelman and Silberg, which assessed the health of female garment and electronic workers in comparison with women employed in the service sector, found no significant differences in the health and well being of the two groups. Furthermore, in the areas of functional impediments (the presence of at least one physical health problem), depression, nervousness, and sense of control, maquiladora workers experienced an equal or lesser amount when compared with service workers (38, 40-43). It could be concluded that general health complaints from women who work in the maquiladoras do not differ significantly from women who work in the service industries. However, Guendelman and Silberg point out potential flaws in their study because the maquiladoras hire mainly healthy, younger women; women with more potential for health difficulties would not be hired as frequently as in the service sector. Also, maquiladora workers may not have reported unusual work-related health problems because of the inadequacy medical help available (44). Furthermore, in a comparative study done by Eskenazi, Guendelman, and Elkin, infants born to women who work in the maquiladoras weigh considerably less than infants of women working in the service industries. They speculate that the toxic chemicals that maquiladora workers are often exposed to may have severe consequences for their newborn children (672, 674). Clearly, in certain areas, maquiladora work affects women’s health.
The maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexico border have had a history of environmental health problems, which cause many health predicaments for the women and their families that live in the border communities. With the arrival of the maquiladoras on the border came the appearance of increased pollution to the environment. As early as 1978, warnings about the inadequate sewage system and the discharging of waste from the maquiladoras into the open ground have come from researcher Dr. Herbert Abrams during the U.S.-Mexico border health meetings (Moure-Eraso et al. 314). Cravy points out additional community wide health risks from the maquiladoras, including exposure to toxic chemicals that were not disposed of properly and lack of sanitary water delivery, storage, and drainage (96). Obviously, any factory that improperly pollutes the surrounding environment can cause serious effects on the people who live in the area. In the case of the maquiladoras, the pollution causes definitive health risks for the border community. For example, a serious concern is the contamination of the underground water supply, which people and animals sometimes drink and frequently bathe in (Cravy 98, Moure-Eraso et al. 316). In addition, the pollution from the maquiladoras has caused visible health problems for particular communities. In a study completed by Moure-Eraso et al., border community leaders noted that many of their residents exhibited “fluctuating blood pressure,” a symptom of exposure to one of the chemicals in the nearby maquiladora. Also, these community leaders stated that it was common to see children with skin irritations who lived near the maquiladora (321). The maquiladoras not only cause health concerns for the women who work in them, but also for the women and their families who have made their homes in the border communities.
The U.S.-Mexico border communities are complex and difficult places to live, especially for women. Border women have to contend with many elements, including the culture clash, the area-wide poverty, and the hardships they must endure in order for themselves and their families to survive. As Anzaldúa writes in her poem, To Live in the Borderlands Means You, “To survive the Borderlands/you must live sin fronteras [without borders]/be a crossroads” (195). Today, the maquiladoras are a necessary component of survival for many women on the border. These factories contribute to the employment of the border community; however, working in or living near the maquiladoras often means compromising their and their family’s health. Many studies have shown that the poor working conditions inside the maquiladoras largely contribute to health aliments of the workers. In addition, the pollution caused by maquiladoras is overwhelmingly detrimental to the health of the surrounding border community. Clearly, action from both the United States and Mexico is needed to provide for a better overall health in the border areas.
Border Health Hazards. Multinational Moniter April 1995. Online. Internet. Available: http://ptolemy.geog.vt.edu/home/courses/glopolecon/envmexico.html.
Cravey, Altha J. Women and Work in Mexico’s Maquiladoras. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998.
Eskenazi, Brenda, Sylvia Guendelman, and Eric P. Elkin. “A Preliminary Study of Reproductive Outcomes of Female Maquiladora Workers in Tijuana, Mexico.” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 24 (1993): 667-676.
Guendelman, Sylvia, Steven Samuels, and Martha Ramirez. “Women Who Quit Maquiladora Work on the U.S.-Mexico Border: Assessing Health, Occupation, and Social Dimensions in Two Transnational Electronics Plants.” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 33 (1998): 501-509.
Guendelman, Sylvia and Monica Jasis Silberg. “The Health Consequences of Maquiladora Work: Women on the US-Mexican Border.” American Journal of Public Health 83 (1993): 37-44.
Moure-Eraso, Rafael, et al. “Back to the Future: Sweatshop Conditions on the Mexico-U.S. Border.” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 25 (1994): 311-324.
Prieto, Norma Iglesias. Beautiful Flowers of the Maquiladora. Trans. Michael Stone and Gabrielle Winkler. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.