The women of Juarez are in hell

By: Tyler Allen

Posted: 3/30/09

This is the town of Juarez, Mexico, a city on the United States-Mexico border that is now home to approximately 1,000 maquiladoras, or factories.
The factories employ mostly Mexican women and are run by U.S. companies.
In the maquiladoras, the women are mistreated, subjected to toxic chemicals and barely paid enough to survive.
Barbara Martinez Jitner, a filmmaker and human rights activist, made it her mission to expose the truth behind these border town atrocities.
Jitner was at UMKC March 18 as the keynote speaker for the Division of Diversity, Access & Equity's 2nd annual Cesar Chavez Celebration.
Jitner's presentation, "Feminicide at Our U.S. Border: To Be a Woman in Juarez is a Death Sentence," explained how these women are basically enslaved to the maquiladoras. Audience members also got a chance to screen her documentary "La Frontera/The Border."
In 2006, her work became the basis for a motion picture starring Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas called "Bordertown."
During filming, Jitner received death threats and had her cameras stolen by the Juarez police.
"In 1993, something happened that completely altered the United States and our relationship with Mexico at the border," Jitner said. "And that was the passing of NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement]."
NAFTA eliminated tariffs between the U.S. and Mexico. Many companies found it beneficial to move its production facilities to Mexico where cheaper labor was available.
Many overseas companies, such as Sony or Panasonic, also built factories in Juarez by creating a U.S. affiliate company so they too could take advantage of cheap labor and eradicated tariffs.
"The United States and Canada were going to build factories in Mexico supposedly to build up the middle class, to create industry in Mexico and to bring jobs to the Mexican people," Jitner said. "But what actually happened was a situation that wasn't free trade; it was basically a slave trade."
Another factor that led to the implementation of the maquiladoras was the amendment of the Mexican constitution.
Much like the Native Americans, many Mexican communities received land grants from the government.
These land grants allowed for communal land where citizens could live and continue their traditional lifestyles.
But in 1993, the Mexican government privatized the land with an amendment to their constitution.
"So suddenly, you have people that used to barter beans and corn - suddenly get a tax on the land," Jitner said.
Many Mexicans could not afford the taxes, and the companies that owned the maquiladoras took advantage.
The companies would send contractors to these little villages and explain to the people that they can earn $5 a day by working in their factories.
This was appealing to these people because it gave them hope of saving their land.
This caused a huge migration to Juarez. From 1993 to the present, the population rose from 300,000 to approximately 4 million.
Jitner explained that most every person working in the maquiladoras are female.
"The women are very clear about the hierarchy in terms of gender and they will not rebel, they will not organize, they will not fight back," Jitner said.
Most of the men migrate to the U.S. for work to send money home to their families. According to Jitner, 60 percent of Mexico's economy comes from the U.S.
To expose the horrendous treatment of women in these factories, Jitner wrote "La Frontera/The Border."
The documentary follows Eva Canseco, a woman recently fired from a maquiladora.
To avoid an uprising of their workforce, the maquiladoras fire employees when they get too old or could potentially use their seniority to organize the women.
Canseco eventually decided to flee to the U.S. in search of work, leaving her children behind.
She does this to keep her daughters from having to become enslaved to the maquiladoras.
Along with developing deformities and medical complications due to the toxic environments of the maquiladoras, these women run the risk of being kidnapped, raped and murdered.
Since these factories run 24 hours a day, the women must go to and from work in the middle of the night. That is when they are susceptible to being taken for human trafficking or organ harvesting.
"Amnesty International estimates that right now there are 475 who have been abducted, brutally raped and murdered," Jitner said.
Jitner has dedicated much of her life to exposing these crimes and doing her part to save the women of Juarez.
Jitner became the first Latina ever to be nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Emmy as an executive producer, writer and director for her miniseries "American Family."
She is currently working as an executive producer and writer on the HBO miniseries "Rain of Gold."
A copy of "La Frontera/The Border" is available on the special features portion of "Bordertown," on DVD now.
tallen@unews.com