globalization hand in
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Jesus Dionisio Hernandez-Rangel
TCP-8921: Newcastle University
1/12/2012
Globalization: Women - NAFTA
& Life on The Border
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Mexico is home to 8 of the worlds richest men, and home to the richest man of of
the world, Slim Helu. (Forbes Staff, 2011). Its not surprising that a Mexico has these super
rich men, it is rich in natural resources and a booming economy. Unfortunately it only has
one super rich woman valued at 1.2 billion USD (783billion GBP), Mara A. Aramburuzabala;
even then it is mostly due to inheritance. Women in Mexico suffer of inequality in the
economy, which only exuberates the many social inequalities they contend with. Though,
just to the north of Mexico lies the United States of America (USA), a magnet to immigrants
around the globe and from Mexico. The draw of the USA is to many immigrants, the
economic opportunities; the draw to Mexican women, the safety and opportunity of self
determination.
Mexico is the drug trafficking corridor for the USA, as one of Forbes richest person is
in this industry; which causes a lot of safety concerns for non-involved citizens of Mexico.
Joaquin Guzman Loera, heads the major cocaine transport through Mexico using the border
cities as grounds for operations. Since 2007, the increase in murders has spike in the border
cities, including beyond the actual port entry cities; due to Mexican President Felipe
Calderon military action against the drug cartels. The current death toll is tallied at 47, 515
as reported by the federal Mexican government on January 11th 2012. (Cave, 2012) The
danger especially bottle necks at the borders to the south and borders to the north, where
lawlessness due to a weak local police force creates unsafe conditions for migrant women;
but it is the northern border that lures them like mosquitos to lanterns.
Globalization is usually portrayed as an issue that is affecting a place that is far away
physically from the Global north, but due to the North American Free Trade Agreement
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(NAFTA) it has moved in next door to the USA. In 1992 the NAFTA was signed, and by 1994 it
was ratified by all three North American governments (Mexico, Canada, & USA). The effects
of NAFTA were to reduce or eliminate trade barriers/tariffs, allowing free movement of
goods between the three countries. The three members have all benefited from the
agreement, having traded $17 trillion worth of goods and services; with Mexico becoming
the second largest trade partner (behind Canada). (Dukcevich, 2002) (International Trade
Administration, 2008) The success of NAFTA on the Mexican side of the agreement is that
the U.S. receives 78% percent of the 272 billion USD (176 billion GBP) yearly trade value,
making it the 3rd
largest exporter of goods to the U.S. (behind Canada and China). The
majority of trade being in manufactured goods, which are logistically located in the northern
border of Mexico; in the same expanse of desert that drug trafficking cartels conduct
business.
Figure 1
The film Casi Divas (2008) was based on 4 young women attempting to win a
contest to win a role in a classic Novela (Spanish - Soap Opera) movie adaptation, one of
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the four contestants, Catalina, was from a fictional northern border city, she works in a
maquiladora (Spanish - a factory in Mexico that makes products cheaply for export to the
US) (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and later finds herself in an altercation where she
may desaparecer (Spanish - to disappear). (Casi divas, 2008)This character is a portrayal of
many young women who take on the journey to find work in the northern border cities until
they are able to cross to the USA. The historical inefficiency of local policing has led to a
lawlessness in the cities, many of these women disappear into the deserts; with only a few
of their bodies ever recovered. This depiction is only a vague view into the grim reality that
women face in these border cities, that is not otherwise seen in media. In the film Catalina
clearly states, that her reason for winning the contest is so that she could be like Selma
Hayek: able to go to the USA without worries.
Figure 2Maquiladora
The film uses a nameless border city, but in reality the border city of Cuidad Juarez is
at the center of this topic. Having always been a port city between Mexico and the USA, it
has also seen the greatest growth due to the increase trade between the two. While no
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official data has been linked to the increase in crime and the NAFTA; a parallel of the growth
of economy and femicide is existent. While maquiladoras existed before the NAFTA
agreement, the increase of influx young Mexican and Central American women boomed as
major American companies began setting up their own maquiladoras luring them with the
prospect of financial gain. In, Cuidad Juarez, 1992 there were 267 maquiladoras with a
workforce of 128, 901; after NAFTA there was nearly a doubling of the workforce to 249,
509 in 2000, with 308 maquiladoras. (Instituto Nacional De Estadisticas y Geografia, 1980,
1990, 2000) As of 2010 there were 338 maquiladoras, no statistics on workforce were
available for 2010. (Aguilar, 2010) Economist have also contested against claims that NAFTA
and economic growth has created an environment of femicide, by analyzing recorded data
available against cities on both sides of the border; and finding that neither rate was
abnormal to either side or gender. (Vemala & Albuquerque, 2008) Though as of 1993 it has
been reported that at least 269 womens deaths have been found in the classification of
femicide which coincides with the timing of the NAFTA agreement. (Red Cuidadana de No
Violencia y Dignidad Humana, 2002)Comparing the prior 3 years before NAFTA to the
following three years there was an increase of 600% in recorded homicide rates for women
compared to a 300% increase for men. (Howard, et al., 2000)
Las Mujeres de Juarezs, as the victims are colloquially known as both on both sides
of the border; garner increasing attention from media, but little action from government.
Many of the stories have been sensationalized, to implicate the women who desaparecen
as accomplices of the drug trade or as prostitutes; but in factuality many women of these
women have plain life stories with tragic ends:
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Rub Marisol Frayre Escobedo, was living in the city of Cuidad Juarez. In August 2008
she went missing it was not until January 2009 that her body was recovered burned and in a
trash bin. The mother of Rub, began legal proceeding against her daughters partner Sergio
Rafael Barraza Bocanegra claiming he was the murderer. During interviews with police,
Bocanegra confessed to the murder and even detailed the account in court. Having felt
confident that this would bring justice to her daughters murder, the Judges instead found
that due to lack of sufficient evidence declared him innocent and set free. Her mother
Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, than began a public campaign to boycott the decision of the judges
and raise awareness to the lack of legal protection women are afforded in Mexico and
especially in the border cities. Her call to rally against this injustice was centred around the
slogan Ni una mas! (Spanish - Not even one more!). On Dec. 16th during her regular
protest spot outside the state of Chihuahuas (the state in which Cuidad Juarez is) Supreme
Court, she to was murdered; the murder was captured on film and has since sparked further
inquest into the proceedings of her both mother and daughters death. (PubliMetro, 2010)
(Borunda, 2010)
Figure 3 Marisela E. Ortiz: Wearing only poster, marching to raise awareness.
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The lack of support from local government to protect the women and even to find
justice after the crimes are discovered, has systematically failed. The documentary Senorita
Extraviada (2001) portrays a variety of these stories, but also gives an insight into the
sociological context in which femicide in Cuidad Juarez is justified. Interviews recorded,
included the Governor of the State of Chihuahua (at 9 minutes) addressing the murders by
suggesting that the initial spike in femicide was in relation to them being sex workers.
(Senorita Extraviada, 2001) He does acknowledge though that the maquiladora workers exit
at late hours of the night, which he suggest facilitates their sex work and drug cartel
involvement. The late hour departures can be associated to the lack of Mexican
governmental enforcement of labor laws. NAFTA does not have provisions within its frame
work to actually enforce any labor improvement conditions even though it has provisions
for labor violation fines; but only between treaty signers and not actual workers (cite
autotrim/custom trim) (Breed, 1996). The lack of legal labor protection provided to
maquiladora workers, only marginalizes the disproportionate number of women. This
despite their physical distance to the USA, places them in a world that is comparable to
other developing countries; because the inability to seek damages or file formal legal cases
against the American companies.
The U.S.-Mexican border es una herida abierta ( Spanish open wound) where the
Third World grates against the first and bleeds... the lifeblood of two worlds merging to
form a third country, a border culture." (Anzaldua, 1987) While the quote is truly poetic and
in relation to an analysis of Chican@ (American Spanish - person of Mexican descent
residing the USA, use of @ to signify gender neutrality) culture; it holds on to the distress
that the women of the border cities live under. The USA cities of San Ysidro, Brownsville, El
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Paso, Nogales, and Calexico exist with little cultural contrast to their border opposite cities
of Tijuana, Matamoros, Cuidad Juarez, Nogales, and Mexicali (in respective order). Women
on the USA side have comparative safety and greater degree of economic mobility, than
their Mexican counterparts. Yet on the USA side, the women who are legal and illegal suffer
of a cultural/systematic oppression, an oppression that maintains them within a cycle of
domestic violence and lack of self-determination. This place is known as Nepantla (Nahuatl -
the existence between worlds), for that these women must live between a dominate culture
that is not their own, but must function and fulfill roles that are of another place.
Culturally Chican@s they are subjugated to second class citizenships, legal and illegal
migrants, by institutionalized prejudices in a legal system that aims negatively upon them.
SB 1070 a State law in Arizona, requires all law enforcement officers to require proof of
citizenship of those they have stopped or arrested; if it is not possible to determine the
person in question would be transferred to Immigration authorities. (Senate Bill 1070, 2010)
Though the language of the bill does not explicitly target any specific ethnic/racial group, it
is being sold politically as a solution to stop Mexican illegal immigrants from living in the
country. Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer gave a speech after her signing it stating The bill
Im about to sign into law Senate Bill 1070 represents another tool for our state to use as
we work to solve a crisis we did not create and the federal government has refused to fix
The crisis caused by illegal immigration and Arizonas porous border.
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Figure 4
SB 1070 harms women in these border cities, because it hinders them from
reporting domestic violence, due to fears of deportation because women who entered
illegaly are not give protections under Violence Against Women Act (VAWA); because to
qualify they must have been inspected at entry. (Violence Against Women Act - Title VIII,
1994) This also creates fears that the aggressor of domestic abuse would be deported, in the
case that the victim is legally in the country; causing difficulties for mothers or otherwise
isolated women to report such abuse to authorities.
In an interview for the Arizona Republic paper Leni Marin, director of Family
Violence Prevention Fund, based in San Francisco; explains that illegal immigrant
women often experience an increase in domestic violence after coming to this country.
The abuse can be triggered or exacerbated by the pressures of living with instability in an
unfamiliar country and working in low-wage jobs Many of these women are threaten with
deportation by their partners if they decide to leave coupled with the lack of legal
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protection, as Ms. Marin notes "The violence may escalate to another level because they are
not able to get help early." (Gonzalez, 2005)
Two time Ariel Award, Mexican academy of film, recipient Mara Elena Velasco, has
been the star of a series of satirical comedy films in Mexico in which she plays a role of
peasant women La India Mara. In the film Ni de aqui, Ni de alla (Neither from here,
Nore from there)(1998) she leaves her village in rural Mexico, to work in the USA. The
experience that many of the women who live in the border cities, between Mexico and the
USA, have. One of the scenes she is working as a dishwasher at a Mexican restaurant,
ironically called el Coyote (the name given to human traffickers); where the Immigration
authorities arrive and try to detain her, even though the scene is filled with slap stick it gives
a glimpse in the reality that illegal women in the USA are always on the run from the law.
(Ni de aqui, ni de alla, 1988)In reality it is the economic prospects and protection of the law
that they are seeking. Unfortunately these women have no legal presence, so they are
obligated to take on low wage labor (usually below minimum wage laws) with physically
demanding strain; sharing comparable working conditions to the maquiladoras on the
Mexican side of the border. Andrew Sum director of the Center for Labor Market Studies
rationalized that One of the advantages of hiring, particularly young, undocumented
immigrants, is the fact that employers do not have to pay health benefits or basic payroll
taxes, quoted in an article for Reuters. (Stoddard, 2011) This being similar rational for the
establishment of American maquiladoras in the border cities; cheap labor that is
dispensable and without legal recourse.
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Figure 5
In search of educational self-determination, Chican@ women suffer
disproportionately because if they are illegal, government financial support structure for
post-secondary education does not exists. Due to cultural pre-conceive notions within
Latino culture, womens are discouraged to seek post-secondary education; and should
focus on traditional role of supporting wives and good mothers. Whereas if these young
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women, illegal, were to be in Mexico they would be able to receive full educational benefits.
Juxtapositionaly the legal Chican@ woman has a higher ambivalence to maintain
themselves in a traditional roles; to retain cultural ties which they feel are essential to pass
on to their children. (Segura, 1991)
Figure 6 A contemporary portrayal of motherhood, by Chican@ artist Yerina D. Cervantez
Unlike Miss. Aramburuzabala, the women who are in the border cities do not come
from the same socio-economic background regardless of which side of the border they are
on, it is as if these women were in a third world. A Mexican saying; credited to former
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Mexican president Porforio Diaz Pobre Mxico! Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los
Estados Unidos! (Poor Mexico! So far from god and so close to the United States!),
expresses the view that many migrants see the border, a tempting green pasture. NAFTA
wasnt the beginning of Globalization, globalization has been existent for millennia; NAFTA
brought two worlds the first and developing to create a third. In this third world, disparity
exists not only between races, ethnic groups or socio-economic classes but also by gender.
Drug trafficking, maquiladoras, sexual violence, domestic violence, labor abuse,
scapegoating by government, and injustice are what women face in these cities. Survivalist
is what these women are, navigating through the jungles of globalization and finding
themselves isolated in deserts among millions. The intangible line and even the tangible wall
that separates two countries cannot fully stop the adversities that women in border cities of
Mexico and USA face, for the risk and gains are choices that women in these border cities
must make to survive.
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Works CitedAguilar, J., 2010. Profit Outweighs Risk in Juarez Factories. The New York Times - Texas Tribune, 11 12,
p. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/us/12tttecma.html.
Anzaldua, G., 1987. The New Mestiza. In: Borderlands/La Frontera. San Francisco: Spinster/Aunt Lute
Press.
Borunda, D., 2010. Woman activist slain in Chihuahua: Quest to find daughter's killer drove self
made investigator. El Paso Times, 18 12, p. http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_16889727.
Breed, E. o. A. T. -., 1996. U.S. NAO Public Submission 2000-01 (Section V). Washington D.C., USA:
Department of Labor.
Cambridge University Press, 2011. Cambridge Buisness English Dictionary. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Casi divas. 2008. [Film] Directed by Issa Lopez. Mexico/USA: Sony Entertainment.
Cave, D., 2012. Mexico Updates Death Toll in Drug War to 47,515 but Critics Dispute Data. New York
Times, 11 1.
Dukcevich, D., 2002. Canadian And Mexican NAFTA Plays. Forbes, 10 10.
Forbes Staff, 2011. The Ultimate Scorecard of Wealth. Forbes, 21 9.
Gonzalez, D., 2005. Domestic abuse rises among illegal immigrants. USA Today - The Arizona
Republic, 1 3, pp. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-01-abuse_x.htm.
Howard, C. A., Martinez, G. & Mendez, Z. Y., 2000. Women, Violence and Politics: Presentation to the
LASA. Azusa, California, USA, s.n.
Instituto Nacional De Estadisticas y Geografia, 1980, 1990, 2000. Instituto Nacional De Estadisticas y
Geografia. [Online]
Available at: http://www.inegi.org.mx/est/contenidos/proyectos/ccpv/default.aspx
[Accessed 1 1 2012].
International Trade Administration, 2008. Top U.S. Export Markets - Free Trade Agreement and
Country Fact Sheets, Washington D.C. USA: U.S. Department of Commerce -.
Ni de aqui, ni de alla. 1988. [Film] Directed by Maria Elena Velasco. Mexico/USA: s.n.
PubliMetro, 2010. Caso Rubi Marisol: los jueces que absolvieron a su asesino. Publimetro, 17 12, pp.
http://www.publimetro.com.mx/noticias/caso-rubi-marisol-los-jueces-que-absolvieron-a-su-
asesino/mjlq!S5GK7kVd1jUuk/.
Red Cuidadana de No Violencia y Dignidad Humana, 2002. Reporte Cuidadano sobre el femenicidio
en Juarez. 6 3, p. 4.
Segura, D. A., 1991. Ambivalence or Continuity?: Motherhood and Employment among Chicanas and
Mexican Immigrant Women Workers.AZTLAN, 20(1 & 2), pp. 119-150.
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Senate Bill 1070 (2010) Sate of Arizona.
Senorita Extraviada. 2001. [Film] Directed by Lourdes Portillo. Mexico: s.n.
Stoddard, E., 2011. Over a million immigrants land U.S. jobs in 2008-10. Reuters, 20 1, pp.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/20/us-usa-immigrants-employmentexclusive-idUSTRE70J37P20110120.
Vemala, P. R. & Albuquerque, P. H., 2008.A Statistical Evaluation of Femicide Rates in Mexican Cities
Along the US-Mexico Border. Toronto, Canadian Law and Economics Association.
Violence Against Women Act - Title VIII (1994) One Hundred Ninth Congress of the United States of
America.
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Bibliography:Arriola, Elvia (2006-2007) Accountability for Murder in the Maquiladoras: Linking Corporate
Indifference to Gender Violence at the U.S.-Mexico Border Seattle Journal for Social Justice 5
Seattle J. Soc. Just. pg603
Contreras Montellano, Oscar F.; Rodrguez Gutirrez, Jos In: Contreras Montellano, Oscar F. and
Carrillo V., Jorge (Carrillo Viveros), eds. (2003) HECHO EN NORTEAMRICA: CINCO ESTUDIOS SOBRE
LA INTEGRACIN INDUSTRIAL DE MXICO EN AMRICA DEL NORTE: La conexin del desierto:
industria electrnica y proveedores globales en Sonora. El Colegio de Sonora, p. [137]-163
Loke, Tien-Li (1996-97) Trapped in Domestic Violence: The Impact of United States Immigration
Laws on Battered Immigrant Women Boston University Public Interest Law Journal 6 B.U. Pub. Int.
pg 589
Maier, Elizabeth In: Mattingly, Doreen J. and Hansen, Ellen R., eds. (2006) WOMEN AND CHANGE AT
THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER: MOBILITY, LABOR, AND ACTIVISM: The unsettling, genderedconsequences of migration for Mexican indigenous women. Tucson: University of Arizona Press,
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Pisarz-Ramrez, Gabriele (2007) From Nepantla to Amerindia: transnationality in Mexican American
literature and art IBEROAMERICANA (MADRID, SPAIN) v7 n25 (March) pg155-172
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Image Sources:Cover Image : Unknown, KOMONEWS, Retrived: 10/01/2012
http://media.komonews.com/images/100314_ciudad_juarez.jpg
Figure 1: International Trade Administration, 2008. Top U.S. Export Markets - Free Trade Agreement
and Country Fact Sheets, Washington D.C. USA: U.S. Department of CommercePg 98
Figure 2: Cuatroscuro, Competitividad. Retrived: 10/01/2012
http://mexico.cnn.com/nacional/2011/11/11/competitividad
Figure 3:Unknown, A un ao del asesinato de Marisela Escobedo Tribunal de Conciencia juzga al
Estado. Retrived: 10/01/2012 http://movimientoporlapaz.mx/wp-
content/uploads/2011/08/marisela-escobedo.jpg
Figure 4: David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star. Retrived: 10/01/2012
http://www.caglecartoons.com/viewimage.asp?ID={9EC4DD6C-0A2F-4BAD-B96E-1C7ACF48DCD3}
Figure 5: Unknown, Ni de aqui, ni de alla. Retrived: 11/01/2012
http://www.metroflog.com/mexicanmovie79/20090525/1
Figure 6: Untitled Painting, Yreina D. Cervantez. Retrived: 11/01/2012
http://yreinacervantez.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=68782161
http://media.komonews.com/images/100314_ciudad_juarez.jpghttp://media.komonews.com/images/100314_ciudad_juarez.jpghttp://media.komonews.com/images/100314_ciudad_juarez.jpg