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Life in Nogales
During our class trip to Nogales, we stopped at the
Grupos Beta building. Out side this building we spoke with a family
consisting of a grandfather, sister, brother, aunt and another man.
This family had spent a night in the desert however they got
captured because another man from their group ended up getting sick
and needed medical treatment so they walked to the main street to
get captured,
Another situation that I found interesting was the visit
to the maquiladora. |
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so
he could get help. This is why they were waiting outside the Grupos
Beta building. What fascinated me about this family is their lack
of knowledge regarding the extreme distances between Nogales and
their family. They were trying to reunite with their parents, aunt,
and daughter that reside in Florida. When the translator asked the
family their plans, they stated they wanted to go to Florida in the
same manner I would state I wanted to go Maricopa. I was just
amazed that they didn’t understand the distance involved. However,
I understand this better after reading the article Altar
written by Todd Miller, a BorderLinks Program Organizer, he stated
that “there are stories of guide deception…telling them they will
only have to walk three to four hours instead of three to four
days”. I didn’t understand why people would cross the border day
after day. I didn’t know that they were being lied to; I just
figured it was common knowledge. To learn that for this family
would be going to Florida was just a complete shock. 
We waited outside the building for a while waiting for permission to
enter the building. When we were finally allowed into the building,
the human resource manager addressed us. They lead us into a
conference room where the manager came and answered our questions.
She kept stating that they were trying to allow us to take a tour
but needed branch manager approval. I had a feeling that we would
never receive the green light and sure enough we never did, “he was
in a meeting”. This came as a surprise to me because I figured that
they would try to help and understand what we were looking for. I
figured that they were not practicing any of the cruel methods and
rules that are commonly associated with maquiladoras; but not
allowing us to take a tour only raised my suspicions. I found it
interesting that she stated that they did pay taxes saying that
everyone pays taxes; but in the article We Are Not Machines:
Corporations that bring jobs must bring justice too, author
Maria Guadalupe Torres stated “Maquiladoras do not contribute to
local taxes”. This is why the infrastructure of Mexico is
non-existent; citizens are forced to provide it themselves. The
human resource manager seemed pleased to state that their workers
received $7 dollars a day; she stated that it was higher compared to
other companies. How could anyone survive on $7 dollars a day?
Maria Torres who worked at a maquiladora “assemble[ing] electronic
capacitors with epoxy…was paid $27 for a forty-hour week.
Twenty-two percent of that went for transportation”. After her
transportation fees she was left with $21.06 dollars for the week.
I always thought okay, well Mexican products are cheaper than ours
but after walking around a Nogales grocery store to compare prices
for our “Market Basket Survey” exercise, I found that they are not.
Maria said she would have to work “3 ˝ hours to buy a gallon milk”.
I compared these findings to that of my own salary and I figured
that I need to work a whole 15 minutes to pay for my gallon of
milk. This is just unbelievable.