Anapra and the Maquilas

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement was implemented, many Mexican citizens have flooded to border towns to work in maquiladoras, or foreign-owned assembly plants. Approximately 40,000 people come to Juarez annually, seeking employment in the large urban area, and many end up in small colonias such as Anapra, a desert community west of Juarez. Often coming from the rural interior of Mexico because of poverty there, they come to the border with hopes for a better future. Many become disappointed with the life they find at the border.

The average wage of a maquiladora worker is $6 – 8 per day for a 10 hour work day. Since the Mexican peso crisis of 1994, Mexican workers have lost 81% of their buying power, and a wage that could pay for 94% of a family’s needs two decades ago, now pays only 19%. Further the cost of living is high around the border. For example, a maquiladora employee must work one hour to buy a kilo of rice while an undocumented worker in Los Angeles would only have to work 12 minutes to purchase the same rice, and a dockworker in LA, only three minutes.

Critics of maquiladoras emphasize that the assembly plants cause extreme environmental damage, promote unrestrained growth without the needed expansion of public infrastructure, contribute to wage disparities and resulting poverty, and rely heavily on women’s and children's labor, negatively affecting family cohesiveness. There is also extensive documentation of poor working conditions, cases of physical abuse, neglect of health hazards, and extreme tactics to stop labor organizing.

While it is true that executives and managers on both sides of the border have profited from the maquiladoras, concerned citizens suggest that the financial benefit has been at the price of the maquiladora worker’s welfare. Unable to afford housing, many maquila workers “squat” the land in communities like Anapra, living in makeshift homes often constructed from wood pallets, cardboard, tires, tar paper, and whatever else can be locally scavenged. The poverty in Anapra is overwhelming and without education, the cycle of poverty will continue as new generations work in the maquiladoras.