Femicides

Since maquiladoras offer numerous jobs to women, thousands of women have flocked to border cities such as Juarez in search of work.  Women are not valued in these factories or in these towns, and during the last ten years, nearly 10,000 women have been brutally murdered because of their gender.  These murders are only becoming more brutal and frequent in recent years, and are no longer being looked into by the Mexican authorities (Katia Monteagudo).  These killings, kidnappings and missing bodies have been given the name “femicides,” defined by Nidya Sarria as “the systematic killing of women due to their gender.” These disappearances, kidnappings, and murders of women are no longer being seriously investigated as of August 2006,  and Mexican authorities have began blaming the victims for the crimes as well as referring to the femicides as positive because they rid society of “undesirable people” (Wright 713-714)

                                                          Centerforthehumanities.org

            After a woman is reported as missing, or a body is found, authorities are beginning to put a value on the woman’s life, and whether or not she was an asset to society.  Since most women are abducted or killed at night, their lives are deemed insignificant because they are assumed to be prostitutes, and the government no longer wants to waste its time with people who are not an asset to society (Wright 714).  This is inhumane because everyone’s life has value, and the government should arrest the murderers so they do not murder even more people.  This is an extremely unsafe place for women to be working; however, as we have seen poverty makes people desperate.  This is yet another reason that poverty pushes women to cross the border because it is almost worth leaving to get away from such unsafe conditions.  In most of these women’s minds, the dangers during the time it takes to cross the border are nothing compared to the constant dangers of maquiladoras and unsafe cities such as Juarez. 

Maquiladoras

                When child labor is not enough to support a family, families are often forced to have the women work as well.  Often times it is difficult to find a job, and when women get desperate, they turn to maquiladoras.  Maquiladoras are factories on the border of Mexico and the United States that produce goods for foreign countries for very low prices.  Workers in maquiladoras not only have to work long hours for little pay, but they are also exposed to hazardous working conditions.  Toxic exposures industrial accidents are common, because workers are not given adequate training to operate the machinery they work with.  It is very common for maquiladoras to have other physical risks such as heat, poor ventilation, and noise as well (Brodzinsky).  Perspective maquiladora employees are also urine tested and asked violating questions about their sexual interactions to avoid hiring pregnant women (Human Rights Watch). 

Inside a Maquiladora       blogs.umass.edu

                With conditions like these, it is hard imagine how bad the lives of these women had to be for them to turn to maquiladoras.  Poverty makes people desperate, and these factories demonstrate how desperate some women become.  The sectors of the Mexican economy that generate the most jobs are culturally reserved for men, leaving women to turn to low paying jobs such as maquiladora employees (Brodzinsky).  This increases the number of women who cannot get decent paying jobs, further feminizing poverty.  These maquiladoras are also a huge disruptor of family life.  These women have to work twelve hour days only to go home and do their motherly duties of taking care of the house and the children.  Impoverished families learn to rely on each other in a way that middle and upper class families never have to think about.  Poverty often makes male and females equal in a house because when both people work to support the family, house duties often get split up, because it is impossible for a women to work long hours and then do all of her motherly duties on top of her long hours.  Maquiladoras and poverty also effect family life because it limits the number of children women can have.  Fertility rates are very high in Mexico, and large families have almost become a part of culture; a part of culture that impoverished families struggle to participate in.  Having children requires money and time to properly take care of the child, which impoverished families do not have.  The urine tests at maquiladoras also disrupt family life because maquiladora employers do not hire pregnant workers and they fire workers who become pregnant.  This makes it incredibly hard to start a family, which gives Mexican women yet another reason to make the journey across the border.  

Child Labor

             One of the main reasons children in Mexico are not getting a formal education in Mexico is because they have no choice but to work to try and support their families.  One out of every eight children in Mexico currently works, which is around 4 million children (Salmann).  To Many children who work do not have a chance to even attend school, and four out of every ten children who work never get to see the inside of a classroom (Salmann).  The children, who are lucky enough to attend school, often do not have time for homework, which results in poor academic performance. 

            An example of a child who works and goes to school is Axel.  Axel goes to school in the mornings, and then works as a vender selling potato chips every afternoon.  Between work and school, everyday is a 12 hour day for him.  When he finishes his day at 9:00 at night, he walks to a dwelling at the corner of the street, where he lives with his parents, and a total of 13 siblings and cousins.  By the time he gets home, he showers, eats dinner and then goes to bed, with no time for homework.   Axel does not mind that he has to work because he knows he is supporting his family, but he does not want his schoolmates to know because they once made fun of him and mocked him when they saw him at his job (Salmann). 

Axel at his stand.                    manuel.io

            Unlike his schoolmates, numerous Mexicans do not have the same ideas about child labor.  Many families do not have the choice but to make their child work, and those families that do have a choice, may not realize the developmental damage child labor causes.  Child labor is a common occurrence in Mexico, and many people do not even think twice about it.  There is a mentality that child labor is not harmful, maybe because most children do not work in factories, but instead work at stands or out in the fields, which are jobs that don’t seem very dangerous.  These people do not realize that it is not the physical tasks that are harmful, but the time they consume that is the problem.  Children who work do not have time to go to school or have no time for homework.  This leads to high dropout rates that lead to the children getting low paying jobs as adults, forever stuck in a poverty cycle.  

Education

Mexican immigrants are the group with the lowest level of formal education in the United States.  In 2008, 61.5 percent of Mexican immigrants 25 and older had less than a high school degree, and only 5.2 had a bachelor’s degree or higher (Brick, Challinor, and Rosenblum 8).  It is estimated that about 6 million Mexicans are illiterate, and the number of Mexicans who lack education only increases when you look at impoverished families and women (latinosinternational.org).   

When you look at Mexican immigrants in the United States, the high school graduation rates increased to a third if the Mexican immigrated to the United States between the ages of 15 to 21, increased again to 40 percent if they immigrated between the ages of 5 and 15, and then substantially increased to 78 percent if they immigrated before age 5 (Brick, Challinor, and Rosenblum 9). 

studentlabor.org

                Because of the extremely high poverty rates in Mexico, poor women and children are forced to get jobs instead of going to school.  This adds to the already high illiteracy rates, and the rates just keep increasing.  This keeps these children in the cycle of poverty, because they will never get high paying jobs if they do not have a good education, and will remain poor.  Just like most mothers of the world, Mexican mothers want the best life possible for their child.  As a mother, it is their duty to take care of the children and the house.  To some women, this means working extremely hard so they can cross the border and get their child a proper education.  The chance that their child would not have to work and could actually get a formal education in the United States is too good for some mothers to give up.  This incentive increases the desire of Mexican mothers to work hard and save up their money in hopes of one day crossing the border and getting their child a formal education.  Mexican mothers can only hope that this education will allow their child to break the cycle of poverty, and have a better life than their parents could ever dream of.  Although they have hopes and dreams, they sometimes are stuck in the poverty cycle even if they make it to the United States, because of the racism and discrimination they face here.  It is hard for them to escape poverty, and very few people actually manage to break free of the poverty cycle.  

Reuniting with Family

              

                                                                                         houstoncriminallawjournal.com

                A major motivation for women to cross the border is to reunite with husbands or family.  An example of this is the story of Maria Jimenez, who is 29 years old.  Her family was struggling financially, so her husband crossed the border to try and make some money to get rid of their financial troubles.  He would send back the money he made in America to his family back in Oaxaca, in hopes of getting enough money to get the rest of his family into the United States. After collecting enough money, Maria was able to cross the border, and finally reunite with her husband (Alvarez and Broder). 

                This is only one example of separated couples where women have to cross the border to try and reunite with their husbands.  Unfortunately, I have heard numerous stories similar to this one while volunteering at a local soup kitchen back home.   Most of the men we fed were living on the streets with no food and very little money, even though they worked hard every day.  I did not understand why they were not able to live a reasonable life when they were working so hard until I was able to sit down and have a conversation with a man one day.  While talking, the man explained to me that he crossed the border in hopes of supporting his family back home, which was struggling from financial problems.  He worked every day as a day laborer, and sent a large majority of the money he made back to his family and his wife, who was hoping to join him in the United States in two months.   It must be extremely difficult for these families to be separated from each other for such long periods of time, and this must be why the wives of men who crossed the border come to America as soon as they can.  Although there is an extensive family back home, I don’t think there is anything comparable to living in a different country than your significant other, which motivates women to cross the border.

Family Values

            Mexican families have a close knit family structure, not only with the nuclear family, but with the extended family as well.  Fathers usually have the job of providing for the family, and mothers usually are in charge of taking care of the home and the children (Clutter and Nieto).  Most Hispanic families will do anything for each other, and it is the moral duty of the extended family to help any of its members experiencing financial problems (Clutter and Nieto).  This would make it seem like there would be no need for family members to cross the border, however when the economy becomes so terrible that families cannot take care of themselves, it often seems necessary to send a member across the border.  This member is usually a father figure; however, when there is only one parent in a family, the mothers may be forced to give their child to a relative and cross the border in hopes of making money for their family.  When a mother crosses the border, it is not rare for the mother to have a family member watch their child while they are away.  Mothering across the border can be very difficult and is referred to as transnational motherhood.  No mother wants to cross the border and leave their child behind, but the family support system allows them to know their child is in good hands while the mother is away (Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila 548). 

                                                                                                       youtube.com

            There is an entire movie devoted to transnational motherhood, called “Under the Same Moon.”  In this movie, a mother leaves her son in the hands of her mother, his grandmother, while she goes to the United States to work as a maid.  This movie demonstrates numerous issues with transnational motherhood such as communication, and issues when the grandmother gets sick and can no longer take care of the child.  I think that it is terrible that this has become such a reality that it has become a source of entertainment for people.  Families are being torn apart to try and support themselves and film producers see a chance to make money off of the terrible reality for many Hispanic families.  If I were the producers of this movie, I would have made it a movie about awareness of the problems of transnational mothers and used the profits from the movie to help these transnational mothers and families to support themselves.   I could only imagine how hard transnational motherhood is on the child and the mother, and I am glad that Hispanic families are close enough to give the support necessary to get through difficult economic times.  

Statistics

Migrationpolicy.org

Within the last two decades, immigration to the United States has reached an all time high, from countries all over the world.  Latin American countries followed this trend, as noted by the light blue section in the chart above.  Although Mexican immigrants are not the largest immigrant population in the United States, they have the highest percentage of undocumented immigrants, and the majority of Mexican immigrants are unauthorized.  Of the approximate 6.7 million Mexican immigrants in the United States, sixty two percent, or 4.15 million are unauthorized (Brick, Challinor, and Rosenblum 4).  The majority of this unauthorized population used to be men but as poverty in Mexico was feminized, the number of women crossing the border substantially increased. 

Migrationpolicy.org

                Women are the majority of the 1.5 million people who live on $1 a day or less.   Many of these women work extremely hard, only to have their labor go unrecognized and un rewarded.  They are also denied land, inheritance, and credit, critical resources to any person.  These women cannot afford healthcare or even food sometimes, and they do not have an education (Division for the Advancement of Women).  The cycle of poverty is when their socioeconomic status and lack of resources cause women to drop out of school, or not get the education necessary to get a good job, and without a good job they cannot make good money, and are stuck staying poor (Student Labor Action Project).  These women are caught in the cycle of poverty, and do not have the resources necessary to get out of the cycle.  These conditions and the never ending cycle of poverty is leading more and more women to cross the border than ever before.  They have dreams and hopes of finally breaking this cycle once they get on their feet in the United States, but sadly, many women stay stuck in this cycle even when they get to the United States.