UH students piled into the Cullen Performance Hall on Wednesday for a glimpse into the life of a maquiladora.
Maquiladoras are the factory workers of Mexico working for corporations that manufacture in the country using cheap labor.
Students Against Sweatshops showed a video at the event of five women from Tijuana, Mexico struggling to survive.
SAS organized the event to raise awareness about human rights and invited Carmen Duran, the film’s main cast member, to host a question-and-answer session with interested students.
Duran, who was visiting the campus for the second time, said she wished for students to ‘continue studying and raise awareness of her situation.’
Sociology sophomore and SAS member Brendan Laws said there was a good turnout and he hopes students were adequately informed by the event.
‘There were a lot of students that hadn’t been exposed to these issues before and hadn’t learned that much about them, so I hope a lot of people learned, ‘ Laws said.
The video gave viewers an in-depth look into the lives of factory workers, focusing on issues like workers’ rights and giving viewers perspective on what an average maquiladora dealt with to provide for their families.
The documentary showed the living conditions of people that make the equivalent of $68 a week and live with factories dumping waste in their neighborhood.
Philosophy senior and SAS member Markos Mendoza said that while bringing Duran to Houston was great, ‘the value in it is attempting to make the life of somebody else better.’
SAS’s next project is a letter drop-off to UH President Renu Khator.
The group will meet today in front of the library to take letters students have written about UH apparel to Khator. SAS hopes these letters will persuade Khator to affiliate with the Designated Suppliers Program to help give struggling workers a better life.
The DSP calls for representation for workers, no child labor and a 48-hour work week, but getting Khator to sign off will be no easy task, said Mendoza.
‘UH has put much resistance. (Officials) have worked with more us more recently, (though) I think they assumed we would go away in the first couple of months or die out. But I’m glad to see that they’re finally understanding the only way to get us out of their hair is to work with us and do the right thing,’ he said.
