TRANSNATIONAL URBANIZATION

WHY WOMEN? THE HARSH CONDITIONS MEXICAN FEMALE WORKERS FACED DURING THE LATE 20TH CENTURY 

MICHELLE NOLASCO

Various ethnic groups have immigrated to the United States throughout history in hopes of finding opportunities for economic prosperity and freedom. Industrialization in the Mexico-U.S. border grew rapidly after 1965 (Camacho Schmidt 2008).  Consequently, immigrants were drawn to Northern Mexican and U.S. cities in hope of finding work opportunities. In this blog post, I focus on northward Mexican migration towards the Mexico-U.S. border during the late 20^th century. I wish to point out that this migration, especially for Mexican women did not mean progress over the lives they left behind. Female workers (obreras) were “inserted into the industrial labor force” all while their bodies were “subject to pain by factory discipline” (Camacho Schmidt 2008). What did the laboring body of the female workers experience during this time period and why women?

The vast majority of Mexican female workers found jobs in manufacturing and assembly plants or factories, which they called “maquiladoras.” These plants were owned by the United States, and often operated within a free trade zone meaning that no tariffs were placed on the imported and exported materials (Rosenberg 2008). Many immigrants mistakenly thought that since these factories were owned by the Unites States, they would be clean. As eighteen-year factory worker for Kermet, Maria Guadalupe Torres Martinez points out, the conditions of these factories were “primitive” (Camacho Schmidt 2008). They never had enough material to meet the specified number or quota the managers would give them each day. Subsequently, the workers had to come up with a way to meet these quotas by any means necessary. They realized that when they took the pieces out of the molds before they were cured, the quota could be met. The problem was that this strategy burned their hands everyday and the ovens would overheat to the point that they would explode.  In 1984, the explosions of these ovens resulted in mass deaths and leaks that killed 8,000 people (Camacho Schmidt 2008). Additionally, the components were washed with methylene chloride, a chemical that caused cancer and miscarriages. As another obrera tells in a testimonial taken by writer Sandra Arenal, her fingers were “deformed in the bones, with enormous calluses” which she explains as the cost of working in the maquila for six years. There is no doubt that the laboring bodies of the obreras suffered pain and deterioration.

Many believe that men are faster and stronger than women, so why choose women to work for these factories?  A factory supervisor in the city of Juarez in Chihuahua, Mexico explains that women have inborn qualities like delicate hands and “nimble fingers” that allow for “greater precision in carrying out the minute procedures.” He adds that women are also more “psychologically suited for repetitive tedious tasks” (Camacho Schmidt 2008). I remember going with my father as a child to pick up my grandmother in a factory where she worked. I was about nine and curious so I would always ask her what she did. She would tell me that she made computer chips. It all makes sense now, since she immigrated to the United States and brought my father with her. She was a Salvadorian factory worker, who worked in an assembly line creating the same computer chip over and over again.  

References:

Camacho Schmidt, Alicia. Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Culture in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. New York and London: New York University Press, 2008.

Rosenberg, Matt. About.com, "Maquiladoras in Mexico: Export Assembly Plants for the United States." Last modified 2013. Accessed October 23, 2013. http://geography.about.com/od/urbaneconomicgeography/a/maquiladoras.htm.

IDENTIFICATION OF AFRICANS VS. AFRICAN-AMERICANS

BY STUDENT

In class we talk mostly about the segregation and the mistreatment of minority groups in U.S. cities. However, since I hope to find myself studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa next semester I would like to talk about how the treatment of blacks in South Africa during colonization has affected how Africans identify themselves today versus how blacks in America classify themselves. The question that I ultimately wish to answer is: how is white treatment of Africans in South Africa similar and different to attitudes toward African Americans in the U.S. and how has this affected their sense of self?  

Colonization of South Africa began when the Dutch East Company funded the exploration of a ship in the hopes of setting up a post to benefit the ships on the Eastern trade route. Jan van Riebeeck and his 90 men landed at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. However it wasn’t until the mid 1800s that white settlement took over most of what today is South Africa, causing the indigenous peoples to lose their independence to white colonizers. Many African tribes resisted European force, but in the end they lost the battle. Consequently, black Africans were taken from their homes and sold on the Atlantic slave trade where most were brought to America to work as slaves on plantations. It is clear that African’s were not treated fairly by European colonizers. They were packed onto ships like animals and sent to a foreign land where they were again treated like animals. This is one similarity between how blacks were treated in Africa and in the US. The Condemnation of Blackness by Khalil Gibran Muhammad goes into depth about the treatment of African Americans throughout American history. As the title suggests, the book talks about how African Americans were associated with criminology to reinforce their inferiority to whites. African Americans for centuries were condemned to being the scapegoat for all of white plight and crime. But how has this affected blacks attitudes today.

One journal makes a good point by stating that today President Obama identifies himself as an African-American. He takes pride in being an American citizen, yet still identifies with his African culture whereas the journal also states that Africans living in South Africa choose to identify with their oppressors. South African’s desire to adopt the culture, language, and religion of their European capturers differs greatly from African Americans’ desire to stand out from white Americans and to identify as their own entity. But what accounts for these different approached to self-identification? It could be that European rule in Cape Town began peacefully and only later grew violent. It could also be in part that many South Africans felt betrayed by their rulers who sold them to the Europeans as slaves against their will. Who would continue to be faithful to a leader after watching family and friends be deceived by said leader, someone that they trusted? But then we have to think about why blacks in American still perceive themselves as their own entity. Personally, I don’t blame African Americans for wanting their own identity in the U.S. For centuries and even today, segregation and racism still exist. Why would anybody want to link themselves with a group of people that doesn’t want them? In class we have mentioned time and time again how badly whites have treated blacks. Even today prejudice is still predominant. For example, Long Island where I have lived my entire life is one of the most segregated places in the country. Although I am not prejudice towards any race, it is evident in my school where the African American population is almost non-existent. During my transition to Albany, I have noticed that many African Americans tend to form groups together, excluding whites. I have concluded that this is because they feel threatened by the lingering hostility of whites. Therefore supporting my theory that African Americans in the US tend to identify with other African Americans for a sense of security. Opposed to Africans in South Africa that are happy to leave their old identities behind to blend into a new one.

Muhammad , Khalil Gibran. The Condemnation of Blackness. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010.

The , Economist . "Race in South Africa: Still an Issue." Mixed-race citizens remain uneasy about black rule. . http://www.economist.com/node/21546062 (accessed October 7, 2013).

REDDICK, TRACIE. African vs. African-American A shared complexion does not guarantee racila solidarity.. working paper., Yale University, 1998. http://www.library.yale.edu/~fboateng/akata.htm.

STRUGGLES FOR SPACE, CREATING URBAN CULTURES

HIP HOP: REINVENTING INDUSTRIAL RUINS IN THE BRONX

BY STUDENT

What do you think when you walk down a city street and hear someone blasting a booming rap song?  I think that one’s reaction reveals a lot about their background.  Growing up in the suburbs with little exposure to this type of music, my reaction was always one of discomfort at the loud, explicit content and anxiety over the artist’s anger.  Looking back, I realize that this type of anxiety stems from a complete misunderstanding of hip hop culture and its objectives for society.  Originating in the 1970s when urban renewal forced many African Americans to live in areas of dying employment, hip hop is the project of a restless youth who yearned for a brighter future yet were neglected and pushed into a life of gang violence and crime.  What does hip hop accomplish for this marginalized, criminalized group?  What sort of space or territory did these rap artists reclaim through their revolutionary techniques?  In this post, I argue that hip hop is a form of protest that draws attention to the ignored needs of African Americans because the lyrics focus on issues such as the economy, violence among gangs, and limited opportunities.  Not only are the lyrics a protest, but the style of the music (angry, rhythmic) embodies an ethnic sentiment that generates pride in its originality and creates a confrontational culture that must be dealt with in the public domain.

Take a close look at jag9889’s photo from flickr.com, taken on the corner of Barreto Street and Garrison Avenue in South Bronx.  This vibrant graffiti demands attention through bold colors and imposing images: from the top of the artwork flows a lightning stream between a set of stereos and an empowered, intimidating female figure, while on the bottom of the piece jumping figures surround the words “hip hop” as threatening women speak through angry gestures. Although at first glance this image appears ordinary and insignificant, the illustrated symbols provide a visual representation of hip hop’s productive goals for society.  As anyone who has seen a city knows, the exploitation of public space for ethnic representation, such as graffiti on a wall, is a widely utilized tactic.  When a capitalist society overtakes a new land, the territory discovered is rapidly divided, claimed, and traded in exchange for cash.  The indigenous people that had used the land as public or shared cultural space are now forced to give up their space so that the capitalist can profit from it.  In this way, situations of communal living will inevitably break down as spaces divide among the group unevenly (Lefebvre 1974: 380).  According to this idea, space that once had “use value”, or worth derived from communal enjoyment, undergoes a commodification process that converts the space’s utilization to that of an “exchange value”, or a measure that allows its exchange for capital.  What does this commodification of space inexorably lead to? It creates a grossly inequitable distribution of territory that permits an elite class to control the majority of the public domain and confines lower classes and/or minority groups into filthy, uninhabitable, and unwanted spaces like the leftover scraps of a gourmet feast.  Therefore, the occupation and use of public space through art is a symbolic protest of this unbalanced dynamic, and the culturally specific characteristics of such public works are a way for the marginalized culture to reinstate their right to cultural expression.  From the historical Mesoamerican themes of the murals in San Diego’s Chicano Park to the vibrant “Hip Hop” graffiti in the Bronx, culture-specific artistic expression is a way to reclaim public space for the group in question and draw attention to its overlooked needs.  A message African Americans want to convey is clearly stated in the above mural.  Youthful expressions of anger, discontent, and pride convey how black youth in the Bronx are improperly provisioned to obtain success, while bold words and images of lightning suggest a sense of empowerment and readiness to reclaim some of these provisions. 

Not only did the African American “hip hop” movement use the physical and the visible to reclaim space, but as anyone familiar with the media knows, it staked a claim in another prominent space in society- the music industry.  Before the birth of hip hop in the 1970s, projects of urban renewal, such as Robert Moses’ Cross-Bronx Expressway, regularly uprooted entire communities and crowded poor African American, Puerto Rican, and Jewish families into virtually jobless areas of South Bronx.  With a stream of desperate families pouring in and a steady loss of thriving businesses, per capita income dropped substantially as unemployment rate skyrocketed: at one point, youth unemployment rate in the Bronx was a daunting 60% (Chang 2005: 13).  Because the employment struggle was especially harrowing for black youth in the Bronx, many of them found no other option than to take to the streets and form gangs to protect themselves from a hateful, unyielding world.  In this context, the edgy, obscene, and violent lyrics of hip hop music are a reflection of this hopeless sentiment.  The fact that hip hop applies this sentiment of ruin into a rhythmic, productive work is highly significant because it is a transformation of the cultural and industrial “leftovers,” or unwanted parts, into sources of power and pleasure (Rose 1994: 22).  Therefore, this productive music moves beyond the discourse of reclaiming visible physical space for community because adding rhythm to the rhetoric of social wrongs creates for African Americans a claim in audible space.  As previously noted, when someone blasts a hip hop song from their house or in the street, they elicit a response from those who pass by.  In the audible forum, the anger and momentum of the rhythm catches the same sort of attention as a bold graffiti mural.  This cultural artwork, therefore, takes spaces that have a minimal exchange value and transforms them into invaluable expressions.  In doing so, this culturally unique music reclaims a space in the predominately white music industry and transforms fragmented social and economic experiences into feelings of pride and hope.

Works Cited:

Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: Picador's Press, 2005. https://blackboard.albany.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_1287054_1&course_id=_46495_1&framesetWrapped=true (accessed October 6, 2013).

Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1974. https://blackboard.albany.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-1235726-dt-content-rid-5061305_1/courses/2139-TLCS-288-9065/lefebvre_productiospace.pdf (accessed October 6, 2013).

Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, London: University Press of New England, 1994. https://blackboard.albany.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_1287053_1&course_id=_46495_1&framesetWrapped=true (accessed October 6, 2013).

Photograph: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jag9889/2513943451/in/set-72157608767399050

STRUGGLING FOR SPACE, CREATING URBAN CULTURES

N.L.

During the Civil Rights era in the United States, several ethnic and racial groups were elbowing their ways into society in order to achieve their respective goals at enhancing the ways of life for their people. Two specific groups included the Young Lords Party and the Black Panthers Party. While both Latinos and blacks were struggling with civil disobedience and attempting a nonviolent approach toward their troubles within society, the two Young Lords and the Black Panthers tried different, more radical, tactics that seemed outlandish at the time but were just as successful in achieving the goal of liberating and uplifting their people. While the government created policies in attempt to elevate the city by purging it of the poorer neighborhoods, they used the space around them in order to justify their beliefs and their causes. The true question, however, is whether or not the actions of the Young Lords and Black Panthers were truly successful in generating the change needed to increase equality among their respective racial and ethnic groups.

Beginning as a gang, whose existence was based on misdemeanors and negligence, the Young Lords Party evolved to take a militant stance to benefit its Puerto Rican community and their “Latin Brothers and Sisters…the Chicano people” (Viet Nam Generation Incorporated). In order to make its point towards the independence of Puerto Rico, the party utilized the public space of the Lexington Avenue Methodist Church in order to carry out their free breakfast program and overtake a city testing truck for tuberculosis, as well as set up daycares, health programs, and clothing drives (Young 124; 126; 128). Each act was done with the cry of “fight police repression” and “smash corrupt union leadership” (Young 133). The success of their movement, however, isn’t debatable. Before the Young Lords’ short reign, being a person of Latina/o decent was considered degrading and unfortunate. After their resurgence, both Puerto Rican? men and women became advocates for the cause while their demonstration could be found on the television and printed in the paper because people began to become aware of the rights deserved by every human being.

The Young Lords’ inspiration stemmed from the Black Panthers, a group with a battle cry of, “We’re Afro-Americans!” (Young 50). This group watched from the sidelines as their people were kicked and sprayed with water hoses by the police without raising a fist against them. The Black Panthers didn’t believe in the submergence of civil disobedience that seemed to have killed more than hurt their people. They, instead, wanted to raise a stir within the “ethical sterility” presented by white liberalism (Young 50). Instead, the beliefs of Malcolm X were intertwined with the Third World revolutionary ideas from Cuba. In order to achieve their goals, the Black Panthers used public space to create health clinics, where an awareness of diseases within the black community like sickle-cell disease was provided (Hawkins). Members went into communities and dealt with unruly landlords whom refused to provide necessary services in the apartment complexes in which blacks were living (Hawkins).

           

Although each of these groups faced stigmas from society, and the local governments within each city, they both set out for a cause that bettered their respective ethnic and racial communities: the Young Lords Party worked with the Latino community and the Black Panther Party worked with the black community. Although many events still occur even now that are questionably rooted in the conflict of racism, the topic will cause great debate and opposition once it hits the press. This is the change that the Black Panthers’ struggle and the Young Lord’s struggle in the fight for equality among ethnic and racial groups has made. Society will no longer ignore the injustices that it would have fifty years ago. Also,  a resurgence of pride among the Latino and black communities occurred during as cause to the militant stance taken by the Black Panthers and the LatinosHad they never had taken their struggles to the public spaces in their communities and attracted the attention of the press so the world could see, the subject may still be one that is swept under the rug by the public’s eye while each ethnic group would continue to struggle to keep up with their white counterparts.

Works Cited

Hawkins, B. Denise. "Black Panthers: Activists for Healthy Communities." Diverse: Issues in Higher Education (2012): n.pag. Cox Matthews & Associates Inc. Web. 20 Sep 2013.

Viet Nam Generation Incorporated, "13 Point Program and Platform of the Young Lords Party." New World Order. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sep 2013. <http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/Young_Lords_platform.html>.

Young, Cynthia Ann. Soul Power: Culture, Radicalism, and the Making of a U.S. Third World Left. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006. Print.