Imperial (219 page)

. . . Female
maquiladora
workers as
maquilarañas
—Information courtesy of the Tijuana private detective Señor A., who will be cited below. This term was current at the beginning of the 1990s, he said.

Interview with Mr. D.—His real name, too, will be on file at the California State Archives. This interview was also a conflation of phone conversations; they occurred on 25 and 28 June and 28 July 2004.

Mr. D.’s report—Private investigator’s report, “Re: Tijuana Maquiladoras. Our File No.: 04-7659B.” 7 pp. and e-mail cover sheet to Terrie Petree; both cover sheet and report dated 7 July 2004. “ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT. This is a confidential communication . . . subject to the attorney/client and work product privileges.” A copy of this report will be placed on file at the California State Archives, linked to Mr. D.

Companies in the state of Baja California that have been found to produce contaminants—Secretaria de Medio Ambiente website. “Respuesta a solicitud con folio 0001600045304 SECRETARIA DE MEDIO AMBIENTE RECURSOS NATURALES . . . OPERACIONES CLASE MUNDIAL, S.A. de C.V.-OPTICA SOLA DE MEXICO S DE R.L DE C.V PL. 1 OPTICA SOLA DE MÉXICO, S DE RLDEC.V. PLANTA 2) OPTICA SOLA DE MEXICO, S. DE R.L. DE C.V. (PTA. III . . .).”

“Willing to make ‘informal’ comments regarding our subject companies . . .”—Mr. Raskin’s report, p. 4.

Remarks of Jaime Cota—Ibid., pp. 6-7.

“Chemicals affecting our sexuality and reproduction”—
Boletín Maquilero #11,
p. 9 (article by Toña, CITTAC, Colectiva Feminista). In another undated issue of the same publication (e-mail address: [email protected]), we read in pp. 18-19 (by Jaime [Cota?], Cittac, June 2003):
Entre los cambios más notorios esgtán que la fabricacíon de moldes metálicos que se hacían en Petaluma se vienen par Óptica Sola III, así miamo se rebucia la fabricación de Gaskets a Sola III . . . Quere obligar a los y trabajadoras de Sola a cambiarse de Otay a Insurgentes es ilegal, pues cuando una entra a trabajar y firma su contrato . . .
And again:
Por cierto esta miasma empresa Sola es conocida por la
la
cantidad de sustancias quinicas de se utilizan sin la protección necesaria.

Interview with the old man in the cowboy hat in Colonia Azteca, Tijuana—14 July 2004. Terrie Petree translated.

Interview with the Óptica Sola girls—About 14 July; interviewed in front of OS Otay at lunch. Terrie Petree translated.

The “local reporter” who said that the Tijuana minimum daily wage “can’t sustain life”—Augustín Pérez Aguilar, reporter for
La Frontera
(Tijuana). Interviewed in English in a restaurant in Tijuana Centro, 9 July 2004. Terrie Petree was present..

A dapper reporter with a Tijuana paper—Again, this was Augustín Pérez Aguilar, and it was the same interview. From here on, the text will refer to him as “the dapper reporter.”

Interview with a labor union’s legal assessor—He was Sergio Rivera Gómez, Assessor legal de local CROC la Mexicali federación, interviewed 12 July 2004 in his office in the Chinesca. Terrie Petree translated.

The trip to Ejido Tabasco occurred in June 2003. The 8” x 10” portrait of Elvira and Marco has been coded MX-EJ-MAQ- 03-01. The photographs of the barracks, taken a few moments earlier, are 35 mm and have not yet been catalogued. Yolanda Sánchez Ogás and Terrie Petree were both present; Terrie translated Elvira and Marco’s interview.

Pedregal
colonia
interviews—10 July 2004. Terrie Petree translated. We stopped people in the streets in this new housing development southeast of Mexicali, having good luck since it was Sunday afternoon. The people I had photographed previously in Pedegral did not seem keen on being interviewed or giving their names, so for the interviews cited here I left both camera and notebook in the car. The name of the man with the black cough was Pedro; he did not give his last name.

Interview with Benjamín Prieto—14 July 2004, in park of Barrio Chilpancingo. Terrie Petree interpreted.

Summation of the NAFTA report, 11 February 2004: The level of lead contaminants found on the site . . .—From Terrie Petree’s translation of “INFORME JOSÉ KAHN,” furnished by the Tijuana private detective Señor A. (see below). This was a supplement to his final report (again, see below), and was e-mailed to Terrie in late July.

Interview with the two Rimsa decontamination workers at Metales y Derivados—14 July 2004, on site. Terrie Petree translated.

The old Serbian woman who shouted at me: “You Americans have no souls!”—Vollmann, vol. 5, pp. 496-97 (“The Avengers of Kosovo”).

Interview with Marí (short for María)—10 July 2004, in Pancho’s bar, Mexicali; photographed afterwards outside the bar. No last name. Terrie Petree translated.

Footnote: Mexicali yellow pages—Edition of 2002-2003.

Interview with Lázaro (who refused to be photographed or give his last name)—8 July 2004, outside the family shack in Colonia Villa Cruz, TJ. We caught him off guard in the street; otherwise he never would have agreed. Interview conducted in English. Terrie Petree was present, as was Lázaro’s uncle. When we went back a week later, only the uncle was present, and he, obviously uneasy, refused to tell us when Lázaro would be back.

Footnote: “Óptica Sola Labor Demand”—35-pp. CITTA labor claim involving Óptica Sola, obtained from Jaime Cota by my hired P.I. Mr. Raskin. Document begins: “Entraron a trabajar OPTICA SOLA DE MEXICO, S. DE R. L. DE C. V. Ubicada en Calle 7 Sur #1 111, Cd. Industrial Nueva Tijuana, con fecha 25 de octubre 1989, la suscrita de nombre ANTONIA ARIAS ESTRADA . . .” and five other individuals. Four out of the six are women. Dates in this first paragraph range from 1989 to 1996. Text translated for WTV by Teresa McFarland. An electronic facsimile of this document will be placed in my archive at Ohio State University.

Interviews with José López—Conducted in various parks, bars and border-gazing sites of Mexicali, on 2, 3 and 12 July 2004, in English. Shannon Mullen was present for the first two, and Terrie Petree for the final interview.

Interview with the “haggard, chunky, blonde and anxious” woman in Pancho’s bar, Mexicali—3 July 2004; José López translating. Shannon Mullen was present. The woman refused to give her name.

Marx on alienated labor—Op. cit., pp. 370, 368 (selections from the Grundrisse, 1857-58).

Mr. Raskin’s report on the “Subsecretario de Protección al Ambiente”—Op. cit., p. 5.

Interviews with Señor A.—9, 13 and 16 July 2004, in his office in Tijuana. Terrie Petree translated. His operative Perla A. (no relation to Señor A, and anyhow, when I tipped her, she signed the receipt with a different name) was present. His real name, which changed in the course of our acquaintanceship, will also be on file at the California State Archives.

Señor A.’s report—6-p. typescript on yellow paper; first page on letterhead with a postal address; last page signed by the two assigned detectives, Perla A. and a man with a name so anonymous I don’t believe that its publication will compromise him: Enrique Hernández. A copy of this report will be placed on file at the California State Archives, linked to Señor A.

Button-camera footage of
maquiladoras
made by WTV and by the Tijuana private detective “Perla”—CD-ROMs and one DVD will be placed on file at the California State Archives, access restricted to protect the
maquiladoras
against any inadvertent privacy infringement or trade-secret exposure. For a detailed catalogue, see the bibliography, category B, item “
maquiladora
videos.”

Señor A.’s video—If
Playboy
’s fact-checkers return it to me, I will place it on file with the California State Archives.

“In my follow-up interview with Cota . . .”—Raskin report, p. 7 (already quoted).

Señor A.’s interview with the 21-year-old victim of sexual pressure at Matsushita—From Terrie Petree’s translation of “INDICIO DE DATOS DE ENTREVISTA,” furnished by Señor A. together with “INFORME JOSÉ KAHN” (see above). As noted, this was a supplement to his final report, and was e-mailed to Terrie in late July. The name of the woman will be placed on file at the California State Archives in my “List of Restricted Names.”

I am told, but have not verified, that in 1993 or 1994, the head of the federal Procuraduria de los Derechos Humanos investigated sexual harassment at Matsushita.—Information from Raskin report, p. 7. The informant was Jaime Cota, who said that the head of the Procuraduria was Perez Cansola.

“Recalled taking complaints from female employees . . .”—Loc. cit.

“Categorized most labor disputes as related to ‘unfair termination, low wages’. . .”—Loc. cit.

The 1995 legal settlement between Matsushita and a former employee—Attachment #12 to Mr. Raskin’s report. Facsimile of document gathered by him, labeled: “Document from sexual harassment claim handled by Cota (CITTA) in 1995 against Matsushita. Cota believed this was the only claim he handled against Matsushita that specifically involved allegations of sexual harassment. The documents are legal size.”

Excerpts from Human Rights Watch report—Human Rights Watch Publications, August 1996, vol. 8, no. 6 (B),
Mexico: No Guarantees: Sex Discrimination in Mexico’s Maquiladora Sector,
pp. 3-4, 13-15. Related Matsushita material appears on pp. 15 and 55 of this report.

“She watched a manager at Matsushita caress the buttocks . . .”—
Los Angeles Times,
27 January 1998, home edition, p. A1 (Anne-Marie O’Connor, “Maquiladora Women Finding Freedom [in?] Tijuana . . .”); Factiva Dow Jones, document #latm000020010917dulr006fc.

“In Tijuana, the top producers of highest-risk waste . . .”—
The San Diego Union-Tribune,
May 3, 2002, p. C1 (Diane Lindquist, “Toxic waste risks serious, study finds”); Proquist, document #11781909.

Figures on Metales y Derivados: six thousand metric tons of illegally abandoned lead slag + varying numbers of furnaces and crucibles—Metales y Derivados Final Faculty Record (SEM-98-007) Prepared in Accordance with Article 15 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, pp. 13, 22-23. Downloaded from Commission for Environmental Cooperation website.

Interview with Magdalena Ayala Márquez—3 July 2004; in a restaurant in Mexicali. Photographed with her daughter. José López translated; Shannon Mullen was present. For the sense of immediacy, I have sometimes altered “they” to “we” and “she” to “I” when I am certain that José was lapsing into third person instead of translating directly.

Disclaimer of tales of bloody-tampon tests and restricted restroom access—Pretty much every
maquiladora
worker I interviewed denied these. Among the deniers (interviews here cited in their appropriate places): Magdalena Ayala Márquez, Marí and the “haggard, chunky, blonde and anxious” woman, both interviewed at Pancho’s bar, Mexicali; Lázaro.

Interview with Señora Candelaria Hernández López and her daughter Alicia Hernández Hernández—14 July 2004, in park of Barrio Chilpancingo. Terrie Petree translated.

Interview with Germán—13 July 2004, in the office of the private detective Señor R. in Tijuana. Señor R. was present, and likewise Terrie Petree, who interpreted. As stated in the interview, Germán preferred not to have his last name be published. He also declined to have his photograph taken. Señor R. later forwarded a digital photo of him, which I will place in the California State Archives along with the file of restricted names.

Interview with Salvador Santa Cruz—8 July 2004, conducted in English, outside a relative’s little grocery store in Colonia Villa Cruz, which lies in the hills overlooking the
maquiladoras
on Boulevard Insurgentes. Salvador worked in one of those
maquiladoras
(Kimstar Plastics) and lived in this
colonia.
Terrie Petree was present. A second interview occurred a few days later in front of the Philips
maquiladora,
which stands almost adjacent to Kimstar. I have conflated the two interviews.

Firemen denied entrance at Óptica Solare (probably Óptica Sola)—
El Sol de Tijuana,
sábado 18 de marzo de 2006, p. 1 (Manuel Cordero, “Se derrama químico imflamable: Empleados de la empresada ‘Óptica Solare’ fureron deslojados y se detuvo al encargado de seguirdad por impedir el eccesso al personal del Cuerpo de Bomberos”). Translated for WTV by Teresa McFarland.

Transcript of cassette of complaint call: Private detective (probably Perla) and Thomson officials—Translated on the fly by Terrie Petree. The cassette will be deposited in the California State Archives.

Interview with Lourdes—In Industrial Park La Jolla, Tijuana inside the car, 16 July 2004. Terrie Petree translated; the PI Perla A. was present. Lourdes bravely went inside her place of work to give us concealed video, but the button camera failed. She did not want her photo or her full name published. The latter, along with a photocopy of her medical record, is on file at the California State Archives.

Statement of Amelia Simpson, Environmental Health Coalition—Phone conversations, early August 2004.

Interview with the old woman on Avenida México in Tecate—Interviewed in 2003. Terrie Petree interpreted. Her name was Josefina Cruz Bermudez, and she was one of the two ladies in the 8” x 10” negative MX-TC-WOM- 03-01.

Television-manufacture statistic for 2003—MOCA San Diego, unnumbered p. just before section “This is Tijuana.”

Sergio Rivera Gómez—Interviewed in CROC office, Mexicali, on 12 July 2004. Terrie Petree interpreted.

Figures on
maquiladora
jobs, 1994-2004—Bigelow, p. 77.

José López on the
maquiladoras
—Interviewed in Niños Héroes Park, Mexicali, on 12 July 2004. Terrie Petree was present.

Article: “Very low wages and strong math skills . . .”—
New York Times
, Thursday, September 30, 2004, “World Business” section, p. W1 (Keith Bradsher, “Outsourcing Finds Vietnam: Loyalty [and Cheap Labor]”).

Song: “In the gloom of mighty cities . . .”—
I.W.W. Songs
, p. 57 (full attribution in text).

Footnote: The UABC article—Ueinternational website, Gemma López Límon, senior researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales of the Autonomous University of Baja California, “Mexico’s Deplorable Runaway Maquiladoras: Another Example: ‘Flor de Baja’ ” (October? 2004). The alleged words of Nahum Rodriguez Lara also come from this source, which calls Luis Alfonso Caballero Camou “the spokesperson for this fraud . . . also the manager of the firm.”