Story Narrative

What impacted me the most last week was when we went to the maquildoras because I did not know what to expect. In my head, I had imagined the maquiladoras to be really ugly, where working conditions would just be horrible and unbearable to look at, but when we went to the guitar maquiladora, it was not like that at all. It actually looked like a decent place. But of course, I am sure that there are things we did not get to see.

I was curious to know how much the workers made but I was afraid to ask because I thought it would not be appropriate, but Mariana said to ask, so I did. The answer to this question was that the workers earned 1,000 pesos a week. Then I asked how many hours a day they worked and how long was there lunch break. The answer to these questions was they work from 7am-5pm and they get an hour lunch. But I am not too sure about the hour lunch, I have reason to believe they only get a half hour lunch.

Well, after finding out how much they make, Michelle and I started to do the math and figured out that each worker makes about $1.70 an hour.

Emotional Reaction

After realizing how much the workers make, I was devastated. I feel horrible thinking about all the hard work they do to only make $1.70 an hour. Even worse, to know that the cheapest guitar that they make costs $400 dollars. The guitar seems to be worth more than the worker. These working conditions and wages seem really unfair to me, but I bet the workers who work are happy to have a job and make the money they do even if it is not a lot of money at the end of the day.

Inter-Cultural Interpretation

The inter-cultural interpretation for this scenario is that there are economic differences between the United States and Mexico. It is obvious that in San Diego, one would not be able to make a living off $1.70 and hour or $80 something dollars a week. One would not be able to rent an apartment for that amount of money and then have extra money for other expenses. I am positive no one on the other side would be willing to work for that amount of money and have to do hard labor. I believe this is why many Mexicans who come into the US work in the fields or construction. This is labor that many American would not be willing to do and which is why it falls in the hands of Mexicans coming into the US. They also do not earn as much money doing that work, but I'm sure they earn more than they would in Mexico. This is a huge economic difference between the US and Mexico.