Fabricas de EE. UU. y los Tragedias del Ciudad Juarez

This week’s reading was about the importance of feminists being involved in global issues and keeping in mind a transnational perspective. Cynthia Enloe writes that “the need to create links and coalitions across national and cultural boundaries is paramount” ( 496). Enloe contends that in order for feminism to be effective it needs to pay attention to international politics, because politics are how the patriarchy “creates gendered divisions of labor” (496). In a world that is increasingly globalized, feminism needs to globalize its efforts and programs.
Enloe writes that many women are wary of becoming involved in international campaigns. I chose my article for this week because the author writes about her realization of how important awareness of other parts of the world is. Llerena notes that her viewpoint was narrowed because of ignorance about “what we are still fighting for in other parts of the world” and that there is still so much left to do. She talks about her realization, upon hearing stories from women across the globe, that her singular approach to feminism was ineffective. Llerena realized the need to draw on a complex array of experiences when discussing feminism, which is a extension of human rights. She realized that the human condition is so complex, that her singular viewpoint is not enough. The views and approaches of women the world over are needed. Without an international approach, the scope will be to narrow to solve the problems shared by all of us.
Along with an awareness of other countries’ policies and actions, modern feminists need to be aware of their home country’s transnational effect. In the documentary Senorita Extraviada: Missing Young Women Lourdes Portillo examines the situation in Juarez, Mexico where hundreds of femicides have occurred, and continue to occur, in recent years. Portillo scrutinizes how the rise of maquiladoras, U.S-Mexico border factories, may have contributed to the number of murders. U.S. companies flooded Mexico with border factories for cheap labor after the passage of NAFTA causing workers to flood to cities, which in turn caused such a rapid economic growth the cities were unequipped to handle it. Neighborhoods without utilities or public services sprung up. Women in such cut-off neighborhoods would be easy prey for the murderers. American companies in pursuit of a greater profit margin may have contributed to an economic boom that the city couldn’t handle. The center could not hold.
Awareness of how the U.S. affects other countries is at the center of our CAP project. We are trying to examine how the American media’s ‘policies’ on beauty affect women the world over, not just within our borders. Awareness needs to be raised of how our media is consumed all over the world, changing or eclipsing native cultural standards of beauty just like people need to be made aware of how American owned factories affect the women of Mexico.