This film investigates the environmental impact of the nearly 2,000 factories, known as maquiladoras, that have been built in Mexico at the U.S.-Mexico border by multinational corporations from the U.S., Asia and Europe. In the early rush to globalization these factories, whose workers are paid a fraction of U.S. wages, did not need to comply with costly environmental regulations. The result, according to one reporter, is that the border became "a 2,000 mile long open sewer, a vast toxic waste dump." This documentary essay describes the consequences of 25 years of environmental neglect, the results of five years of earnest activity and promises made for the future.
Audience: All
Student Union Memorial Center
Room: Gallagher Theater
Jill Burchell
CSIL
520-626-0370
jillb1@email.arizona.edu
http://www.union.arizona.edu/gallagher