Teen moved by visit to Mexico's poor

Since she returned from a week-long trip to visit Maquiladora sweatshops in Mexico, sponsored by the International Project of the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition, Miss Wistar has been trying to educate friends and family about the injustices that sweatshop workers face.

"They all see it as a good cause, but they're not necessarily aware of what's going on" in factories that make products often exported to America, said Miss Wistar, a 16-year-old Catholic who is a junior at Bethlehem Central High School.

South of the border

Each day, the delegates would meet with maquiladora workers and visit their homes. Miss Wistar said she was "blown away" by the level of poverty at which the workers lived.

"The people live in little, tiny shacks built out of whatever scrap materials they could find. It was just awful," she said. "We went to one community that was built on a garbage dump. The people would pick through the garbage to find something they could sell."

Working conditions

She added that the group saw factories run by General Electric, Fruit of the Loom and a subsidiary of Nike.

"We have to realize it is our business that is allowing these standards down there," she declared. "It's our responsibility."

Union struggle

But when the workers arrived at the factory to vote, the student said, they had to walk through a line of thugs threatening their jobs and lives if they voted for the independent union.

She noted that thugs also threatened Martha Ojeda, a Mexican woman who was trying to organize the workers to form the independent union. In the end, the "puppet" union won 497 to 3.

New outlook

After the trip, "absolutely nothing can be taken for granted. I find myself buying something and saying, `That's half the weekly salary of a worker in Mexico.'"

Still, she said, "It was more inspiring to do something than just feeling guilty, because the people didn't seem all that fazed. Despite everything, they were happy."

New friend

"Her family makes $35 a week," the student observed. "When we came back, we decided we're going to try to raise enough money to send her to college. She wants to go to law school. She'll be a great labor leader."

Students in Miss Wistar's Guilderland chapter of Free the Children and in the larger Capital District chapter are planning a Brooks Barbeque, a "Battle of the Bands" and dances to raise the $16,000 for Arely's four-year college education.

"We've got a couple of years," Miss Wistar said confidently. "I think we can do it."

(Contact Sister Alethea Connolly, CSJ, adult mentor for the area Free the Children movement, at 783-3674, or email [email protected].)

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