For Immediate Release
Contact: Anayanse Garza or Hilda Villegas, cel.915-487-0875
Women Immigrant Workers demand equal access to public development resources to end the cycle of poverty that engulfs our community
La Mujer Obrera is a 25-year old internationally and nationally recognized Mexican immigrant women workers' organization, based in El Paso, Texas. Amidst anti-immigrant phobia La Mujer Obrera is working to bring visibility to the crisis that exists on the El Paso, Texas-Ciudad Juarez, Mexico border.
As part of these efforts, 9 women workers in El Paso conducted a hunger strike for 7 days, during the week of of August 27th through Labor Day in an effort to bring attention to:
•the failure of the North American Free Trade Agreement to fulfill the promises of development for the border area.
•discrimination in access to development resources for women workers
•the deteriorating conditions for women workers in the El Paso Border area brought about by the increased border security enforcement
The El Paso, Texas Juarez, Mexico border area, like other border areas, should have been developed as a result of NAFTA, but instead has become poorer and increasingly more violent especially for women on both sides of the border. The impact of losing more than 30,000 jobs since NAFTA's implementation has been a disaster for working families in the El Paso region, with poverty rising to nearly 30%. For these reasons, La Mujer Obrera has called for major investment in economic development programs rather than the piece meal trade assistance retraining programs that have failed our communities.
The Mexican women of El Paso are working to improve their lives and reclaim their communities that were impacted for the worse by NAFTA.
As a solution, Mexican women immigrants have taken action by proposing that funds be used to support Plan Mayachen and Centro Mayapan, which are our organization's initiative for economic alternatives and community development that will nourish international trade while growing local economies for women workers. This national model of permanent community development is based in Mexican cultural heritage as an economic motor within the US.
Plan Mayachen, and its prototype, Centro Mayapan, are a model for development for, by and in defense of women immigrant workers, their rights and their families, by creating:
•Jobs and social purpose businesses
•Training and Education
•Cultural awareness and pride
•Revitalizing communities hardest hit by globalization
But $2 million in resources are needed to complete the planning and begin the implementation of Centro Mayapán. Doing so would place breaking the cycle of poverty by investing in the permanent development of women and communities as a priority.
These funds are available from the El Paso Empowerment Zone which La Mujer Obrera helped create. However, our letters and calls to HUD and the City of El Paso have gone unanswered.
What is needed is the political will by local, state and federal political officials to make this project a reality.
It is past due time that immigrant women workers receive equal access to public development resources to end the cycle of poverty that engulfs our community.
September 3rd, 2007
Women end hunger strike; announce future project
A group of women from La Mujer Obrera finished a week long hunger strike Monday.
The strike was organized by La Mujer Obrera to call attention to the problems of poverty and hiring discrimination in El Paso.
Monday, the group held a ceremony to honor workers as part of the wrap up to the hunger strike.
August 30th, 2007
Women Workers on the Border Hunger Strike for Equal Rights in the Development of Women and their Communities
August 29th, 2007
US Mexico Border: Rife with Poverty
Mexican Immigrant Women Workers Fight for Genuine
Homeland Security
Mexican Cultural Heritage as an Economic Motor in the US
August 28th, 2007
HUNGER STRIKERS TO ATTEND CITY HALL MEETING
August 28th, 2007
Hunger Strike Gets International Attention:
Braceros Will March From Cuidad Juarez, Mexico To Campamento In El Paso, TX
Where Nine Women Workers Are Protesting The Lack Of Resources For The Development Of Women And Their Families On The Border
August 27th, 2007
Women Workers to go on Hunger Strike
To Protest Labor and Human Rights Conditions on the Texas Mexico Border.
August 17th, 2007
Women workers intensify their fight for Economic Development Resources to
Break Free from the Cycle of Poverty and Welfare Programs.
La Mujer Obrera protests at the
Ysleta Zaragosa NAFTA Truck Bridge at
9:30 a.m. Friday August 17th.
August 15, 2007
While the U.S. Free Trade Commission Representative Susan Schwab
Proclaims NAFTA a huge success at the review meeting with trade partners in Vancouver, Canada this week
NAFTA Promises Go Unfulfilled for
Women Workers on the US/Mexico Border.
August 03, 2007
Mujer Obrera plans legal action against governor’s Enterprise Fund for discrimination against women workers.
La Mujer Obrera will have a press conference on August 3, 2007 at 10:00a.m. at Café Mayapan, 2000 Texas 79901
