After Juan Luiz had disappeared, I had a day to kill at the workshop to photograph whatever I wanted. I had been in contact with numerous NGO’s and decided to photograph the Monólogos de la Maquila performance at Teatro Coyoacán in Mexico City’s Colonia Coyoacán. Los Monólogos de la Maquila is a play and collaboration with the theatre group Costureras de Sueños and the Mexican Society for the Rights of Women. The performance is meant to bring awareness to the injustices experienced by women maquila workers [assembly line workers] by acting out the lives of the women who work in an area of large denim factories also known around town as El Rey de la Mezclilla [which directly translates to "The King of Blue Jeans"]. The women who work in the factories suffer physical abuse and rape and are exposed to harmful working conditions and have little to no rights. Clothing made in these maquiladoras are usually tagged as “made in the US” or “made in Italy”.
Hopefully these photos give you some idea of how intense the performance was. Even though my Spanish is mas o menos, I nearly burst into tears at the end of it.
I followed them backstage and found out that one of the women actors is from one of the maquila towns and offered me some contacts there to do some work with them. Needless to say, I plan to head back to Mexico City, spend some time working with these women and try to illuminate the issue and do their story justice [photographically speaking].
They also have a blog which you should check out. And if you don’t speak Spanish, I highly recommend using my favorite online free translator because it is definitely worth the read.
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