Articles about MUJERES PRODUCTORAS

Mujeres Productoras: Rural Women Working Together, by Holly Yasui
This time of year, the countryside of Guanajuato is lovely, filled with greenery and wildflowers. But this beauty masks a devastation that has visited nearly every rural community in our area: the loss of livelihoods due to trade agreements that favor large enterprises over small farms and home-crafts; the exodus of workers to low-paying jobs in the U.S. (about 1.5 million from Guanajuato, out of a total population of 5 million); the disintegration of families under extreme economic pressure without access to education, funds or resources that would enable them to improve their conditions.

A Women's Co-op Battles Globalization, by Betsy Bowman
On a visit to Cieneguilla, a community 1.5 hours north and east of San Miguel by bus, participants in the Center for Global Justice workshop "Another World is Necessary" saw this other side. The town is full of old people, women, and children; most working-age men have gone to the US to work. Due to flooding of Mexico by NAFTA corn and other agricultural products, even the small amounts of cash needed in village economies by sale of such products are out of reach. A child's need for glasses or a school uniform suffices to send a family member -- usually a brother or father -- North to earn the required cash ...

Weaving for Survival: Mujeres Productoras of Cienegilla, by Lisa Lundgren and Audrey Trigg, Center for Global Justice Interns
It is a scene full of seeming contradictions: Women of indigenous descent are seated on the ground weaving baskets of bamboo while sipping Coca Cola from plastic bottles. Countless children play amidst cacti and goats to the sound of North American rock on the radio. Here in Cieneguilla, a rural community in the municipality of Tierra Blanca in the state of Guanajuato, the traditional and the modern collide on a daily basis.

Photo-essay of Cienegilla, by Lisa Lundgren and Audrey Trigg, Center for Global Justice Interns