The Tortilla Behemoth: Through the Sociological Lens

1782 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Women inequality in the workplace

When faced with inexplicable working conditions, one’s first consideration would be to quit their job and to find a new one. In the case of the factory workers at Hacienda Tijuana, a Mexican tortilla factory, that is certainly not the case. Throughout this article, there are many issues that are presented to the reader. This essay is structured to examine three of the main issues. It begins by looking at the exploitation of the women and their lack of rights as workers in the factory. It examines the analytical framework that would be most appropriate for this situation and then progresses to relate many sociological theories to this issue. Next, it examines the mostly negative effects of globalization, modernization and industrialization. It then follows the same procedure as the previous section and categorizes the issue into the analytical framework model and proceeds to connect it to sociological theories. Finally, the last issue in which this essay discusses is Mexico’s progression to neoliberalism. Overall, this piece of writing addresses, analyzes and discusses many of the targeted issues mentioned in the article through a sociological lens. To begin, throughout the article The Tortilla Behemoth, written by Carolina Bank Munoz, there are multiple issues presented that prove themselves to be relevant and relatable to many social theories, both classical and contemporary in form. Firstly, one of the most common issues that is discussed throughout the entire article would be the issue of gender inequality, women’s rights (or the lack thereof) and exploitation. According to Introduction to Sociological Theory, written by Michelle Dillon, exploitation refers to “the capitalist class caring about wage-workers only to the extent... ... middle of paper ... ...tion to neoliberalism. This concept became clear and more understandable when examined through the political/ economic category of the analytical framework model. To conclude, this article displays the many issues in which factory workers in most underdeveloped countries face everyday. In order to fix these problems and to make changes to the conditions that these women face, it is important to bring awareness to their situation. This article is a good start. Reference List Dillon, Michele. Introduction to sociological theory: theorists, concepts, and their applicability to the twenty-first century. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print. Hristov, J. (2013). SOCI 2110. Oshawa: Trent University. Muñoz, Carolina. The Tortilla Behemoth: Sexualized Depotism and Women's Resistance in a Transnational Mexican Tortilla Factory. Ithaca: ILR Press, 2004.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Boom Bust, Exodus

    1375 Words  | 3 Pages

    Under this development, foreign companies could set up plants within 100 miles of the United States/Mexico border. These were known as maquiladoras (Broughton 5). Maytag and other manufacturing companies took advantage of this opportunity for the cheap labor, land, resources and thus ability to be more profitable. Maquiladora employment tripled to 1.3 million in 2001, since 1990 (Broughton 142). Maytag’s plant was called Planta III and required less jobs and less skilled labor than what was required in Galesburg. This was good for the company’s bottom line, but bad for employees. The employers had complete control since labor was so easily replaceable. The workers began to be looked at as machines; interchangeable and dispensable and thus were not getting a fair wage. In Mexico the average cost for one week of food was $81 but maquiladora employees would only get paid $36 per week (Broughton 152). Maquiladoras also hurt the local and national Mexican economies. Locals would say that “the only thing maquiladoras have done is occupy the workforce … they don’t resolve any of the problems they generate…overpopulation, lack of social services, school and health care. All of this is what the maquiladoras have brought” (Broughton 153). These companies were simply there to make a profit and provide jobs, not to enrich the employee’s or communities lives. The profits from

    Read More

  • Que Vivan Los Tamales Summary

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the Spanish migrated to the Americas during the colonial period, they had a particular food preference and attachment to wheat bread. Elite whites looked at corn as an uncivilized product, but the people of Mexico also remained hesitant to growing wheat. The introduction of wheat in Mexico began to be prepared as tortillas, since this was what the native women knew best to do. This tortilla discourse, as explained by Pilcher, “correctly recognized maize as the root of self-supporting communal life, and this a barrier to modernization, although for cultural rather than nutritional reasons. Nevertheless, the ultimate incorporation of peasants into the national economy came not through the elimination of corn, but rather through its commodification”

    Read More

  • 'The Latino Threat By Leo R. Chavez's' The Latino Threat?

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    History has repeated itself time and time again with exploitation of cheap labor from the slaves of ancient Egypt to American slavery to pseudo-slavery of Mexican workers. They are cheap to the mass of American companies most of the time because they can pay them under the table and not pay adsorbent amount of payroll taxes on the workers, but the workers mostly get paid less for the same or even more work than a person of legal citizenship would get paid. In a sense this is a form of slavery or a least labor practices of that of indenture servants which the country hasn’t advocated since the last 18th century. With this cheap labor many companies such as construction collation will primarily seek out Mexicans; the Mexican men tend to not complain of labor practices as a sign of machismo. The dehumanization only begins at this process of labor, but also Latinas, or Mexican women, are routinely discriminated against. This narrative as some might call the “hot” Latina paints a phony picture of what Mexican women birth patterns are in the U.S. According the Chavez there exits “the assumption of an innate, or genetic, basis for the Latina’s “hot” characteristics is part of common , especially the “it’s in their blood”

    Read More

  • Changing Family Structure in America from a Functionalist Perspective

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    Henslin, James M.. "The Sociological Perspective." Essentials of sociology: a down-to-earth approach. 8th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2008. . Print.

    Read More

  • From Out of the Shadows: Americanization of Mexican American Women

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ruiz, Vicki L. From out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-century America. New York:

    Read More

  • Mexican American Women In The 1940s

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 1940s, Los Angeles was a period with liberating and limiting experiences for Mexican-Americans, especially for women. After the events of the Zoot Suit Riots Mexican-American people were ostracized for their “violent” nature. In order to distance people away from that stigma the debate centers on the cultural overview of the period. Women were given a voice that centers on their contributions to the workforce during WWII. While men were away fighting in the war women were working in the defense industries and gaining the means to live a comfortable lifestyle. The historiographical debate showcased that Mexican-American women were acquiring higher status, as they refused marginalization. Escobedo (2013) answered the questions that

    Read More

  • Solomon Asch Conformity Experiments (1951)

    1532 Words  | 4 Pages

    Macionis. J, J. Plummer, K. (2005). Sociology. A global Introduction. Pearson Education Limited. Essex. (UK) Third Edition.

    Read More

  • Mexican Women And Mexican American Women

    1873 Words  | 4 Pages

    During The Great Depression and World War II, large numbers of Mexican women and men joined the workforce, unions, and other organizations (Page 212). The workplace allowed Mexican women to socialize with one another and they finally for the first time experience what it is like to be independent without relying on any man. “By 1930, some 25 percent of Mexican (and Mexican American) women were in some kind of industrial employment” (Acuna 215). However, Mexican Americans were paid less than a white American, especially Mexican women. In order to for Mexican and Mexican Americans to fight for their rights to be paid and be treated like a white American, Mexican women formed labor unions that would you united them and protest against the owners

    Read More

  • The Zapatista Movement

    1694 Words  | 4 Pages

    Indigenous people of the world have historically been and continue to be pushed to the margins of society. Similarly, women have experienced political, social, and economical marginalization. For the past 500 years or so, the indigenous peoples of México have been subjected to violence and the exploitation since the arrival of the Spanish. The xenophobic tendencies of Spanish colonizers did not disappear after México’s independence; rather it maintained the racial assimilation and exclusion policies left behind by the colonists, including gender roles (Moore 166) . México is historically and continues to be a patriarchal society. So when the Zapatista movement of 1994, more formally known as the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación National (Zapatista Army of National Liberation; EZLN) constructed a space for indigenous women to reclaim their rights, it was a significant step towards justice. The Mexican government, in haste for globalization and profits, ignored its indigenous peoples’ sufferings. Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico, consisting of mostly indigenous peoples living in the mountains and country, grew frustration with the Mexican government. It was in that moment that the Zapatista movement arose from the countryside to awaken a nation to the plight of indigenous Mexicans. Being indigenous puts a person at a disadvantage in Mexican society; when adding gender, an indigenous woman is set back two steps. It was through the Zapatista movement that a catalyst was created for indigenous women to reclaim rights and autonomy through the praxis of indigeneity and the popular struggle.

    Read More

  • Sociological Perspectives on Alcohol Use, Problems, and Policy

    2339 Words  | 5 Pages

    Murray, Jane Lothian, Linden, Rick and Kendall, Diane. (2011). SOCIOLOGY IN OUR TIMES, Fifth Canadian Edition by Nelson Education Limited, Published by Thomson Wadsworth, USA.

    Read More

  • Feminism In Latin America

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...empowerment, the wish to be seen in the political world, gender fuelled economic inequalities and the fight against ‘machismo’. It appears that one common idea that appears consistently in these movements is the resilient importance of ‘motherhood’ that seems to cut above class and underline the irrelevance of political belonging or boundaries. On top of this, there appears to be another clear form of continuity between these movements – gender identity. Some argue that women are claiming rights and gaining a voice and are no longer passive observers of the political process but more so have greater autonomy and power to decide their own futures , but, a valid question, however, is: are these inequalities rooted too deep in Latin American societies or have the movements these women led and fought for transformed the traditional ideological stance of these nations?

    Read More

  • Cultural Ideology Of Machismo

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    For example, author Manuel Pena contributes to this ideology by stating that machismo can be justified as a class issue that has developed throughout centuries. He wishes to dismantle this folklore by reshaping this idea as an acceptable cultural norm but fails to realize that he, as a Mexican man, is designed to believe that such traditions are acceptable. Instead, he emphasizes the subordinate status that women have in society and even though he attempts to even out the gender gap he fails in doing so since he continues to justify why Mexican men behave the way the do towards women (Pena, M., 1991). Unfortunately, Pena is not the first or the last of the many men who seek to justify machismo and its traditional value within Mexican Culture. Men view machismo as a gateway to increase masculinity and contain cultural pride, anybody who steers away from such ideology is not doing what men are supposed to

    Read More

  • Black Gold Using the Theoretic Works of W.E.B Du Bois

    2107 Words  | 5 Pages

    Appelrouth, Scott, and Laura Desfor Edles. Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory: Text and Readings . Edition 2. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2012. 256-654. Print.

    Read More

  • Structural Functionalism Research Paper

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    Theories in sociology sometime provide us with the different perspectives with which to view our social...

    Read More

  • Sociology: Identifying Social Problems

    1687 Words  | 4 Pages

    [10] Kendall, Diana, et al. Sociology in Our Times. ITP Nelson and Co. Toronto, 1997. 126.

    Read More

More about The Tortilla Behemoth: Through the Sociological Lens

Open Document