Electronics Recycler

From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Length: 06:35

Ingrid Lobet profiles a woman who joined a group of unemployed middle-aged women to open an electronics recycling plant in northern Mexico. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Electronics Recycler
From: Homelands Productions

Recycler_small For Mexican women of a certain age, finding decent work can be nearly impossible. Vicki Ponce was in her 50s, selling tamales, grateful for the money her daughter sent home from the US. Then she and some unemployed friends decided to make the leap into the booming trade in electronic waste. Today Las Chicas Bravas ("The Tough Girls") spend their days dismantling old TV sets by hand. Now to convince the mayor to turn on the power. Ingrid Lobet's profile is part of the WORKING series from Homelands Productions.

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Piece Description

For Mexican women of a certain age, finding decent work can be nearly impossible. Vicki Ponce was in her 50s, selling tamales, grateful for the money her daughter sent home from the US. Then she and some unemployed friends decided to make the leap into the booming trade in electronic waste. Today Las Chicas Bravas ("The Tough Girls") spend their days dismantling old TV sets by hand. Now to convince the mayor to turn on the power. Ingrid Lobet's profile is part of the WORKING series from Homelands Productions.

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

For Mexican women of a certain age, finding decent work can be nearly impossible. Companies don't like to hire older people, and working in the informal economy is almost always a struggle. Reporter Ingrid Lobet [lo-BET] crossed the border to meet a woman who joined a group of friends determined to take matters into their own callused hands. Her profile is part of the WORKING series from Homelands Productions.

OUTRO:

That was Ingrid Lobet reporting. There's a tragic footnote to her story. In October 2009, the lawyer helping Las Chicas Bravas, Marco Antonio Armendariz [ar-men-DAH-reese], was murdered in his office. He had made a career of helping the poor and weak defend themselves against powerful interests in Mexico's Sonora state.. WORKING is produced by Homelands Productions in collaboration with Marketplace Radio. To see pictures and hear audio, go to homelands.org.