Globalization Reality Show: Surviving as a Maquiladora Worker

The California Western School of Law’s Proyecto Acceso (Access Project) has produced a pilot program called “Globalization: The Reality Show,” in which a group of law school students work in a manufacturing plant south of the border and live on a 60 dollar a week salary.

The purpose of the project is to let people know that globalization has its own rules, according to James Cooper, assistant dean at CWSL and director of Proyecto Acceso, an innovative training program designed to promote the rule of law, strengthen the administration of justice, and empower communities through education in Latin American countries.

“Why do networks produce a reality show with people trying to survive in Guatemala, when you have Guatemalans trying to survive on the border?” asked Cooper.

The pilot show was produced last summer as part of the NAFTA summer course at CWSL. Students were invited to take part in this two week video project. The two future lawyers who participated had to work and live like regular maquiladora workers, doing backbreaking work, living in a hut in the poorest part of town and making ends meet on miserable salaries.

“When they told me what I would be doing I didn’t know if it was an offer or a challenge,” said Matt Holt, one of the law school students in the project. “I took the job because I wanted to see what our neighbors go through so I could understand why people will risk their lives to get here.”

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