Opportunities in LA

I went to watch “Made in LA” last week, and I was a really…new experience for me. As most already know, the film is about the exploitation of immigrant workers in the garment industry here in Los Angeles. It follows the story of three women (Lupe, Maura, and Maria) who fight for their rights against Forever 21. After three years of protesting and trying to push through a legal case, the three women along with sixteen other workers reach a private settlement with Forever 21. This was framed as the “happy ending” for the documentary, but I found it unsettling. The nineteen workers were awarded with a monetary settlement, agreeable work hour limits, and minimum wage. However, I didn’t feel as though their victory was much more than an isolated incident. They didn’t set a new precedent in the law for workers. The documentary also mentioned that many clothing companies are choosing to move their production overseas because of the demands for fair labor here in the US. The workers said that garment work is one of the few opportunities immigrant workers have. If these factories are forced out by worker demands, I wonder how it affects the job market for those who are unable to find other work especially in this economically hard time.

After the screening, there was a question-and-answer session. I found it very interesting that most of the questions weren’t really questions. The viewers passionately shared how they identified with the hardships in the documentary on such a personal level. Everyone spoke of persistence, determination, promise, and above all—dreams. I couldn’t understand the Spanish responses that weren’t translated, but I knew that everyone suffered the same struggles as a community. It became a cemented fact that race played such a determining factor in the lives they lived, and it saddened me.