Students
open eyes to women’s exploitation
By Ramón Torres and Yoshinori
Okada
On-line Forty-Niner
A
lecture to inform students about the economic
exploitation of the indigenous women of
Mexico and Central American countries was
presented Thursday at the Southwest Terrace
at Cal State Long Beach.
 CSULB
Campus Progressives, a student organization
dedicated to political and social awareness,
and Mexico Solidarity Network, which sponsored
the event, presented Celerina Ruiz Nunes,
representing the indigenous women from Chiapas,
Mexico, and Marla Gutierrez, grassroots
organizer, as the main speaker of the event.
An important point of discussion was the
threat to indigenous communities, such as
the Plan Puebla Panama, which is a plan
for economic development that creates a
strategic zone for the globalized capitalist
system that covers countries between Panama
and Puebla, Mexico.
Gutierrez said that under this plan, multi-national
corporations are the primary beneficiaries
from easy access to abundant natural resources
and cheap labor without trade restrictions.
Gutierrez said she is trying to raise public
awareness of fair trade and promoting a
sustainable model of international trade
based on economic justice, which could alleviate
the negative impact on Mexican and Central
American indigenous communities where 70
percent of craft artisans are women.
Juan Fabian, a senior history major, said
that prior to the event he had not heard
about this situation.
“This event was a great event, I found it
very interesting because I’m a Mexican and
most of the topics they spoke about opened
up my eyes at a greater level,” he said.
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