the new labor movement<\/a> for living wages, improved working conditions and independent unions in Ju\u00e1rez, an ongoing fight she said cost her a job making electrical fuses at an Eaton company plant.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re demanding the return of our jobs. It was an abuse. We are workers and have rights,\u201d Hinojos said. Like employees from other companies who have become involved in the labor struggle, Hinojos rattled off specific grievances at Eaton that included not getting paid for holiday work, constant Big Brother-type surveillance of the labor force by security cameras, and an exaggerated supervisorial monitoring of employee bathroom use.<\/p>\n
Hinojos recalled earning 125 pesos a day, or about nine bucks, when she was dismissed after three years of employment with Eaton. Although the Ju\u00e1rez resident had ample experience, she said her job was contingent on the completion of three-month work contracts with strict provisions. \u201cIf you don\u2019t comply, you\u2019re fired,\u201d she added. \u201cThey get rid of us the day they want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The obligatory question: \u201cHow does a family provider make ends meet in an expensive border city with such low pay?\u201d \u201cWe are children of God. We live by a miracle. We are good (budget) administrators,\u201d the worker-turned-political-activist said with a big laugh. She underscored that low-wage workers get by purchasing second-hand clothing and the like. \u201cThat\u2019s how we stretch the peso like gum.\u201d<\/p>\n
So how does a working-class single mom with day-to-day survival worries transform into a political contender? Determining that their demands were not being met, worker activists decided to use the upcoming municipal and state elections as a platform to publicize their cause. And Tonita was their choice for municipal president.<\/p>\n
Bursting with energy, Hinojos relies on a core of equally passionate activists from left, human rights and anti-gender violence movements. Among her enthusiastic supporters is Julian Contreras, who regards Tonita\u2019s pre-campaign as a historic milestone for Ju\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe candidacy of a maquiladora worker has no precedence. In the 50 year history of the maquiladoras here there never has been a candidacy of a worker,\u201d Contreras told FNS. \u201c(Workers) are the only ones who can stop the chaos in which we are submerged.\u201d Tonita\u2019s movement has national significance for Mexico, he said.<\/p>\n
FNS spent a good part of a weekend afternoon in February tagging along with the mayoral aspirant, Contreras and the rest of the crew on a mission of signature collecting in Ju\u00e1rez\u2019s Bellavista and adjoining neighborhoods. Reaching the people proved both a formidable physical and existential challenge.<\/p>\n
Located directly across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, Bellavista is a working-class and low-income section of the city with a long history of drug dealing and consumption. During the Great Violence of 2008-2012, Bellavista, which means \u201cBeautiful View\u201d in English, was the scene of numerous killings.<\/p>\n
Paved and dirt streets wind past cement, brick and adobe homes, some well-maintained but others literally crumbling to pieces in abandonment. Graffiti adorns walls, and dry palm trees droop in the sun. An art gallery displaying colorful paintings, bouncing children and religious ministries project another side of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Displayed and fluttering in the breeze in front of residents\u2019 homes or on walls, second-hand clothing from the U.S. for sale is ubiquitous.<\/p>\n
Although Bellavista\u2019s streets are mapped out, this reporter joked to a driver escorting Tonita and a band of about 20 supporters that the abrupt dead-end streets and outlets blocked by street repairs and neighborhood get-togethers don\u2019t appear on the map. To meet the people, the working class activists sometimes had to brave big dogs and locked metal doors.<\/p>\n
Tonita\u2019s foray into Bellavista resembled more of a social movement than a typical jab at political office. Attired in red t-shirts and clutching bullhorns, supporters rode around in a truck waving pictures of Tonita. A mobile sound system emitted jingles and the taped voice of their prospective working class mayor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi, I\u2019m Antonia Hinojos\u2026 show us the poor can govern,\u201d boomed one message.<\/p>\n
Dashing from street-to-street, Tonita wielded a stack of small flyers in one hand finessed with painted fingernails.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a project for a worker of the maquiladora industry to achieve an independent candidacy,\u201d the flyer read in part. \u201cWe are tired of the political parties. We do not want more of the same. For a government by the poor and for the poor!\u201d<\/p>\n
If nothing else, the novice pre-campaign of a woman factory worker was mastering the political ground game. \u201cIt\u2019s our way of making ourselves known in the city since we don\u2019t have television or the mass media,\u201d Hinojos explained.<\/p>\n
At one home an older woman peeked her head out of a door to tell Hinojos she was sympathetic to the message of change, but hinted she was supporting another hopeful in the crowded field for the mayor\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n
A man walking across the street in the direction of Tonita\u2019s team was invited to sign but declined with a curt, \u201cWhat For?\u201d He had just left a home topped with a flag of the ruling PRI party.<\/p>\n
Asked about her specific proposals for Ju\u00e1rez, Tonita responded that the movement possessed concrete plans for changes in the city but could not publicly reveal them now because doing so would risk her disqualification for violating an election law that strictly distinguishes between the pre-campaign, or primary phase, and the shortened general election campaign that begins after March 7.<\/p>\n
Simultaneous to the Bella Vista canvassing, another group of Hinojos\u2019 supporters, including former Lexmark plant workers who have maintained a months-long protest encampment outside the company\u2019s Ju\u00e1rez facility, staffed a downtown table at Avenida Ju\u00e1rez and Avenida 16 de Septiembre, an intersection which is once again among the favored destinations of the Juarez masses.<\/p>\n
As rock-n-roll songs from live bands lilted into the air, passing crowds packed nearby restaurants, surged around the human statue of a soldier, and halted for cell-phone snapshots in front of the two rows of the painted (and aesthetically controversial) horse statues that might be mistaken for giant sculptures of tutti-frutti candy. Some of the passerby signed their names for Tonita, table staffers reported.<\/p>\n
Tonita and her friends were on the streets a few days after Pope Francis’ historic visit to Ju\u00e1rez, where the Pontiff sympathetically addressed many of the issues at the forefront of the labor movement which gave birth to a history-making run for the mayor\u2019s office — poverty, inequality and the dignity of the worker.<\/p>\n
Acknowledging that she did not see the Pope in person, Hinojos said the Feb. 17 visit was viewed by many locals as a \u201chopeful\u201d event. \u201cIt\u2019s good he is aware of the necessities that we have here in Ju\u00e1rez and other places,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Though people are signing her petitions, Hinojos recognized the challenges of Ju\u00e1rez political culture. \u201cSome people are skeptical. They say, \u2018I am apolitical.\u2019 But I say it is time to wake ourselves up as workers,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt\u2019s time to support the working class. We want to arouse the consciousness of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susana Prieto, Ju\u00e1rez labor lawyer and Hinojos\u2019 pre-campaign advisor, criticized hurdles that make it \u201cimpossible for a common citizen to become a candidate.\u201d The Chihuahua State Electoral Institute\u2019s rule that to get in the general election independent mayoral contenders in Ju\u00e1rez must obtain valid signatures equivalent to 3\u00a0percent of the voter role, or about 1,000 signatures a day, is a burdensome requirement, Prieto insisted.<\/p>\n
The activist attorney calculated that one million pesos, or nearly $50,000, is needed to cover expenses to reach the 30,000-signature mark. The numerical threshold, she contended, favors wealthy individuals like the pre-candidate who is reportedly paying signature collectors 1500 pesos a week (approximately $85) plus 10 pesos a signature. The purported pay is much better than the average maquiladora worker earns for a week\u2019s sweat on the shop floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re undertaking a superhuman effort,\u201d Prieto said.<\/p>\n
Under reformed election law, for the first time independents like Hinojos can contest political power in Ju\u00e1rez and the state of Chihuahua. But Tonita is only one of seven pre-candidates attempting to make it on the mayor\u2019s ballot. The political bets are that some of the hopefuls — or even most — will fail to strike the magic 30,000.<\/p>\n
With the clock ticking, Prieto said she was recently approached by two other pre-candidates who were interested in discussing a coalition of sorts behind a single candidacy, but doubted whether the new election regulations would allow such a fusion at this late stage in the primary game.<\/p>\n
Prieto\u2019s husband, Raul Pena, insisted that Tonita\u2019s bid was an all-volunteer initiative, with the necessary gasoline, water, food and paper paid for from supporters\u2019 own pockets. Added to the neighborhood canvassing, which has covered at least one-third of the city, Pena said supporters were reaching out to workers outside industrial plants and distributing petitions to friends and family members \u2018like a chain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if Hinojos does not make it to the general election, Pena judges the political experience a positive one that establishes a precedent for future people\u2019s campaigns which could bear fruit.<\/p>\n
As for the pre-candidate herself, Hinojos speaks clearly about her roots and her vision. \u201cThis came from the workers\u2019 movement, to ask for better working conditions. We want to awaken people to fight for their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n