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maquiladora

American  
[muh-kee-luh-dawr-uh, mah-kee-ah-daw-rah] / məˌki ləˈdɔr ə, mɑˌki ɑˈdɔ rɑ /

noun

maquiladoras plural
  1. a factory run by a U.S. company in Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor and lax regulation.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of maquiladora

1985–90; Mexican Spanish, perhaps < Spanish maquilar extract a toll

Vocabulary lists containing maquiladora

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Employees at the maquiladora, as the border plants are known, had long been represented by a union affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers.

From Seattle Times May 31, 2022

Mexican and local U.S. officials hope the maquiladora vaccination program will encourage the United States to reopen the land border with Mexico.

From New York Times Jul. 26, 2021

This summer, the municipal government announced a new plan, called the Juárez Initiative, to repurpose an old export factory, or maquiladora, as a holding station for asylum seekers who are returned under M.P.P.

From The New Yorker Oct. 1, 2019

Edita's daughter, Rosa, was working in one such maquiladora in 1995.

From BBC Mar. 11, 2019

An Arca Continental spokesman said its wages and benefits “were 48% to 120% better than the maquiladora industry”, while it offered “one of the best-paid jobs in the city”.

From The Guardian Feb. 17, 2019

“I didn’t hear a word about maquiladoras and factories and industries on the Mexican side and holding them accountable,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 22, 2025

For 10 years, they shared a room and worked long hours for low wages with no benefits in maquiladoras, the foreign-owned factories that dot the length of the U.S.-Mexico border.

From Seattle Times Jun. 3, 2023

Mr. Colom had success in textiles and Guatemala’s entry into large-scale production through assembly plants known in Spanish as maquiladoras.

From Washington Post Jan. 24, 2023

Some economists, however, argue that the use of inexpensive parts produced in maquiladoras allowed the U.S. automobile industry to survive.

From Textbooks Dec. 14, 2022

He had taken Celia’s tales about the maquiladoras and El Patron’s stories about Durango and mixed them with episodes of El Latigo Negro.

From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer

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