maquiladora

[muh-kee-luh-dawr-uh, mah-kee-ah-daw-rah]

noun

plural

maquiladoras 

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of maquiladora¹

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

Example Sentences

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

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The giraffe’s arrival was a point of pride for Ciudad Juárez, a tough, dusty city across from El Paso, Texas, that is known for its hundreds of maquiladora assembly factories and its endemic gang violence.

Read more on Seattle Times

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.

Read more on Seattle Times

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

Read more on Washington Post

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

Read more on Seattle Times