Maquiladora

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Dr. Goodword
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Maquiladora

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Aug 27, 2022 7:12 pm

• maquiladora •


Pronunciation: mê-ki-lê-do-rê • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A US or other foreign assembly plant located just below the Mexican border employing labor at a much cheaper rate than is possible north of the border. These factories assemble products that are then shipped north, tariff-free, back to the US.

Notes: We often write of words that are established in the language by virtue of media repetition. Today's word is one that has not set its roots because of media indifference. (I suppose it is rather long for a news medium.) Remember that the "qu" is pronounced [k].

In Play: According to Newsweek (May 20, 1991), "Since the mid-1960s US companies have been setting up maquiladoras in Mexico and shipping the tariff-free products back to American markets." The N.Y. Times claimed on May 8, 1997, "Many of those jobs have gone to maquiladoras, whose payrolls have expanded by 300,000 in two years." NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, was signed in 1994.

Word History: This Good Word is an American Spanish word that originally meant "the place where the miller gets his cut." Maquiladora is from Spanish maquila, meaning that portion of the flour or meal given to the miller in return for milling grain. Old Spanish picked the word up from Arabic makila "measured, measure of capacity" from the past participle of kala "to measure", during the Moorish conquest of Spain (711-1492). In Mexico and Central American, however, maquila has come to mean "factory for export goods" and maquilar, "to assemble for export". Exactly what happened to this word between Spain and Mexico has everyone scratching their heads.
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bbeeton
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Re: Maquiladora

Postby bbeeton » Sat Aug 27, 2022 10:18 pm

Reminds me of the Scots ballad "The Maid Gaed tae the Mill", where her corn was ground "mill and multure free". (Here, corn is *not* maize, but some other, unspecified, grain.)

Philip Hudson
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Re: Maquiladora

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Aug 29, 2022 10:26 pm

For shame bbeeton! What if some innocent child should read this! :lol: :roll: :lol:
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

David Myer
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Re: Maquiladora

Postby David Myer » Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:57 am

Marvellous reminiscence, Barbara. I was moved to look up the ballad and read the words.

First there is a great Youtube clip (audio only), of Ewan McCall and Peggy Seeger singing it in the fifties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7SZbzz ... anannsidhe

Difficult to understand a word of the vernacular. But fun anyway.

Then there are the words. This is the first verse:

The maid gaed to the mill by nicht,
Hey, hey, sae wanton!
The maid gaed to the mill by nicht,
Hey, sae wanton she!
She swore by a' the stars sae bricht
That she should hae her corn ground,
She should hae her corn ground
Mill and multure free

The rest can be viewed here: https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/t ... emill.html

Well, I have never heard of multure so I looked it up. It turns out to be a sort of barter system. You take the wheat from your small holding to get it ground, and the multure is the proportion of the finished product that the miller gets in lieu of payment.

I must try and slip it into my conversation. This may not be easy.


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