MCC Faces of Globalization Border Encounter
Stories of apparent weakness overcoming apparent strength were a theme during the MCC Faces of Globalization Border Encounter, Oct. 29-Nov. 2, in South Texas. Twelve MCC staff and board members spent two days visiting maquilas (assembly plants) and colonias (unincorporated settlements where maquila workers and others live) and attended the annual conference of the Unidad Cristiana de Iglesias Menonitas (UCIM) in Brownsville.
While planned separately from the rest of the MCC series of consultations on economic globalization, the tour and UCIM conference yielded much insight into this topic, and presentations from the conference are therefore included here. At the conference, participants heard the stories of Mennonite churches in South Texas, and shared in their reflections about the effects of globalization and other forces on the border. A highlight was a panel that included a labor rights activist and a maquila manager who had grown up in a UCIM church, Iglesia Menonita del Cordero.
