American-owned manufacturing plants in Mexican border cities, called maquiladoras, have been around for more than four decades. Business has not been great in recent years with low wage jobs shifting over to Asia and the U.S. recession devastating sales. But now many maquiladoras that survived this downturn are on the rebound, adding new jobs all along the U.S. Mexican border. The Fronteras Changing America Desk launches a new series that looks at what's working for the maquiladoras, and why. Hernan Rozemberg begins, with a little history.
