ABSTRACT
When I interviewed Myrna in 1986, she had been working for the same garment firm for 30 years. She began working at age 15, sewing gloves at home in the old needlework industry. Myrna originally made $10 a week working in the original plant in Mayaguez, which has since shut down, and she now commutes to work in a branch plant in a nearby town. She complains of the commute: "Yo me tenga que levantar a las cinco de la mañana, para ya a las seis menos cuarto ir donde la muchacha que me lleva, entonces para Rincón. Yo no tengo carro, yo mientras pueda para Rincón no voy. Yo trabajé allá, trabajé allá dos años y sufrí mucho, porque usted sabe que el que no tiene carro, que no tiene para moverse, sufre." (I have to get up at five in the morning, in order to leave at a quarter to six for the girl who takes me to Rincón. I don't have a car, as long as I can I won't go to Rincón. I worked there, worked there two years, and suffered a lot, because you know that if you don't have a car, if you have no way to move, you suffer.) Rincón is the branch plant located furthest away from Mayaguez.
