maquiladora

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Mexican Spanish maquiladora, from maquilar (“assemble”).

Noun

maquiladora (plural maquiladoras)

1. An assembly plant in Mexico owned by a company from the United States or another foreign country, using cheap local labour and imported components, and which then exports its products to the company's country of origin; also (by extension) similar factories in other countries. [from 20th c.]
   • 2013, Amy Wilentz, Farewell, Fred Voodoo, Simon & Schuster, page 114:

     If such maquiladora projects are to be the model for Haiti's economic future, they will simply create future generations of sweatshop labor at subsistence wages.

   • 2014 May 4, Ed Vulliamy, The Guardian:

     The girls were invariably captured while running errands in the centre of town, or on their way to or from work in the hundreds of maquiladoras: sweatshop assembly plants that constitute the economy of Juárez, manufacturing (for rock-bottom wages) the goods that America and Europe deem essential to keep their supermarket shelves and car-concession outlets stocked.

Translations

an assembly plant in Mexico near the border with the United States

• Portuguese: maquiladora f

Further reading

• “maquiladora”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• maquiladora on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Mexican Spanish maquiladora, from maquilar (“assemble”).

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.ki.laˈdo.ɾɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.ki.laˈdo.ɾɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.ki.laˈdo.ɾa/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /mɐ.ki.lɐˈdo.ɾɐ/ [mɐ.ki.lɐˈðo.ɾɐ]

Noun

maquiladora f (plural maquiladoras)

1. feminine singular of maquilador
2. maquiladora (an assembly plant in Mexico near the border with the United States)

Spanish

Etymology

From maquilar +‎ -dora.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /makilaˈdoɾa/ [ma.ki.laˈð̞o.ɾa]
• Rhymes: -oɾa
• Syllabification: ma‧qui‧la‧do‧ra

Noun

maquiladora f (plural maquiladoras)

1. assembly plant

   Synonym: maquila

Descendants

• → English: maquiladora

Noun

maquiladora f (plural maquiladoras)

1. female equivalent of maquilador

Further reading

• “maquiladora”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10