I refer to the urgent working definition appeal asked by Thomas Kruse.
According to the definition of maquila given by a Web site whose text was transcribed by Doug the word came from the Arabic "mákila (capacity measure), which defines the amount of grain, flour or oil that the miller gets for grinding." Maquila is maquia in Portuguese. The dictionary of the Brazilian Literary Academy also gives the same meaning and traces its origin to mákila too, but with a slight difference: mákila would be in Arabic a cask used to measure liquids, grain or olives.
Nothwithstanding this, I dare to trace another etymology for maquila in the case of the economic activity referred to by Thomas. It is a short for maquiladora, that is the word used for those assembling factories in the frontier between Mexico and USA. Both in Brazil and Argentina maquiladora is the woman who does maquillage, who applies cosmetics to the faces of her clients (the word maquiadora is also used). In this sense maquiladora came from the French word maquillage (makeup). Maybe the word used in Mexico has the same original meaning.
Thus, the etymology maquillage (makeup) makes more economic sense than mákila, since makeup also means "to form by fitting together or assembling"
(Webster). According to the Larousse, a figurative meaning for the verb maquiller is "altérer pour donner une apparence trompeuse: maquiller les faits." ("to alter something to give a deceitful appearance: maquiller the facts", what is also used in the colloquial language of the Eastern-Southern Cone). By means of maquillage a not so attractive woman may become a belle (as long as the effect lasts, of course)...
BTW, Thomas: at asking for maquila, maquiladora or maquillage are you doing a metaphorical reference to the Chilean military--"protected" democracy (or dictablanda)? ;>)
En solidarité, Roberto
1848 / 1998: Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch !
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans (....) Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes Le grand PARTI DES TRAVAILLEURS. (L' Internationale)
############################################## Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 17:26:17 -0500 From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> Subject: Re: urgent question Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
Thomas Kruse wrote:
I need a good, short working defintion of what a "maquila" is
Wow, go to <http://www.hotbot.com/ (i.e., search Hotbot for "maquila") and you get lots of stuff selling cheap labor to manufacturers. For example <http://www.apparel.com.gt/maquila.html>:
<quote> THE MAQUILA INDUSTRY IN GUATEMALA
WHAT IS MAQUILA? The term comes from the arabic mákila (capacity measure) which defines de amount of grain, flour or oil that the miller gets for grinding.
In the apparel industry, maquila is an economic activity performed by factories that produce for account of third party; by contract with other people who design the goods, plan production processes, provide raw materials and retain ownership of the goods -- meaning that maquila factories engage only in the assembly of apparel.
Saudações de Roberto
1848 / 1998: Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch !
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans (....) Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes Le grand PARTI DES TRAVAILLEURS. (L' Internationale)