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Chanchanit
Martorell
Urban Planning '93
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It's a startling scene: a 12-foot chain-link fence topped with razor wire surrounds two sewing machines set on two small tables, identical women's blouses spilling out from underneath the needles.
The Smithsonian Institution's recreation of the El Monte sweatshop where Thai immigrants once labored up to 22 hours a day for 59 cents an hour is accurate, says Chanchanit Martorell, but doesn't convey the full impact of the slave-like conditions the workers endured.
Martorell, Urban Planning '93, should know: she was there in August 1995 when state and local law enforcement agencies raided the facility. More recently, she helped the Smithsonian put the exhibit together.
"In El Monte, all the windows and doors were boarded up, the lighting was dim, it was dusty and filthy inside -- the museum did a great job assembling everything, but it can't really capture what it felt like," she said.
As co-founder and executive director of the Los Angeles-based Thai Community Development Center, Martorell had been asked to offer assistance to the 72 Thais freed in the raid. Since then, she and attorney Julie Su have garnered international headlines for their efforts on behalf of the workers, impoverished immigrants who spoke little or no English.
But the center's efforts on behalf of the El Monte workers are only one example of the wide-ranging services it offers to the estimated 50,000 Thais in Southern California -- the largest Thai community outside Thailand.
Established in 1994, the center is a non-profit, community-based organization offering bilingual and bicultural referral, legal and emergency services, language assistance, housing and economic development programs.
"Our mission is to provide social services to help meet immigrants' basic survival needs, to develop affordable housing, and to assist small businesses," Martorell said. "We just completed one affordable housing project in Hollywood, and are hoping to launch two more."
Herself a child of poor immigrants, Martorell came to Los Angeles from Bangkok at age four. A political science major as a UCLA undergraduate, she was considering law school when she took a course on planning in communities of color taught by Leo Estrada.
"I had not known anything about the planning field, and it really opened my eyes," she said. "I was really impressed by the emphasis oncommunity-level planning and the professors' own connections with the community."
The training she received as a master's student is something shecalls on every day, "whether it's developing affordable housing, or community organizing, or conducting needs assessments in the community," she added.
Her internship with the Little Tokyo Service Center, headed by Bill Watanabe, MSW '72, was also invaluable. "I owe a lot to Bill for mentoring me, helping the center set up its board and some of the other fundamental things we needed," Martorell said.
And the 72 El Monte garment workers? "They have gone through an amazing transformation," she said. "Before they were liberated they felt helpless. Now, they're active in the movement to shut down sweatshops. It's amazing."