Guatemala City —

In the bracing morning air, workers leave their homes in the outer suburbs and hurry toward the industrial buildings lining the Guatemalan capital’s highways.

Some go by foot. Others by motorcycle; whole families on the school commute, children in their mothers’ arms. Many more travel on old yellow school buses, imported from the United States after decades of service.

The workers are almost entirely women, ranging from their late teens to early 60s. They stream into factory buildings past heavy metal gates and 10-foot walls topped with barbed wire.

What happens inside these garment factories, known as “maquilas” throughout Central America, is largely hidden from public view – even though they employ tens of thousands of workers and are crucial to Guatemala’s economy

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