Meet the woman behind North Carolina’s immigrant-owned mask-sewing business
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For almost two decades, Leticia Mercado has been a textile worker, zooming along on a sewing machine, her hands a blur. In fact, when she spoke to Prism over Zoom on Tuesday, she was sitting at a sewing station in her garage, which has been converted into a wMeet the woman behind North Carolina’s immigrant-owned mask-sewing business
For almost two decades, Leticia Mercado has been a textile worker, zooming along on a sewing machine, her hands a blur. In fact, when she spoke to Prism over Zoom on Tuesday, she was sitting at a sewing station in her garage, which has been converted into a workspace. This is the site of her new business, Hecho en Carolina, one of the only mask-sewing businesses in the country run entirely by essential workers for essential workers—serving educators, restaurant workers, construction workers, and others working through the pandemic. The masks can be purchased individually online, or wholesale. Like countless immigrant workers nationwide, Mercado and her husband have been subjected to unsafe working conditions during the COVID-19 crisis. At the North Carolina textile plant where they worked, there was no social distancing or protocols for disinfecting. Even more alarming, workers were not required to wear masks. Mercado and her husband ultimately decided they would not risk their health or the health of their family to continue working at the plant. As a member of the Latino advocacy organization Siembra NC, Mercado brainstormed with the organization’s many volunteers—including Nikki Marín Baena—to figure out how she and her husband could safely continue making ends meet doing textile work. This is how Hecho en Carolina was born, with Marín Baena serving as a production and sales manager. The small, immigrant-owned business has already produced thousands of masks for other essential workers across the state, including the Guilford County Association of Educators. Read more