Sweatshop exhibit tours to controversy

By K. CONNIE KANG

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES --- The Smithsonian Institution's acclaimed but controversial exhibit on sweatshops --- one that other museums have declined to show --- opens today at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance.

A centerpiece of the exhibit, "Between Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops 1820 --- Present," is a re-creation of the El Monte, Calif., factory where dozens of Thai garment workers recently sewed in virtual slavery for brand-name clothing manufacturers and retailers.

On Aug. 2, 1995, authorities freed 71 workers from the suburban Los Angeles apartment complex where some had worked as long as seven years behind razor wire and locked doors.

The exhibit re-creates sections of the factory, complete with a chain-link fence, razor wire and sewing machines. It offers a glimpse into the plight of the workers, mostly young women from Thai villages who were tricked into coming to the United States by ring leaders in their native land.

Visitors can also see documents used to smuggle the workers into the country, including a counterfeit passport and a contract the workers had to sign promising to pay back $5,000 for travel and other expenses.

The Smithsonian exhibit faced stiff opposition from manufacturers before it opened in Washington, D.C., in April 1998.

The Smithsonian had planned to take the show on the road, but the idea was scratched in July 1998, after museums in San Francisco, Chicago and New York turned it down.

Now that the exhibit has shifted to Los Angeles, exhibit co- curator Harry R. Rubenstein praised the Museum of Tolerance for its decision to be its host.

"It is a matter of courage for a museum like the Museum of Tolerance to take an exhibit like this because they do rely on private and corporate sponsors," he said, "and you don't know whether a show like this will hurt you."

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