Sarah Gonzalez

Maria has been in the U.S.

almost 30 years, and she has done the exact same job the entire time.

She's a trimmer at a garment factory in Los Angeles.

Half of what is left of the garment manufacturing industry in the U.S.

is in Los Angeles.

And when I ask Maria what a trimmer does in a U.S.

garment factory, Maria reaches for my shirt.

She tucks her hand under the bottom of my shirt, at the hem, the back of her warm fingers, on my bare stomach, the way only a grandma can do.

That was so cute.

She taps all the places on my top where a piece of thread would be left behind when a hem or a seam or a stitch ends.

The side of my stomach, at the side seam.

My shoulder, where a sleeve was sewn on.

The back of my neck, where the tag was sewn on.

And when she's tapping me like this, it feels like something my grandma's sister would do, actually.

Like this blessing.

And right now, when you touched me like this, it was like...

And when I tell Maria, she looks at me like, I understand.

Maria's job is to cut off all the leftover thread.

That's what a trimmer does, all day, crouched over.

Just snip, snip, snip, snip, snipping loose threads.