Sarah Gonzalez

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.

And as we're talking, Maria notices a little spot at the hem of my shirt where a tiny piece of thread was left over.

Uh-huh.

Like half a centimeter.

Uh-huh.

And she goes, I guess the trimmer working on this was in a rush.

But then again, they're all in a rush.

The shirt I'm wearing this day with Maria, made in Vietnam.

My pants, made in Bangladesh.

My bra, made in China.

But the clothes that Maria works on are made in the US, in Los Angeles, California.

And a lot of people love the idea of making things like clothes in America.

One of the Trump administration's goals is to bring manufacturing in general back to the U.S.

But what people might picture when they think of a made in America future might be different from the made in America we have now.

When you start out as a garment worker, you often start out as a trimmer, like Maria.

Then you might get trained on a sewing machine.

But Maria never moved on to a machine.

She likes being a trimmer.