About Us

Hecho en Carolina began with a phone call.  

A teacher reached out to textile worker members of Siembra NC, a grassroots deportation defense and labor organizing group in North Carolina, to find out if they could help fill a shortage of masks for frontline workers serving meals to families struggling because of the pandemic. 

At the same time, some of Hecho en Carolina's seamstresses started to see COVID-19 outbreaks at the Randolph County production facilities where they worked, which often did not disclose when workers got sick or make social distancing possible. A few family members tested positive. They needed another way to earn an income, safely. 

Letty, Jose and Toña retrofitted a garage as a commercial cut-and-sew workshop, and they worked throughout the summer to design prototypes for the Guilford County Association of Educators. 

We helped organizations test and design patterns that fit especially for workers who need to use them all day. 

We've moved on to other projects: many of our members have been able at times to return to jobs they loved in manufacturing, and we have also seen the need to continue our organizing, to fight against the decisions that are crumbling our state's public infrastructure. We are coming.