Bracelets for Sale
“A fish, a lion, a turkey, a cat.”, Manuel says, as he places small pottery animals on our table. “Only 10 pesos.”
Quickly realizing that we aren’t the type to buy small clay animals, he changes tactics.
“I’m hungry, I need some food”, he says, holding out his hand and putting on his sad and hungry face.
We have a conversation about his brothers and about school. He isn’t really paying attention, just answering while staring off into space, with his hand still waiting for some money.
With messy hair and dirt on his face, Carlos approaches our table and begins the routine of placing the small pottery animals on our table. We place the animals back in his basket, and ask him if he’s hungry. He nods, and we give him some soup and some bean tostadas.
I ask Carlos if he sells many pottery animals, and he shakes his head no as he shoves bite after bite into his mouth.
All of these children sell the exact same thing… is it a bad story like the children of Slumdog Millionaire, with evil men sending them out into the city everyday with a quota? Do they go to school? Do they have homes?
Local Convenience Store
A young girl that bears resemblance to Carlos is one of the more aggressive children… she just asks directly for money and food, skipping the pretense of asking you to buy something. Maybe only 7 years old, she’s already jaded and cynical, treating people like their only purpose on this planet is to give her what she asks for. Declining politely, her face shows her disgust towards you. She may be the most in need of love, but her cynicism makes it harder to receive it.
We offer her some food, and she takes it quickly, and then asks us to give her everything else on our table as well.
As we walk down the hill from the San Cristobal church, two young boys ask us for help with a school project, they just want to collect our names and where we are from. They speak English well, and engage in a bit of flattery as we chat. “I like your backpack, it’s really nice”, one says. They hand us a piece of paper and a pen, asking us to write down our name and home country. The last column is labeled Donation, and some people named John and Mary have already contributed 1000 pesos (~$85) and 500 pesos, respectively. “For school”, they say. It’s all an obvious scam, the pen doesn’t write and all of the names are clearly written by children in the same handwriting… Only 10 years old, and they are already con artists.
Mother and Daughter Sales Team
Children are everywhere, offering to shine your shoes, selling clay animals or colorful friendship bracelets, outright asking for money. They are out in force during normal school hours, clearly education isn’t the priority. Some are dressed in traditional Mayan apparel, roaming the street with their mothers. Others are dirty and disheveled.
Sitting at an outdoor cafe at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, a horribly drunk man approaches our table. He looks as if he’s slept in these clothes for days, covered in dirt and vomit, with dried mucus over his face. His speech is unintelligible, but it is clear that he is asking for money. One of the cafe employees asks him to leave and he gets angry, before moving on up the street. Is this the future that these children have to look forward to, with no education and no skills, but an abundance of cheap alcohol?
A Member of The Shoe Shine Gang, and another Street Kid Selling Necklaces
If we give them money, does it help? Or does it go to the mafia? Are they missing school because the need to eat is greater? Or is their family unable to afford the school fees? The Catholic Church is a powerful force in the lives of the Mexican people, can it do more to promote education and reduce poverty? Family sizes are large, larger than incomes. Are there policy decisions that the local government can make? Is there a solution?
A Future Clay Animal Salesman? Or Future Scholar?
Jeremy, this is my favorite post of all time. I love you a million times over for sharing this. These are perhaps the most troubling questions: How can we “teach [our children] how to fish” amidst almost impossible social and economic infrastructure? How can we contribute? Is money/food enough or too much? When do short-term benefits become preclusive to long-term change? How can we individually and collectively empower individuals/villages/countries to rise above such challenges? In NYC, I ask myself similar questions each time I come into contact with a homeless person (at least 5 times a day). It seems we have gotten into the habit of deferring these “problems” to other governmental or charitable agencies. I suspect there is always more that I can do, but I am still searching for the right algorithm. Thank you for sharing. You’re doing good work, my friend.
Thank you Jessi. I don’t think I have enough local cultural knowledge to really grasp the whole situation. A lot of the kids are from neighboring Indigenous villages, largely of Mayan descent. For many Spanish is a 3rd language. The wealth disparity is tremendous. Even though we weren’t able to make a large impact, we were able to be compassionate
Great post, I was troubled by the same things in San Christobal. I didn’t invest enough time to understand the plight properly, so I’m in the same boat as you: many questions, no good answers.
Hi Korey, we are on the same page. I think there is a huge cultural quagmire here.
It’s something I struggle with every day. You don’t see children in the U.S.–I’m sure they are there, just hidden by the system. It’s much easier to refute adults, with “you could have made better decisions”, or “You’re living with the decisions you’ve made”. But how do you get a job if you don’t have a phone number they can call you at? Or an address to send your W-2 to?
This week I was introduced to your blog by my boss, and I can’t stop reading it. I am originally from Venezuela and my parents lived in Mexico for a few years and I had the chance to travel to a lot of the places you did. This post really touched me because all though I’ve lived in the US for a good 2/3 of my life, I have also been exposed to this type of situation my whole life. I even had a chance to live and volunteer in Cusco, Peru where this is quite normal. In this type of situation it is always best to give them food, it is what I have always done. You never know what they’ll do with any money you give them. People here in the US don’t realize how much of a disparity there is between poverty here and poverty in other places of the world. And really don’t realize how good we have it here because at least there are programs and agencies in place that somewhat help people in poverty. Unfortunately that isn’t necessarily the case in other countries. I think that is one of the reasons of why you see so many kids on the streets. I also don’t think they have laws in place like we do where children have to go to school even if you can’t afford to. In the US for children in poverty, it’s possible that the only meals they will eat during the day are the ones provided to them in the school. Making it a safe haven for them in some situations. Thanks for opening up the eyes for people to really see how the other half lives.