The drama unfolded before one of the NACLA editors as she was
sipping coffee at an outdoor caf6 in Cochabamba, Bolivia several
years ago. A little girl, no more than six, was crying forlornly at the
perimeter of the tables. An older girl, perhaps 10 or 12 whom she
took to be the child’s sister, was cajoling the youngster: you must do it! go
ahead! The little girl wept, and shook her head. The older girl would not
relent, and gave her sister a shove. The little girl, her cheeks still wet with
tears, approached the table. Her eyes cast to the floor in shame, she put out
cupped heads and asked for some coins.
Childhood-a phase of life meant to be carefree and safe, a time of learning and discovery-is
for many children in Latin America an initiation into hardship, shame and suffering. The lives of
children bear the strongest imprint of the tremendous social and economic upheaval that has rocked
the region over the past 15 years. The flexibilization of the labor force, for instance, has resulted in
an explosion of child street vendors. The simultaneous breakdown of the family and the stripping
away of social protections traditionally provided by the state have forced children to contribute to
family income or fend for themselves. These same pressures have led children to seek other struc-
tures-sometimes illicit-of authority and camaraderie.
I n this report, we look at Latin America’s poor children in the context of the recent shift to
neoliberal economic policies, the unambiguous growth in poverty, and a process of democrati-
zation that has laid bare the once-masked cleavages between social classes. Nancy Scheper-
Hughes and Daniel Hoffman argue that in Brazil the term “street children” is used by one class
(the wealthy) to classify those children of another class (the poor) who have the audacity to trans-
gress social boundaries. In fact, the authors say, most of those considered street children maintain
close ties to family, and are in the street because it is the locus of economic struggle. Gilberto
Dimenstein looks at the experience of young girls who have been swept up into the prostitution
racket in the Brazilian Amazon, a set-up reminiscent of slavery. Underlying the blatant exploitation
of minors by adults is the playing out of the new social and economic relations in an extreme form.
These girls end up on the street as a consequence of the pull of hoped-for economic gain and the
push of broken homes. Studying the sicarios, Colombia’s young hired assassins, Alonzo Salazar
reveals how strains on the family and limited economic prospects propel teenage boys into the
hands of the wealthy drug traffickers.
At this moment, we are witnessing the collision of two trends. On the one hand, as the UNICEF
report, The State of the World’s Children 1994, points out, gradual advances in science and com-
munications over the course of history, coupled with rising awareness, mean that we now have the
ability to eradicate childhood disease and hunger which have plagued the world for centuries.
On the other hand, we are living in an era in which the ascendency of free-market economic poli-
cies has grossly increased the disparities between rich and poor, and created massive social disor-
ganization that has undermined the traditional supports of children’s lives. This NACLA report
examines the lives of Latin America’s children who are caught in the vortex of these contradictory
tendencies.
