Disposable Children: The Hazards of Growing Up Poor in Latin America
UnpublishedMay/June
1994
Volume:
27
Number:
6
Article
Marjorie Agosín
It's summer in the southern hemisphere, and a warm bright- ness permeates the beginning of the days. There is an insinuating aroma of fresh fruit, especially peaches and figs.
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.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes & Daniel Hoffman
In Brazil, a poor, ragged kid running along an unpaved road in a favela or playing in a field of sugar cane is just a kid. That same child, transposed to the main streets and plazas of town, is a threat, a potentially dangerous "street kid.
The Sandinistas As a member of NACLA's edi- torial board, I wish to express in the most explicit way my deep disappointment with the publica- tion of Roger Burbach's "Nica- ragua: The Pot Boils Over" [Janu- ary/February 1994]. I will not argue with Burbach's piece, since he does not offer any evidence to back up his insinuations.
Gilberto Dimenstein
The girls are attracted by promises of work in a restaurant or luncheonette, but then are sent to work in night clubs in faraway places in the Amazon. Even the more experienced girls, who know that they are going to sell their bodies, have little idea of the regime of slavery that awaits them.
With this issue, NACLA wel- comes Rafael Barajas, "El Fisg6n, " as a regular contributor to our newsbrief section (see page 2). El Fisg6n, whose work is featured in the Mexico City daily La Jornada, is one of Latin America's preemi- nent political cartoonists.
Gilberto Dimenstein
The Yanomami, intrigued by his green eyes, watched him. They were afraid, A thinking that he was an apparition After all, they had never seen a man Yan with green eyes.
If the Mango Tree Could Speak a video by Patricia Goudvis (distrib- uted by New Day Films, 22 D Holly- wood Ave., Hohokus, NJ 07423), 1993, 58 mins.
FR
Clinton's First Year: Trade Above All No sooner had Colombia's president, C6sar Gaviria, been propelled to the secre- tary generalship of the Organiza- tion of American States (OAS) by what the Council on Hemispheric Affairs has called "Washington's graceless back-room bullying and salon cajolery," than he announced that hemispheric free trade would become the organization's primary goal. "We want the different trade agreements.
Phillip Berryman
The secular Left and progressive Catholics have been bewildered and dismayed at the rapid expansion of what they see as alienating-and imported-religion. At the barrio level, however, the evangelical churches may be closer to popular culture than the Catholic Church is.
Daniel Hoffman
The National Movement of Street Children (Movimento Nacional de Meninos e Meninas de Rua, or MNMMR), a voluntary NGO, was founded in 1985 by activists and "street educators" who sought to empower and organize street kids in their own environment-the public spaces of the "city centers. At present, the Movement includes some 3,000 "street educators" united under local commissions in 25 states, reaching tens of thou- sands of children and adolescents in the streets and parks of Brazilian cities.
Eugenia María Zamora Chavarría
The most visible tragedy in Latin American cities has been the appearance of millions of street children. Like the tip of an iceberg, the appear- ance of the street children represents a tragedy of much greater proportions.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on November 20, 1989. It has now been ratified by 159 countries, including every country in the Americas except for the United States.
It is simply no longer necessary, and therefore no longer acceptable, for millions of families to endure preventable disease and malnutrition and for millions of their children to suffer frequent illness, poor growth, and early death. Through the lens of histo- ry, what is happening now in the developing world may come to be seen as the begin- ning of a final offen- sive against some of the oldest and most common enemies of the world's children.
Daniel Hoffman
The Child and Adolescent Statute (Estatuto da Crianfa e do Adolescente), passed into law in 1990 by the Brazilian national Congress, was the result of intensive lobbying by a broad coalition of Brazilian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and activists on behalf of the rights of children. The Statute radically reformed the legal status of children, redefined the responsibilities of the State and civil society, and mandated the creation of participatory councils at the federal, state and local levels.
Alonzo Salazar
For the children of Medellin, drug trafficking brings the fantasy of wealth and the reality of death. First it becomes normal to witness killing and dying; then, to kill and to die.