Chino and Sonrisa
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Chino
is having another one of his epileptic attacks. His friends have tried
to get him to stop sniffing paint-thinner, which provokes them. But
he keeps on despite the fits. He doesn't care.
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Lalo and his
father Martín
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They
would run to join the others in the derelict building in the middle
of the night with cartons of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice-cream.
The party went on until everybody was too full to eat any more. After
they had broken into the same ice-cream parlour several nights in a
row they were raided by plainclothes men. The police beat them up, shaved
their heads and stole their money. At the time Lalo's mother was in
jail for shoplifting.
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Julio Cesar ("Cagón")
and Chikis
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"I
think that I've been a good mother even though Julio Cesar left me.
He started wandering off when he was four years old, and as time went
by I had to go farther and farther to find him. After my second son
was born and my husband died in an accident my strength failed me. I
finally found him in an institution for street children and begged him
to come home. He only wanted to know where his real mother was. He didn't
want to see me because I was his adopted mother but I knew that his
real mother didn't want anything to do with him. How could I tell him
that?"
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Toño and
Chikelin
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Chikelin
was badly beaten by his stepfather and left home. Soon after he arrived
on the streets he became friends with Abuelo, who worked in a news stand.
All the street children around the bus terminal would borrow cartoons
to read and the newsdealers would give them odd jobs. This was a place
where the children were liked. The taxi drivers a little closer to the
bus terminal were also friends of the children and helped them out with
new clothes and things to eat. Chikelin ran all sorts of errands for
Abuelo and started to sell newspapers. It didn't take long before he
was living with Abuelo and his family. About a year later, Chikelin
moved back home to his mother. His stepfather had been sentenced to
jail.
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Ismael and Negra
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Ismael sings in the subway. Sunday morning riding towards Chapultepec Park he looks the other passengers over andchoses his prey. A nicely dressed man, no wife, no children. "Daddy!", he cries, jumps into the man's lap and starts singing. The other passengers laugh. The man can't resist, and gives him some spare change.
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Anna
was living with her two month-old baby and her new boyfriend, Miguel,
in a garbage room by the train station. The two metal entrance-doors
let no light into the windowless room. In the afternoon the garbage
men dump their load of eggshells, leftovers and undefinable corruption
on the floor. There is always a sweet smell in the room. One day the
hungry baby wouldn't stop crying and Miguel killed him because he
was high and couldn't stand the noise.
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