Gamins often bear the scars of 
earlier abuse as well as those of 
their rugged street life. Many 
children who work and beg in the 
streets maintain some family- 
connections. Others are truly- 
abandoned or have chosen to leave 
home. 
they spend the vast majority of their 
time in the streets. Some work or beg 
in pursuit of money or goods to bring 
home after nightfall. Others return 
home only around religious holidays 
or when driven by some impulse to 
make contact. 
Carmen (age 6), Elena (age 5). and 
Maria (la niha, or “the baby”) are 
sisters who beg together within a cir- 
cumscribed number of blocks in down- 
tow n Cali, appearing at the same open- 
air restaurant every morning. I was 
struck from the outset by the contrast 
between their joyful play among them- 
selves and the sad tale they presented 
together while “working.” Coached by 
her older sisters, cowering a little, 
hands outstretched. Maria was alw ays 
the first to approach a stranger and 
begin to tell their story. Over the 
months, I came to know them — and 
their mother. She was not in a home 
for the destitute, where her daughters’ 
story placed her, but only a few blocks 
away, working as a fruit vendor. 
Mother and daughters traveled daily 
from the squatter settlement where 
they lived to Cali’s downtown area. 
The girls would then leave their 
mother to beg on their own, but they 
would check in with her periodically 
and return home with her at night. 
With the exception of such girls, 
who are under some family supervi- 
sion, the gamin population is almost 
wholly male. The careful observer may 
witness a pair of young girls moving 
together through the streets, almost 
identical in mannerism and appear- 
ance to their male counterparts, or 
hear of a particular girl who has be- 
come a member of a group of boys. 
More often, however, a girl who lives 
independently of her family is drawn 
instead into organized prostitution, ac- 
cepting refuge and shelter of the most 
exploitive kind. 
Children who have actually been 
orphaned or physically abandoned 
constitute the smallest category of 
street urchins. The misperception that 
they are in the majority has been fos- 
tered. in part, by superficial writing 
about street life, based on quick in- 
terviews. Gamins often readily de- 
scribe themselves as orphans, both be- 
cause good storytelling is basic to suc- 
cessful begging and because denial 
may be the most effective defense 
against inner pain and conflict. 
The truly abandoned child may fre- 
quently be the one the family is least 
able to care for, perhaps because he 
suffers from some physical impair- 
ment or neurological disorder. Such 
children are least equipped to face 
life in the streets, but there are few 
care facilities that can offer an al- 
ternative. There is no doubt that many 
simply perish. 
At age ten. Enrique had been in 
the streets less than a year when I 
met him. Originally he attributed his 
deformed hand and severely scarred 
arm to a terrible bus accident in which 
he was injured and both his parents 
were killed. Later, in a quiet, collected 
manner, he told his true story. When 
his family first arrived in Cali, 
Enrique had accompanied his mother 
as she begged on the streets. Then, 
gradually, he had begun to beg alone, 
returning home each evening — to a 
piece of canvas stretched over a 
wooden frame, underneath a city 
street overpass. "One night I came 
back, and there was another family 
there. They said my family left at 
midday. I don't know where they went. 
So, now I live with the other boys 
on the street. But I’m not alone.” 
There had been no bus accident: En- 
rique's deformed hand w as a birth de- 
fect: his scar the result of a beating. 
A child in the final category exists 
at the opposite extreme: he is the aban- 
doning. not the abandoned, child. Hav- 
ing opted for a life on the streets, 
such children have little or no contact 
with their families. While they inter- 
act with the other street children, it 
is they who are the most noticeable 
and the most difficult to understand. 
Not yet ten. Jorge is a veteran of 
the streets. He believes his family is 
still in Buenaventura. Colombia's busy 
southern port, but has never been back 
to find out. "There wasn't any food 
to eat. so somebody had to leave.” 
Over time, more is revealed, and par- 
ticular scars are related to beatings 
he received from his stepfather. "At 
first, if 1 came home with too little, 
he made me sleep outside, but later, 
he started to beat me a lot.” Jorge's 
only attempt to fight back, striking 
his target with a well-aimed stone, was 
43 
