Living in the Streets of El Alto

By
Edgar Villacorta Quisbert

To 4000 meters of the sea level, in the city of El Alto was born a child to which

his parents put the name of Marco, that particular day of his birth his parents, some

honest people but poor have been waiting some good months for the arrival of that day.

However the birth of Marco had provoked a terrible consequence for the family cause

his mother had died as a consequence of the absence of doctors at the moment of her

childbirth, this in part was due to the lack of medical attention of doctors who could

save the life of his mother at the location. For that is that since day his father heated him

and considered him as the cause of the misery of his life, so his dad started to drink

constantly arriving home very drunk and yelling, for that reason his aunt decided that

she would take care of the child cause he didn’t care what would happen to his own

child, this way was Marco raised up by his aunt, nevertheless the yells of his father

never stopped and like that Marco had to create a more solid character from those boys

that had a family more tranquil and more happy, by his part he had never seemed to

have known the meaning of the word Happiness, but just an approximation when he

smiled with some of his friends or neighbors of his street, but when he used to go back

home, he only remembered the misery of his life and for that reason he decided to

escape from his house.

Such event happened a day in which he turned to 8 years old, this week he didn’t

even receive a simple congratulation for his birthday by anyone, besides his only real

friend a sheep who he used to call "Soft ball" have been killed by his father to be served

as meal of the day for his birthday, the boy believed that his father have done that with

his will and certainly he did fine in believe that cause that was the awful truth and were

those causes that resulted in his escape of home. He took 10 Bolivianos from a sealed
bag with an aguayo’s cover of his aunt where he knew that she used to keep her money,

he promised to himself just to take enough money to pay for the bus and his way out to

the city that cost 3 Bolivianos in a micro that used to go to the city in the dawn of that

day, the rest of the money was to eat at least something, he thought, he could survive

with that amount at least a week.

Once done the escape of his house, he arrived to the Ceja of El Alto what was a

shock because he watched a change in the persons that to difference of the location

where he used to live, these persons were moving constantly almost without leaving of

moving around between these people were bus-drivers, bus-speakers, newspaper

sealers, sealers of cds, of meals, street announcers, traffic officers giving whistles and

getting closer to the buses and mini buses, light trucks cause it seemed that they were

causing that more cars couldn’t continue their way so that for the first time in his life he

really understood the meaning of a Trancadera or translated Traffic Jam. In his way he

found a place where were been sealing noodle at the price of 1 Boliviano, he told to

himself in his inner that yes I can spend 1 boliviano although for that moment that was

much since he only would stay with 6 Bolivianos but he didn’t have choice, his stomach

started to bother him then he spent 1 boliviano in the “aji de fideo” or in english “Chili

noodle” that a woman served him in a dish with a spoon after eating voraciously and

leaving the empty dish he felt also that he was thirsty, that he spent another 1 boliviano

to drink a coca cola mini and then he only left five Bolivianos and then his

preoccupation grew and he get concerned about it cause he thought that in the moment

of his escape from home, 10 Bolivianos would be enough to be able to survive a week

but at that moment he realized that his calculation was erroneous since those 10

Bolivianos would not last more than a day and even he had to count with the fact that he
didn’t have a place to sleep, like this the need had effect in him and started to speak

with a shoe-shine service or “Lustrabotas”, the other boy had a similar age to his own

and he asked him What used him to do to be able to survive in the city.

He told him that he was an orphan too and that in his case his parents

have been died when he was 3 years old in a trip to “Los Yungas” and that he did not

have someone else and then he was raised up by a family by a time but they also had

children and for that reason the treatment was very difficult by part of her step-mother

and his step-brothers because they used to call him Bastard and the family seem to raise

him to be the service-man of all the family but as he was only a kid he just wanted to

play but the other children didn’t let him and what's more his step-parents gave him

hard works as cleaning the entire house, going shopping, carrying the enormous market

bags alone in most of the cases, and was in this last task that a day a seller woman have

been cheated in the change of money and when he returned home he was hardly

punished, he was beaten so much that he got a black eye and the following day he

escaped, and that way he learned to live in the street as a shoe-shine service.

Marco have heard with attention the history with a lot of attention for being

similar to his own, is this way that Marco also tells him his history and both become

friends. Then Roberto, that was the name of the shoe-shine kid proposes him to sleep

with him and so he teaches him to sleep in squares of the city of El Alto or in places

where they could avoid cold as places under the bridges, the only problem was that

there were many people that used to fight for those spaces and in other places where

they could pass the night with less cold in the city. The problem was that one from

always, and was that due to their age cause they were kids they couldn’t face other

groups, nevertheless he knew a group from which he was a friend but he used not to get

closer very often cause they used to consume drugs with other groups, according to
Robert was better to have certain protection instead of not having any, however Marco y

Roberto passed the first night together under a square. That night both could not sleep

because they had a long conversation about the life in the streets and also of the one in

the city.

The next day Roberto would wake up even earlier than the first sunshines

came out and that was cause he could not tolerate anymore the cold, therefore he used to

wake up at that hour, both were with a lot of Cold, Marco was dynamic cause he didn't

know what he was going to do now, but that moment he was sure about something, he

was not going to come back home, he'd rather to die on the streets of cold, or of

infection or of whatever, but he knew that he had to do something, then Roberto told

him that he could work as a Bus speaker that he only needed to memorize

announcements yell them from the Minibuses and for that he had to go where the

minibuses and buses and micros were and to listen what the other children of a similar

age used to do, then also he learnt what was a bus-speaker-man or kid in his case, and as

a result of having spent his last coin, he didn't have other choice more than introducing

himself to the bus drivers and tell them if they didn’t want a Voceador who could fill his

empty places, was like that how started to win his first cents in the city but this

generally was consumed in his meals and in part was because he used to spend good

time of the day in following to Roberto but one day Roberto told him that he should

save some money and he could buy a box to become a shoe-shine service man and with

that he could earn more money, in spite of the advise that Roberto gave him, he didn’t

listen him up until another day happened another critical moment for Marco and is that

Roberto got sick for the cold and that was gathered in his being for having lived much

more time in the streets.

 Roberto had gotten pneumonia and after a month of coughing a lot of

blood this got weak and died. The saddest was that Marco never would know of his

death and that he would never find to Roberto, he thought he had left him maybe

because was a trouble for him, but in fact Roberto had died on a street in the anonymity

without family and without friend. Marco in the following days got despaired but he

worked more as a bus-speaker kid to be able to eat and to save some money until a day

could make what his friend had him advised, to be able to live in the streets as a shoe-

shine man.