Source: Cosecha Roja. All Rights Reserved.
Torn
apart, mutilated, amputated parents of children unable to understand exactly
what they are searching for alone in the streets. In the case of the victims,
depending on the charity available they search for a means to survive,
nostalgic for a time when they were locked inside due to the so called war
against drugs.
How do you explain to a child that 5000 more people were victims
of executions in the last year alone in the state of Ceará alongside their
father? There is simply no way. There is nothing comforting about nostalgia
from a life that could have been.
Scattered around the streets and with eyes of hunger, the orphan victims of the war
between different factions in Fortaleza suffer without assistance, without
guidance, without anyone thinking of them.
They do not know if they are going
to eat today, if they will be alive tomorrow. They do not know who to turn to.
All alone from traffic light to traffic light in a city that robbed them of
their opportunities.
A
barefoot child in the doorway of a café of a fast food chain on Avenida Santos
Dumont is prevented from entering by the private security guards, even though
he guaranteed he had enough money to pay for his food.
Upon hearing the
argument of “if we let you in you might ask for money or make the customers
uncomfortable again”, at 11 years of age he already knows they do not want him.
He cannot get too close, he is not one of the chosen ones.
After
some insistence, he enters. He eats a sandwich in only a few pressured bites.
Later he reveals “All I wanted right now was to go to see a dentist cause I
can’t sleep from tooth-ache. When I get there, the woman sends me away and
tells me to call my mum. Another thing I really wanted was a pair of shoes
because barefoot I can’t get on the road in time to ask for money from cars
when the light’s green, the asphalt is really hot.”
Some children still come into this world destined to a life in chains, the chains of their own parents. Slaves of their circumstances.
A
dentist and some shoes are the wishes of a child who does not even have
documentation. Officially, he does not exist. He never went to school, he lived
in various neighbourhoods. After his father was killed in June 2017, he went to
live with his 16-year-old brother.
The mother had to be hospitalised after
various relapses. “The mother seemed crazy, the father brought her drugs. After
he died, she had no more. She even hit people. One day a man from church
arrived and took her to the hospital, I don’t know where she is.”
A
young girl claims to be 7 years old according to the fingers she shows when
asked. She asks for money outside a restaurant in Aldeota. She exists, but is
invisible.
She has documents, goes to school, wants to be a doctor in a
community of the neighbourhood in which she is a beggar, she lives with an aunt
and she knows that her mother is in jail, but her extended hand seems
unnoticeable alongside the refined perfume and shiny shoes that pass her by
every day.
Most do not even glance at that tiny person that repeats like a
machine “Hey, could you give me a dollar”. If it was dependent on prayers then
they surely would. Sat on the floor, an elderly woman with her hands clasped
watching carefully over the luxurious tower blocks says: “If god wills it my
child, you will be a doctor”.
Free
Womb
The
28th of September of 1871 was determined by the ‘Law of the Free
Womb’ which claimed every female child of a slave born after that date would be
free. 147 years later, some children still come into this world destined to a
life in chains, the chains of their own parents. Slaves of their circumstances.
7
months pregnant, a woman of 23 years old is holding a two year old in her arms
on the corner of one of the busiest streets of Fortaleza.
They killed my husband. I tried to get the child out. Have an abortion you know? But it didn’t work. Now I feel guilty, because the doctor says it’ll be born paralysed.
“They killed my
husband. I tried to get the child out. Have an abortion you know? But it didn’t
work. Now I feel guilty, because the doctor says it’ll be born paralysed. I
don’t know what I’m going to do with my life. What kind of future can I give
these children?” She declared whilst tears poured down her face and she
received money from the open window of a car, a window open only enough to hand
her the money and no more.
Also
with no way out is a woman of 26 years of age, recently arrived at the home of
a relative in the neighbourhood of Quintino Cunha.
With three sons of 8, 5 and
3, she ran from the community in which she had been living after her partner
was murdered. “They told me to leave my home. I left with the clothes on my
back and some things for the children. The guy that threw me out gave a gun to
my 5 year old son and told him to shoot. The poor kid couldn’t use it, and was
told it was cause he was weak like his dad. He only knows what it’s like to run
for his life and to feel hungry”.
Without
wanting to converse much, at 13 years old the child approaches cars on the Rua
Padre Antonio Tomas. His father was murdered and he moved in with his mother to
his grandmother’s house. Life made him an adult, it changed his dreams and his
desires.
In
the doorway of a finance agency, an elderly lady sits on the floor with a child
in her lap and whilst she gives instructions to the 8 year old, she bends down
to place food on the table for the 5 grandchildren that live with her.
“The
first three that arrived were my daughter’s. She brought the two children here
so they could stay with me. I spent my life cleaning and pressing clothes for
others, and just when I thought I was free, 5 children in need appear. I’m just
scared of dying and leaving them alone.”
The
child consoles the grandmother. She says she won’t die because she is big and
strong. Contrary to her cousin she does not complain about having to beg for
money and go to school.
“When
I was living with mum I had food every day and didn’t go out to beg, but she
hit me a lot. Sometimes it still hurts and she would hit again. With my grandma
she only asks for me to beg but she’s good.”
The grandmother confirms: “There’s no other way.
I have no way of getting money to buy food for so many people”. She says she
wants her grandchildren to have a better life than her children. “I never
thought my life would end like this. I fought so much and when I think about
what I’m living I see myself at the beginning: without anything, with loads of
kids and without a way to improve the situation”.
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This article is being published in the framework of our partnership with Cosecha Roja. The original can be read here.