Street Performers

Daily I am aghast at the gap between the rich and poor in Mexico City. On Sunday, we talked with a lady at the ice rink dressed in the finest of clothes that went home in a Cadillac Escalade and in the afternoon, we talked with people at a birthday party that can barely afford public transportation (60 cents a trip) whom I've seen wear the same clothes many days in a row. With so much poverty, there are many people that try to make ends meet by begging and others will find odd jobs to do. Then there is another category of the labouriously poor: the street performer. They will stand at stop lights and stand in front of your car with clown paint on their face and juggle three balls. Others will come aboard the bus and sing a song with a guitar or tell a story. Yet others will do things far more deleterious to their health. They are the fire breathers (see second picture). They will ingest copious amounts of diesel fuel into their system and blow huge flames in an effort to raise a few pesos. These people often look very unhealthy. I once asked (begged) a man not to do this because he had a little daughter near him. I said, "You should not do this! It's bad for your health and you have a daughter that needs you." My pitiful inability to understand Spanish and his slurred speech made it difficult to understand much of what he said but he pointed to a tattoo of a scorpion on his wrist and said, "I have to." Whether it was a drug or cult debt he had to pay, I don't know but it leaves me feeling sick that these people are so poor that they need to resort to such deadly enterprises. There are some street performers that are very good at their craft as seen in the first picture and I'm sure they make good money. This group was at the Zocolo (the huge public square in downtown Mexico City) and performed some of the most amazing gymnastic moves I've ever seen.