Kids Speak About Their Lives
Rosa’s class is located in the violent barrios, Tierra Nueva I & II. It is a place where gangs have assassinated more than 34 bus-drivers. Rosa, our teacher asked her students 11- 14 years old to write their autobiographies. The children’s honesty and angst is apparent without any further commentaries from me. I tried when translating to keep it in their voice, maintaining as much as possible the manner in which they speak and write.
My name is Alison I’m fourteen years old and I’m in 8th grade and I’m one of the best students in my grade. I feel good because I’m on the honor -roll and that way I show my mother that she’s not wasting her money on me.
I’m afraid of certain things like the dark, that my Mama will hit me, or that my best friend would fight with me, but most of all I’m afraid of loneliness.
When I fight with my mama I hide in someplace so that she will come look for me, but she never does. Other times I climb up to the roof and cry until the all the anger and sadness passes and then when the anger passes I climb down from the roof and ask my mama to forgive me.
Kidnapped-© copyright Miguel Angel Loarca/Fotokids 1996
My parents are Gladis who works in a clinic for the mentally ill and my Papa, Juan Carlos who works fixing cell phones, but he doesn’t live with us. He left the house because he fought a lot with my mother. After that my mother got together with another man, but she’s left him now. In the house there is only my 2 sisters, my brother and my mother and me. Our house is just one room divided by two dressers. We have two beds, one my sisters sleep in and in the other is my mother, little brother and me.
My papa is very important to me because he taught me values like respecting my neighbor and to be honorable. I would like to live with him but he says it’s better I’m with my mother.Even though my father doesn’t live with us I love him more than my mother because she is always scolding me.
I love my mother very much because she is the person I’m living with, and she corrects me when I’m misbehaving. But she and I fight a lot, sometimes I think she doesn’t love me. Always when i ask her for a pair of shoes or something school supplies she says she has no money but she never denies my siblings because their fathers sometimes give a bit of money.
Once I lost $25 in the street that was my mothers and it was the only thing we had for the whole week. That day she yelled at me, hit me really hard but then within a short time forgave me, that’s why I want to live with my Papa but he says better I stay with my mother and if he says it, it’s for a reason.
Something nice that changed my life was the photography course I’m receiving. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up but now I’m sure of what I want to be and that’s to be a great photographer, photographing singers and television actresses.
My name is Carlos, and I’m 12 years old and in the 4th grade. My favorite subjects are civics, artistic expression , but mostly I like recess. I like to play soccer with my friends.I am thin, short, light-skinned and happy though deep down I’m a very sad boy.
My house is big because we all live together, my uncles and their families, my grandma and us. It’s a total of 15 people and when we are all together it’s really fun because they tell jokes, but there are times my head aches to hear everyone talking at the same time.
I’m kind of a naughty boy; once I cut my stomach with a machete and another time I cut my arm with a piece of tin, that’s why I have 2 scars, one on my stomach and another on my arm.
When I grow up I want to be in the police force to establish justice in my country. Because in my neighborhood there are a lot of thieves that rob and kill people, but nobody does anything to punish them. I want to be one of the good police to protect the working people that are the victims of these criminals.
Body in Tierra Nueva© copyright Lucía Hernández 2010/Fotokids
I live in Tierra Nueva 2 where the majority of the businesses, and bus drivers are extorted by gangs and on practically every corner are groups of young people all drugged up and that’s a bad example for smaller kids like me and besides that there’s lots of poverty. The majority of people who live on my block live in houses made of tin sheeting and wood.
(note, Carlo’s father was assassinated working as a bus driver. Carlos and his mother never speak of this)
My name is Daniel and I’m 14 years old.
When I was littler I was very mischievous and because of that I have some bad memories of my childhood. One time I ate too many mangos and that gave me diarrhea. Another time I hung myself from a door and lost a piece of skin off my arm. I have a big scar on my face because once I went to the park and didn’t pay attention to my mother’s warnings and fell and then there was the time I jumped off my roof and broke my leg. That’s why I’m more cautious now with the activities I get involved in.
There are 4 people in my family. My sister who married a guy who had been in a gang but is now reintegrated into society and my papa who left us a long time ago and now is an alcoholic.
My Mama is the most important person in my life and I would do anything for her. When i grow up I want to have a good job so that she can rest because now she works in a garment factory and leaves at 6 am and returns 8 or 9 at night and lots of times only to fight with my Papa. In the house, only my mama and I are living there and we are very tight.
Life without my Papa is better because he was always hitting my Mama. He said she had slept with who knew how many men and that was why she had some money and he threw us out into the street. Now things are going a lot better and there’s peace in the house and my mama is more secure and doesn’t get beaten or insulted. I miss him but prefer he stays far away from us. I even get embarrassed that people and my school friends even know he is my father because he has assaulted people in the neighborhood.
In my neighborhood there’s a lot of violence. In 2010 my sister’s husband was kidnapped by some men, afterwards they called saying they had killed him. My mother and sister went to identify the body of man they had found in one neighborhood, but the police there said they had to go to another morgue. Then my brother-in-law called in the early hours of the morning to say he was okay but badly beaten and didn’t know where he was and they had threatened him that if he came back to the barrio they would kill him and this time dump his body in an isolated spot.
IN 2012- my Papa came back after several years asking forgiveness from my mother and said he loved us all very much. He said he would change and stop drinking and my mama took him back again. He goes ot church now and I’m happy because my papa isn’t drugged up, drink alcohol or smell of solvent.
when I grow up I want to be a professional chef.
My name is Daniela
When I was small I fell and had a big wound and I remember that my papa gave me a Barbie and my mama a car for my Barbie.
What I have learned in life is to respect my elders, love my family and not say bad words.
My goals are to continue studying and be a great professional and to always have a beautiful family. A husband with blue eyes and a lot of money.
In 2011 I participated in school as a candidate for school queen and my mama helped me to get the different dresses i needed, dressy, fantasy, ethnic and wanted to win but I didn’t because I couldn’t answer the questions they asked me.
I consider myself a pretty girl and so I participated in another beauty contest a look-alike Barbie contest but I didn’t win that one either.
Design4Kids7
Gaby and Josefa working on their Jakaramba web site
DESIGN4KIDS WORKSHOP JANUARY 2102
Twice a year design and photography mentors from the U.S. and Europe come to work with Fotokids on the azure shores of Lake Atitlán. This year we decided that the staff of Jakaramba! our design studio would work on their branding and redesign their web site.
The design staff divided into two competing teams. Everyone did their own web site design, that was then honed by d4k jefe, Jeff Speigner, along with international mentors (including Bree Hankinson, onboard via Internet and skype from Australia).
Eventually the teams ended up working on just 2 of their member’s designs and finally gave a presentation to the client, who in this case was Berlin, the Director of Jakaramba. A very bold graphic site by Ana Yax was selected.
Original home page .
I really like the design and the crew is working on it now to refine it and transfer it to web site code or whatever it’s called
Man, those guys worked hard. There were two sessions per day, 4 hours each of design and photography. The photo session concentrated on designing a manual to teach the Nikon DSLR. Stu Estler an architectural photography form D.C. and Eric Llokema a portrait photographer from Holland worked with the staff that happened to also be our teachers. By request Eric in addition focused on Lightroom. Then after classes, these kids (18-27 Years old) worked after dinner till 11 or 12 pm
There was a photo competition as well, which rendered some beautiful images and we are working now to finish the manual.
Our closing dinner at the Posada was as fraught with emotion as usual. There was a ballad/folksinger singer for entertainment that night, a Che button pinned on his beret.
I saw 18-year-old Gaby push back her chair to go speak to him. I thought she was making a request, till I saw him putting up another Mike stand. Gaby was going to do a duet with him! This hadn’t ever happened before so we were kind of breathless. She stuck it out even when it didn’t work and sang away. When she sat back down the girls on with either side of her just looked stunned, pole axed really and one dragged her hand over her forehead. I think we were all thinking, wow; you’d never get me up there.
When the folk singer put down his guitar to take a break a break, Jeff gave his thank you speech and I foolishly asked if anyone had anything to say to the mentors.
Ha, everyone did. Comments got very emotional by the kids. They spoke of how they had come to the other workshops and how much they valued them. That they were so much of their time just surviving but that they learned so much, and all what kept them going was that someone believed in them.
One of the young women said as a Mayan woman she was used to not being taken seriously and was expected to follow the traditional path of marriage, children and tied to the house. She had found her passion she said and would show people that she could surpass the prejudices which were meant to hold her back. Both kids and mentors were misting up…(no need to tell this group to express themselves). This was going on for a while, quite a while actually…like at least a half an hour. I could see wanted the singer really wanted to get back to preforming and make some tips. There were other people in the restaurant; I mean after all it was Saturday night.
I said to Jeff, “jeez we are the audience from hell. First we get up and make him sing with us, then we weep away so he can’t start back up”- I told him next I should get up and ask him if he knows any Irish songs. Jeff said you mean like Danny Boy? I said no, nothing so classic, more like who threw the overall in Mrs. Murphy ‘s chowder?
Upon our return to work in the capital I saw Josefa who had been at D4K7 using her skills to design a warning card to be given out to misbehaving younger students. It had a skull and cross bones on it and a radiation warning sign! Obviously three cards and you’re nuked.
Lucie Awards Report!
Me and Lucie! Photo by Robert Leslie Courtesy of Lucie Foundation
The Lucie awards were great! It’s the NYC black tie equivalent of the Oscars for photographers. I received the Humanitarian Award.
I stopped first to visit my brother and Susan in Maryland and they presented with a pair of pink I Love Lucy pajamas for the real Lucy in me. The flannel pajamas are cute and have all the famous scenes from the TV show.
The Gift came replete with stories of my Lucy moments-They enjoyed for example recounting the time I was eating dinner with them out on the deck one summer evening and walked into the screen door when it was closed. Then carrying my empty plate in after dinner did it again. Somehow the fork lodged itself straight out in the screens mesh.
The Lucie Foundation put me up in the Standard Hotel, quite trennnndy and overlooking NYC’s highline (overhead railway) recently converted into a park-like walk. The rooms in the Standard have floor to ceiling windows and there was quite a scandal when the hotel first opened of people putting on shows in the windows for the highline strollers.
There was this video in the hotel elevator that was a crawling collage of pop cultural icons and it crept along with scenes of heaven to animas in hell. I almost missed my floor several times. Here’s a copy of it-http://vimeo.com/5082155
I arrived early for the ceremony and good friends and cousins were there. The Lucie Fdn did a video tribute where Chris Vail, Mary Jo McConahay and Royce Nicolaison spoke about me in glowing terms, but I didn’t really hear it because at that moment I was realizing that I had left the notes for my acceptance speech back at the hotel. Another Lucy moment.
I will post the tribute when I can.
Harris Whitbeck from CNN introduced me and did a great job. I remembered most of my speech but not all. The Lucie statuette is quite pretty and very heavy, mine leapt out of its wooden base that very night.Anyhow it was fun, really a hoot and a memorable way for me to close off the 20th year of Fotokids’ celebrations. I spoke in Madrid in January, did the TEDx Talk in June and became a humanitarian in October.
This humanitarian thing… Chris pointed out to me, as it was awarded for 2011-2013 I would have to be nice to everyone for 2 years! (except of course on the days I take off.)
Casting!!!!
Line of young hopefuls stretches down the sidewalk Kevin, Jorge and Alex chat while the filmmakers get set up Alex, alias Frances, concentrates before his audition
There is a new movie being cast in Guatemala, by two young men who were featured in the Cannes Film Festival’s Atelier (showplace for new upcoming filmmakers)The film opens in the slums of Guatemala and is the story of two boys who migrate to the U.S. One is from here and the other an indigenous kid from Chiapas.They will film a month in Guatemala and 5-6 weeks in Mexico, then move on to San Diego.
Hundreds of kids from slums all over the City came out to audition, hope and excitement running high.
Some of the Fotokids tried out, others weren’t eligible because of their age (too old!). Alex, Kevin and Jorge set up a casting call handing out fliers in their barrio, violent and gang-infested zone 18.
We got to the barrio early and I thought we would see at least a handful of kids standing around waiting. The rusted metal door of the cinder block community center was locked with a padlock. There was no one there. The boys ran to get find the man that had the key. Then like a cloud on the horizon, nearly a hundred kids materialize, clumping hesitantly and barely moving at first they then gathered speed and flowed in a pack across the ravine to the community center. Some wore party dresses and heels, others had their black hair streaked with bright fuchsia, others in hoodies, but all of them charged up with emotion! Man, this was like an American Idol talent call!
The auditions were actually interviews, where kids were asked about their dreams, what it was like where they lived, and later if they had ever thought of migrating to the States. Oddly enough all our Fotokids talent said no, they hadn’t to that one. They gave examples of Uncles who went north and were never heard from again. They said it as if they had been sucked into a parallel world by extraterrestrials and then vaporized.
Most were predictably nervous. Alex, recently going by Frances, said that his dream was to own a restaurant because he likes to cook (this was a surprise to me). Alex got a call back!
You can only imagine the dreams that come along with that. Here’s a kid that lives in a shack with no running water and no electricity, is smart but does poorly in school. He helps his mom who works as a washerwoman and sells articles made out of recycled materials in the market.
I thought Alex might get a call back. He kind of reminds me of a young, shy Frank Sinatra. Cute with a nervous look about him, an uncertain flash of a smile, he has that energy that engages.
Not sure whether to hope he gets the part or not.
Lucie Awards and Kids election demands
The Lucie Awards
Well I was so pleased to get this award- haven’t gotten it yet but will get on October 24th. I had to turn in a photo for a publicity headshot. So, I fixed my hair, put on some make-up and opened my eyes wide. That last might have been the problem. Wasn’t crazy about the photo… looked like a Century 21 Agent or maybe like an author of a self-help book, but short of plastic surgery…I prefer out of focus..
So I turned to Mac whom I remembered had taken photos of me with Genesis, the cute little girl on the cover of the Revue Magazine. Much better, much more me, and backlit which really helps.
I’ve asked Harris Whitbeck Jr. of CNN and host for the Amazing Race to introduce me. I’ve always liked Harris, he’s from here and knows the program. I first met him when we both worked as journalists and covered an indigenous massacre in Santiago Atitlán.
This was one of 2 Winning Essays in our If I were President competition, from Marta’s Save Girls program 15 year old Yesmin.
If I were President I would create programs throughout Guatemala for children and young people to form values of moral and ethical consciousness in an effort to avoid common delinquency, so that they would be busy with something that actually brings something to them and isn’t a waste of time and an additional cause of more crime.
In education I would integrate a strict pen sum of studies that would be 7 hours in duration in order to have enough time to teach a career, this would prevent them going into the streets and help them to better themselves as well as gaining experience.
I would also write into Guatemala’s constitution an article that would obligate every parent to support and give an education to their child, without regard to how many family members there are. That way you can avoid children being exploited by sending them to work. They will learn a trade and be able to excel.
I would take care of all the malnourished children giving them aid and saving them. Also for special needs children I would encourage more foundations that would truly help these children, not because they are special, or just because they are sick but because of what they feel inside and they should be loved and cherished a lot.
In the area of health I would invest sufficient money in public hospitals, making sure they had enough supplies and equipment to give good service, so that the people are satisfied.
With regards to people incarcerated, the crime doesn’t matter they should employ them fixing highways or learning something so that they aren’t just sitting in jail waiting for the sentence to be up , but better yet that they learn something worthwhile.
Yesmin did misspell President as Precident on her cover page.
Fiesta!!!!!!
It was the kind of party where everyone, all ages, had a great time. I walked into the school and there was a 12 foot red rubber inflatable can of La Sirena Sardines and a DJ! Of course, someone who is never missing at Guatemalan parties of this size, the guy armed with a shotgun at the door. This security guard wasn’t our usual one, but I recognized him as a grumpy, totally disagreeable guy that used to work in Antigua.
Guess he was substituting. Working a children’s party definitely wasn’t his cup of tea
Kids starting arriving from various compass points: Tierra Nueva, Santa Fe, Santiago Atitlán in vans we had hired , by public bus or on foot. Sirena Sardines brought hot dog carts with all the fixings and gave us a zillion piñatas and prizes.
Fotokids, some we had lost track of and then rediscovered, came with their babies and husbands. Tiny kids darted in and out of the mix. The older students had organized games for every age group; on the side of the school, in the backyard, even on the roof. I made my way with maybe 40 kids up to the roof to the exciting game of couples bouncing water balloons from towel to towel between them. It was a dangerous game as water balloons flew in all directions. The Fotokids were not very accurate shots. Lorena from Sirena and I had to take off running as a balloon crashed down splattering the very spot I had been standing on. At one point as we watched, a balloon went sailing over the wall and from all reports it landed (“incoming”) narrowly missing the security guard.That gave me no end of pleasure.
The staff hired a mariachi band because they know how much I love them. You hear those trumpets blasting as the blow in the front door and it always means…FIESTA!!!!! because I knew they did it for me, it made me cry ( I don’t usually cry for mariachi bands, for instance if I am in a restaurant and a mariachi band appears, I don’t cry). So, I recovered but felt dangerously tearful when Andres steps out and pulls me out of the crowd to dance. I’m trying to keep my composure while he is telling me how grateful he is to me to be a part of Fotokids, that it’s changed his life etc. Is this guy trying to get me to cry again or what?
Gladiz came with her baby and husband and mother in law. I made a Powerpoint for her, Marta and Rosario and other ex students I thought might be coming, of the trips they had taken. Gladiz, Marta, and Rosa watched it again and again. I think in the end it made them a bit sad…Rosario in Alabama with Mirian shopping for Barbies and visiting the eccentric Ma Cilles Museum where she had acres of dolls and dead animals in bottles of formaldehyde.
Gladiz and Marta in London, a pigeon on Gladiz’s head in Trafalgar Square and Marta running in an amusement park or visiting the miniature village Maduradam in Holland. Marta standing with a bouquet of delphiniums and sunflowers, bigger than she was, for the opening of our show at the Photographers Gallery.
I will always remember them that night of the exhibit. We went out afterwards to a Vietnamese restaurant and the kids don’t know Asian food, but are curious. Marta loves just about anything and will on a later trip will order raw herring with onions in Amsterdam. Gladiz is more of a fussy eater and has heard the Chinese eat rodents. But their spirits are soaring and they are checking out the restaurant. Someone says I should correct them and have them sit down. As they aren’t really bothering anyone or in the way, I think, are you kidding? This is on of the first times I have seen them so happy and feeling free enough to express it.
So many memories,great memories full of love and enjoyment- yeah I have to write that book….
Inauguration of 20th Anniversary Retrospective Exhibit!
The opening day dawned with a massive demonstration of 30,000 to 50,000 people blocking highways and filling up the blocks in front of and surrounding the Gallery. The crowds were waiting to hear if the ex-wife of the current president would be allowed to run as a presidential candidate in next month election. These elections have been he bloodiest ever with dozens of mayoral and congressional candidates threatened and murdered. It reminded me of our very first exhibition in 1992 where a State of Siege was declared after congress had been dissolved in an auto-coup by the then President, soon to flee into exile, Jorge Serrano. On that night no more than 3 people were allowed by law to meet in one place, I imagine to keep more conspiracies to a minimum. The gallery owner had gone right away to the Foreign Ministry and had gotten us an absolution. Even so, since no one was aware of our exception to the law, attendance wasn’t that great.
This time however all was calm by 5:30 when the exhibit opened. We made it early so that families and kids could get back to their barrios while the buses were still running. Close to the equator the sun goes down around 6:30 give or take fifteen 15 minutes or so regardless of the time of year.Some of the buses quit after 7:30 p.m. depending on how much violence exists in the neighborhood .As I write this, Mely our housekeeper, has been held up at gunpoint 5 times on the City buses, the latest this morning.
The exhibition was beautiful! Upwards of two hundred fifty people attended and the Fotokids loved it.We were fortunate to have an exhibit once again in a beautifully appointed gallery.
What impressed me was the fact that the staff all worked so hard printing,cutting mats and framing and even went to the gallery even to help hang the show. Everyone just worked. . The girls when they had finished preparing for classes went downstairs and painted frames. When there was a problem, they just went ahead and solved it
They are an excellent team.
Included are some clips in Spanish and English from articles published in conjunction with the Fotokids Exhibition
http://issuu.com/revue/docs/revue201108/18
http://issuu.com/revue/docs/revue201108/62
Next: THE FIESTA!!!!!
Fotokids Insider Post
The 20th Anniversary has arrived, and considering it was a project I thought I might do for 6 months, it’s a rather astounding realization. It was and is quite a commitment, but I feel fortunate that it practically fell on top of me. Footkids has presented me with challenges, moral questions, new opportunities to learn technology and a way to translate compassion into action.
Getting ready for the Retrospective exhibition and a party for 15o students and ex-students was a sobering and yes rewarding experience. Rewarding because I didn’t have to do hardly anything, just check color and B&W prints and staff did all the rest! The staff the same kids who have been with me most of their lives and are now in their mid to late twenties, and our current University students.
As part of the annual anniversary we usually have a competition (whenever we remember to do it) and this year is no exception. We have written and visual themes.
On an aside, I thought the 4th graders drawing competition that featured ME was a part of the festivities but no. They enthusiastically drew me in ways that I hope were due to lack of ability as opposed to interpretive. I include here one of Abby’s where I look a bit like a tele tubby or maybe just tubby, and then again my lips are definitely an improvement.I thought I had a copious black cape but sadly it’s just the back of my chair
WRITINGS
Two of the themes the younger kids ages 10 to 13 had to write about were, “If I were a Mother/Father” and because this is an election year in Guatemala, “If I were President”
I bring you some excerpts- as usual the names have been changed to protect the guilty. The first is from Rosa’s class from Tierra Nueva, a very poor violent neighborhood on the fringe of Guatemala City.
Gloria
If I were a mother I would take loving care of my child so that they would be a better person than me, if I had to work it would be for half day in an office so that I could pass the rest of the day with my child so that nothing bad happened to them. His education would be a priority because his future depends on it. Every Sunday I would take him to church so that he would receive the word of God.
I would like to have a two-story house, and that everyone would have his or her own bedroom. In my house I would like to have a refrigerator, stove, table, chairs but I would like to have glasses and plates made of glass.
Daysi
If I were a mother I would buy shoes, bibs, clothes and everything thing that’s needed. I would celebrate every birthday. To get this I would have graduated as a doctor because that’s what I want to be. Also I would move to Mexico, maybe there’s not as much violence there as in Guatemala. My children I would take care of with a lot of affection and I’d like to travel with them all over the world to know more people and how they live or think.
I’m only going to have three children and no more because I realize the situation my neighbor has who has 6 kids and she is suffering a lot because her husband died and her children have to eat tortillas with salt. I don’t want my children to suffer like that. I’m going to make sure to love and care for my children like my parents have for me.
Or how about this one?
If I was a Mama I would live in a big house with a garage. Big gardens, a pool, planes and 3 sport cars and body guards surrounding the house and I would be very happy.
I would have two children and I would give them advice and also I would give them anything they wanted.
My husband would be light skinned with a good job and he would take care of me so didn’t have to work and I could take care of the kids. My parents would live with me. I want to be the owner of some malls, but I wouldn’t have to work, I only want to be the owner.
Perfect for narco recruitment!
And on another note:
If I was a mother, well I wouldn’t want to be a mama because of the situation I live in, I realize that its not easy, as a child I have a lot of needs and I’ve seen my mama crying because many times she has no money for us for food, and my papa left the house a while ago. She says that at times she doesn’t even want to come back home when she thinks of how we live.
Because of this I don’t want to be a mother because I will make them suffer and be hungry, worse even if there is no papa at your side to give you love, affection, because as a daughter miss my father a lot. But if my situation changes for the better in the future than that of my mother’s then I would like to have one daughter to give her everything I ever wanted.
Then we asked them what they would do if they were president of Guatemala. We’ll start with the less umm radical ones first.
Luis
If I were President of Guatemala, I would put more police on the streets, give employment to those that don’t have it and have more public schools.
I would have a day care center free for mothers so they can work and I’d have a home for street kids. I would put more trucks on the streets to pick up garbage so there’d be less pollution.
Everyone would have running water in their houses.
Jeff
If I were President of Guatemala I would look into a way to eradicate crime, educate more kids that don’t have the chance to study and making sure there was more security in the red zones. I would construct houses for those that live in the streets and give work to those that don’t have it and train them for what they want to do.
The money from taxes I would invest for the people in vocational training or schools open to all
Then this one
If I were President of Guatemala I would change all the houses and all the poor would have a new house. Also I would pull down all the schools and build new ones.
I would kill off all the people in gangs, get rid of all the cantinas, and the men that had any kind of tattoo I would throw in jail.
More to come…
And lets post a photo for today-The Fire Breather
(c) copyright Daniel Gonzales Palma/Fotokids 2006
