thirteen).
When Do Children Work?
Vacation Work
The children filled out a time schedule showing me what a typical week in their life looked like. One student jokingly said on her last day of school, “My vacation time has ended.” By this she meant that she worked more during the summer than she did during the school year. Others echoed this sentiment. When I looked at Leticia’s schedule, I was amazed by the number of hours she worked with her mom. She worked over forty-five hours per week. Immediately she clarified, “It’s ’cause I’m on vacation. I have more time now.” These young street vendors were ubiquitous on the streets of Los Angeles during vacation periods. In fact, I met most of the children in this book during summer and winter breaks.
Their street vending schedule was fluid and ever changing, but one thing was for sure: summer was a very busy time. Most children in the Los Angeles Unified School District are out of school during the summer. Budget cuts have greatly affected summer classes available to students in the Los Angeles area.13 Lack of summer classes means that more children are now idle at home, often watching television or playing in the street with their friends. This is seldom the case with child street vendors, though. In fact, summer is the busiest time of the year for the children and youth who work with their parents as street vendors. The summer days, with temperatures reaching the high nineties, are the best season to sell raspados, cut-up fruit, aguas frescas (fruit-flavored water), elotes (corn on the cob), and tejuino. Since they do not have school responsibilities, they are able to street vend during the day and stay late at night without having to worry about assignments due the next day or getting up early to go to class.
Figure 1.4. Handwritten work schedule of Josefina (age seventeen).
Weekends Only
Other children worked only during the weekend, but their weekdays were packed with household and childcare work. Take the case of Josefina as an example. My interview with Josefina started at sunset on the front porch of their small apartment, at around 6:00 p.m. Since she is the oldest, she is often left in charge of her little siblings. This was the case when I met her for our interview. Shortly after I arrived at Josefina’s house, her mom and stepfather drove out to do the laundry and she was left in charge of her fourteen-year-old sister Elsa, her five-year-old brother José, and her four-year-old brother Juan. During our three-hour interview, I was able to see how much work and responsibilities Josefina had on her plate. She makes sure her siblings eat, do their homework, and take a shower before they go to sleep. She also does behavior management. For example, her little brothers José and Juan interrupted the interview with a constant opening and slamming of the heavy iron front door. After a while, this banging noise became part of the background soundtrack that included cars passing by, children playing, neighbors blasting loud music, dogs barking, and a TV playing in the living room. The kids wanted attention from their sister and from me. Josefina constantly scolded them to stop, but my presence inspired extra curiosity that kept them peeking out the door.
An hour into the interview, we decided to move to the kitchen table, where there was light, because I had started using my phone light to read my interview questions. We passed through the living room, which was converted into a second bedroom with a queen-size bed, an armoire, and a large plasma television. Josefina’s younger sister and brothers lay on the bed watching iCarly, a TV show on the Nickelodeon channel. A curtain divided the kitchen from the improvised bedroom. Once in the kitchen, I sat on a chair by a small round table topped with a variety of food, including pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread), fruit, a box of small bags of chips, homemade salsa, and chiles curtidos (pickled jalapeños).
As in most of the houses I visited, the street vending merchandise was visible and stored around various living spaces. Josefina pointed at the few boxes of sodas and Gatorade bottles stacked next to the table and underneath it to explain what they sold on the weekend. In addition, she explained that she and her mother also sell hot dogs at a neighborhood park where large crowds join for friendly soccer games in the afternoon.
As we continued with our interview, Josefina’s five-year-old brother approached her for help with his kindergarten homework. We stopped the interview several times to help him with his homework. This involved reading the instructions, correcting what he had already done, and looking for crayons to complete the assignment. After the interview, I went to the street where her parents were street vending until midnight. Josefina still had to give her brothers and herself a bath, put them to bed, and finish her own school assignments.
Josefina’s street vending responsibilities have changed over time. She used to work more during the summer, but lately it has been more beneficial for her to stay home and care for her little siblings. She explained,
Well, I used to go more often during the summer. But now I have to stay home, so sometimes my mom goes by herself, but I mean, I have to do my homework.… [Also] I don’t want my brothers bugging my mom. So I keep them here at the house.… I keep my sister and my brothers here and I make sure they take a shower. I also put them to sleep because they don’t like sleeping early, but I make sure they go to sleep, and sometimes I clean the house.
In addition, Josefina is on top of her academic work and tries to protect her study time as best as family and street vending responsibilities permit. As a senior in high school, Josefina is busy preparing a graduation portfolio that includes a personal statement, a résumé, sample essays from previous classes, and more. Josefina gets as much work done as she can while she is at school and in her after-school program, but when she gets home, it is time to help her mother with the household responsibilities while her mother goes to street vend. Josefina explained,
Mostly the days that I would go help my mom is just Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. If we go on Fridays, which is rare, but I’ll go because I don’t have school on Saturday. But I’ll go help her Fridays in the afternoon. Then Saturdays I help her the whole morning until, let’s say, like five in the afternoon. And Sundays the same thing, like 5:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The children I interviewed had various work arrangements with parents. In addition to the type of street vending business, age, gender, and family composition helped determine when kids worked and how they helped. Others such as Josefina also worked during the week, but did so at home. Josefina seldom helped her mother with the street vending business during the week because her mother’s business required no preparation at home. Her mother sold chips, Gatorade, juices, candy, and hot dogs at night. Since Josefina had younger siblings, it made more sense for her to stay home and watch over them. In contrast, Leticia, who did not have younger siblings, worked during the week on the street, preparing food, charging customers, arranging the merchandise, and running errands for her mother.
School Nights and Weekends
In addition to helping over the weekend, other children also helped during the week after school. The story of Mercedes and her two daughters, Adriana (age sixteen) and Norma (age fourteen) comes to mind. Mercedes is a single mother and to support her two daughters sells tamales early in the morning before her daughters go to school. She also sells chips, sodas, and an assortment of candy outside Norma’s school immediately after classes let out.
Mercedes’s workday starts very early. She sells tamales at four o’clock in the morning outside a factory in downtown Los Angeles while her two daughters are still sleeping. One early morning, I accompanied Mercedes as she prepared for and then went to work. I met her at her house at dawn; it was dark but the streetlights allowed me to see her loading into her small car a thermos with champurrado. She also loaded a jug of freshly squeezed orange juice, a small folding table, and an ice chest full of about sixty tamales. When I asked Mercedes whether her daughters helped, she explained that every night they gather around the kitchen table to embarrar la masa (spread the
