Because of troubles at school, I was skipping regularly and spending my days in the parque central (Central Park). I had visited the park with my father on the weekend but it was a totally different place during the week. Buses of different colors, spilling over with people were constantly arriving and leaving. The presidential palace was in the background as a symbol of a strong government, and on the other side of the park was the National Cathedral, with a great big clock on the front tower and hundreds of pigeons that flew out of the way as you stepped into the front atrium. The Cathedral was the pride of all Guatemalans and a silent witness of the Spanish catholic heritage of the eighteenth century.
There were also a lot of shoe shine boys that didn’t go to school at the park. Instead they worked to help their families which were very poor or just to survive as some of them were orphans and lived on the streets. It was a rough bunch of kids, they all seemed to know each other and made a good show of comradery. Most of them smoked and used foul language, even kids of seven or eight years of age. Other kids sold newspaper and shouted the headlines, making them as interesting as possible to entice the public to buy.
I kept on going to the park day after day, and before too long I made some acquaintances and got into some mean marble games. These kids were very skilled and almost unbeatable. At times, I could beat them at marbles and capirucho but I would choose to lose because I noticed they didn’t take losing very well. They wondered where I came from, and they knew because of my books that I was skipping school. I told them of my situation, and of course they were very supportive and told me that they wouldn’t go to school either in my situation. With that, they handed me a cigarette, which I smoked while laying on my back in the grass with my head leaning on my bookbag.
The shoeshine and newspaper boys welcomed me in their little community, and taught me how to get on the bus for free so I could spend the fare money while I was with them. I guess you probably want to know how we did it. I’ll tell you. It was a simple trick. While one of them would ask the driver a question, I would sneak through the back door and as the bus would drive away, they would run along with the bus as if racing it, while waving goodbye and cheering me on!
Continued in part 3…