Patricia Murrieta Cummings

Power and Resistance: the Process of Permanence of Street Children in Mexico City Patricia Murrieta Cummings

Most children who stay on the streets live in terrible conditions. Many of them sleep on sidewalks and are exposed to bad weather, unsanitary situations and violence. Nevertheless, they want to stay on the streets. Some of them have the option to go back with their family; but they don?t want to. Adictions, afections, fears and the possible lost of what has become a new family, doesn't allow them to leave. Buth the belief on a better life, the need of affection or the fears faced on the streets, push them to leave; but at the end they decide to stay. What keeps them on the streets? Why do they stay living on the streets even though sometimes they have to face situations as problematic as the situations confronted before? This work explores the dynamic that facilitates life on the streets, from a multidisciplinary perspective. The main aim is to develop an initial theoretical framework that could help better understand children's presence on the streets.