Abstract

AYALA-CARRILLO, María del Rosario et al. Guatemalan Child Workers in the Soconusco Coffee Farms: "Income" generating economic wealth but not social value. Rev.latinoam.cienc.soc.niñez juv [online]. 2013, vol.11, n.2, pp.659-673. ISSN 1692-715X.

Abstract (analytical): The Soconusco, Chiapas, for more of a century, has become a region that receives day laborerfamilies, from the Guatemalan border departments. The immigrants arrive in search of temporary jobs in the coffee plantations. Thisarticle aims at showing the work children and teenagersdo,the conditions in which they do so, the invisibility of their contribution and the consequences for their health and education. The research was conducted in thirteen coffee plantations in the region of Soconusco, Chiapas, where 453 day laborers answered a questionnaire which helped collect the quantitative information and fourteen in-depth interviews with which the qualitative testimonies were drawn up. Through the analysis of the data,it is possible to observe the children's and teenagers' participation both as immigrants and workers, picking coffee beans and doing other harvest chores and as maidservants and care givers, as well as in the invisibility of their contribution, since they are only acknowledged as help; their role is that of companions, without labor or social rights, but with adverse effects to their health and their access to education.

Keywords : Labor migration (376); Childhood (90); Health (556); Education (459); Invisibility of child labor; Invisibility of child labor.

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