Fletes Corona, Ricardo. Desde la calle. Otra perspectiva de las acciones institucionales. [From the street. Another perspective on institutional action.] In: Mercado Martínez, Francisco; Robles Silva, Leticia (eds.). Investigación cualitativa en salud. Perspectivas desde el occidente de México. [Qualitative research in health. A view from the west of Mexico.] Guadalajara (Mexico): University of Guadalajara; 1999. p. 137 – 156.

Objectives: To analyze from the perspective of street-dwellers, especially boys and the adults linked to them, and the actions of governmental and non-governmental organizations providing assistance to this population.

Methodology : Qualitative.

Results: The “cruise” (areas where cars circulate) has become, both in the largest and in the medium-sized cities of Mexico (as in other countries of the Third World ), a locus for the economic and social life of an increasingly important part of the population. This group remains excluded from the formal system of education and work. This group encompasses children in particular but also, increasingly, entire families. The street is the space from which those who inhabit it look out upon society, and it should also be understood as a space produced by society.

The “callejeros”- street workers - recognize themselves as workers but know that they are seen as delinquents by the rest of society, which observes them from other social and economic vantage points. Street workers are stigmatized by society and realize this. They are held up to children and youth as an example of what not to be. The institutional workers who try to assist the “callejeros” frequently display similar lack of knowledge about them, as does the general population. Institutional workers’ purpose seek more to control street workers than to understand them.

From the official programs implemented to help them, the “callejeros” take what they want, finding these programs in many cases a source of amusement. The “callejeros” also clearly characterize the different types of educators who approach them. In a sense, the educators form part of the life of the street; their work is badly paid and carries high risk. Social workers feel a considerable tension between the formal attributes of their work and the little practical connection it provides for their interaction with the “callejeros.”

Conclusions: The outlook of the street workers is very clear. For them what they do is a job, undertaken in a space that they have earned in the city. A campaign needs to be developed, by governmental and non-governmental institutions, to counteract intolerance in the public mind. People look at this situation from without, demanding that the streets be cleaned up. The “callejeros” feel they are used as negative referents; this could bring them into confrontations, in search of vengeance against a society that denies its own responsibility for the existence of this social phenomenon.