Dancing in the streets
Venezuelans flee the country and dance in the streets of Peru to beat poverty.
LIMA: The three Venezuelan migrants eke out a living 90 seconds at a time in a busy intersection of Peru’s capital. When the traffic light flashes red, the acrobatics and break dancing starts.
With a captive audience of pedestrians and commuters in city buses, the dancers’ moves on a good day net up to US$20 (RM84) in pocket change – nearly thrice the monthly minimum wage in Venezuela.
It also earned them a brush with Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie.
“You never know how it will go in the street,” said 25-year-old dancer Karin Rojas.
The trio is just part of a flood of Venezuelans fighting for survival after fleeing their homeland and the worst economic crisis anybody in Latin America can remember.
Rojas and her husband Francisco Diaz arrived in Lima in 2016, leaving behind their home in the Venezuelan state of Merida, where they ran a break dancing collective.
In Peru, they met the third partner, Angel Fernandez. They chose a busy intersection in Lima to perform. Six days a week, they bound into the intersection with each red light – an exhausting 80 times over a 13-hour workday.
Still, Rojas said, life is better than in Venezuela, where she would go two days without eating. Now, she can afford three meals a day.
Their dancing also caught the attention of Jolie in October, when she visited Lima as a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Their moves impressed Jolie, who told them not to give up their dreams.
“We’ll never stop dancing,” Rojas said. “Dancing helps us forget all of our sorrows.” — AP