In Mexico City, children as young as five wander about smoggy streets or public plazas, washing cars, selling gum or juggling. They also sell food or trinkets, answering to adults other than parents. He said he lives in a room at a man's house with seven other youths, some as young as 13, who turn over most of the money they earn to the man in exchange for room and board. Basileo said he left his village in Guerrero state at 13 to work here. I only studied through the third grade.
Children also work on farms as hired hands, sometimes picking crops destined for U.S. consumers.
A survey of 12 Mexican states suggested that 30 percent of the agricultural day laborers in those states were children between 7 and 14, according to the U.S. Labor Department report. In response to complaints from U.S. farmers, officials began a program offering cash assistance to families several years ago, hoping to phase out child labor on farms growing produce for export on the Pacific Coast. Other children, like Miguel and Maribela, perform heavy labor in urban areas that exhausts their young bodies and puts them at risk of exposure to accidents, choking dust and chemicals. Minors help out on construction sites, assemble furniture or clothing, or lug around heavy bags of merchandise at markets. Making bricks is a fundamental industry in Mexico, where bricks serve as the walls for most construction.