Disease runs rampant. Most children are sick all the time with parasites, respiratory diseases, food poisoning, sexually transmitted diseases. AIDS approaches epidemic proportions in Honduras, and it's already there in Haiti. Central America has become a new center for international sex tourism, and many are forced into prostitution. Those who aren't forced will often gladly exchange sex for a roof, a bed, a shower, and breakfast.
Violence is a part of every day.
In Mexico, when you're older, someone will probably ask you to join a gang to smuggle drugs. In Buenos Aires, the street toughs have a longer, more romantic history, but they do the same work, smuggling drugs, running skin rings, threatening local businesses. In Central America today, deported Crips and Bloods will initiate you into their gangs whether you want to or not. In spite of the worst circumstances anyone can imagine, these children survive. Others make good money as fakirs, laying on beds of nails in Mexico City or eating fire in Rio.