Since it's founding, members have expressed concern over the safety of their children and their need for an accessible and reliable "guaderia" or daycare. Women ambulantes (often called Cholas or Cholitas) in addition to their usual worries, are concerned about the children they carry with them in the market. Because of their meager income, they cannot afford daycare and often have children who are too young to attend public school. Since the Cancha is one of the busiest and congested markets in Bolivia, mothers with young children carry their children throughout the day either on their backs, underneath baskets, or wrapped
El comercio ambulante en
La Cancha
The Asociacion de Comerciantes Minoristas "Los Angeles" is comprised of 14 organizations, consisting of a total of nearly 1,500 individual vendors. Despite the association's growing membership in their short 5-year span, there are over 5,000 comerciantes ambulantes who are not affiliated with Los Angeles and even more that are being born into the streets, a problem the city of Cochabamba and comisarios address by moving them from one place to another. Founder and current president of the Los Angeles association, Pedro Quispe, says the association was
in blankets beneath or beside their stands to protect them from the heat, reckless bus drivers, and foot traffic. It is not uncommon to find an ambulante carrying or carting all of her merchandise in addition to her children. One mother told us that she ties her toddlers' wrists to the cart so they do not wander off when she isn't looking.
Despite the size of their organization, their small accumulation of capital is not enough to raise the money needed to buy land for a day care, much less keep it fully staffed with working utilities.
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The Ambulantes
formed "to protect the rights of people who do not have the privleges of those who come from the municipalities." Without an established workplace or organization to protect or represent them, the association is meant to network ambulantes so they may protect each other.
