done right?â
âNo, no,â Celia said. âI mean the things we need and deserveâlike food and shelter and peace and justice. Did you know that there is a law that says we are supposed to have those things? Our Constitution says children have the right to food, shelter, peace, justice, and many other things. No kid should ever go hungry, or have to sleep in the streets, or be afraid to go outside.â
âAfraid to go
out
side?â called someone from the back of the crowd. âSome of us are afraid to stay inside! My cousinâs dad hits him so bad that he doesnât want to be at home when his father is around.â
All the children nodded. Everyone knew kids whose parents hit them, some much worse than others.
âWell,â said Celia, âit doesnât have to be that way. As I said, we have rights, and every single child should have enough to eat, and a roof overhead, and no one should ever suffer violence.â
They all looked at each other, and everyone started talking at once. âWhereâs the food going to come from?â âWhoâs going to make us safe?â
On top of the fruit crate, Celia waved her hands until they calmed down. âOne at a time,
por favor
. One at a time. This is exactly what Iâm talking about. Each one of us needs to know what our rights are, and then we can figure out why theyâre not being respected.â
âI know! I know!â said David, waving his hand and jumping up and down. âItâs because people donât have enough money, and they donât have enough to eat, and they get mad and hurt each other. If only everyone had enough food, then no one would get hurt.â
Yeny thought about that. âBut not everyone who hurts people does it because of hunger. The people who took away our land were already rich. They only took it because they were greedy and they wanted more.â
Celia was nodding.
âBut the people who work for greedy people are always hungry,â said a tall boy with the beginnings of a beard. âGreedy people offer money to anyone who will go out and get more land for them. And some people are so poor that theyâll do anything to survive.â
âEven hurt others,â said Juan.
Yeny shivered. It was exactly like what Papá had talked about a few days before. Yeny hoped her family was never so hungry that such a dreadful job seemed like a good idea. But she knew that many people didnât feel they had a choice. Sometimes, the grupos armados threatened to hurt someoneâs whole family if he refused to join.
âOften it seems like there are too many problems to fix,â Celia said, âand there are lots of situations that kids canât change. But there are things we
can
do to stop the violence. Because itâs not only violence between adults, right? Sometimes children are mean and hit each other too. The idea of the Peace Carnival is to get everybody talking about peace. And better yet, itâll show people that we can get along and have a good time. Now, who here has some ideas about how to spread the word?â
âWe can announce it at school,â said Beto.
âWe can tell people on the radio,â Juan suggested.
âWe can put up signs,â said Yeny.
âThose are great ideas,â Celia said, pulling a tiny notebook and pen from her back pocket. âNow what are we going to need, and how are we going to get those things?â
Hands shot up all over the group. Kids offered extra pencils, scrap paper, and felt markers that their older brothers and sisters didnât use anymore. Juan said he knew someone at the radio station that he could ask, and someone else said that heâd talk to the principal of his school to see if the carnival could be announced in every class.
Radio and school broadcasts helped spread the word.
âThe next step,â said Celia, still scribbling in her notebook, âis