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done right?”
    â€œNo, no,” Celia said. “I mean the things we need and deserve—like 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€œAfraid to go
out
side?” called someone from the back of the crowd. “Some of us are afraid to stay inside! My cousin’s dad hits him so bad that he doesn’t want to be at home when his father is around.”
    All the children nodded. Everyone knew kids whose parents hit them, some much worse than others.
    â€œWell,” said Celia, “it doesn’t 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.”

    They all looked at each other, and everyone started talking at once. “Where’s the food going to come from?” “Who’s going to make us safe?”
    On top of the fruit crate, Celia waved her hands until they calmed down. “One at a time,
por favor
. One at a time. This is exactly what I’m talking about. Each one of us needs to know what our rights are, and then we can figure out why they’re not being respected.”
    â€œI know! I know!” said David, waving his hand and jumping up and down. “It’s because people don’t have enough money, and they don’t have enough to eat, and they get mad and hurt each other. If only everyone had enough food, then no one would get hurt.”
    Yeny thought about that. “But 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.”
    Celia was nodding.
    â€œBut the people who work for greedy people are always hungry,” said a tall boy with the beginnings of a beard. “Greedy people offer money to anyone who will go out and get more land for them. And some people are so poor that they’ll do anything to survive.”
    â€œEven hurt others,” 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 didn’t feel they had a choice. Sometimes, the grupos armados threatened to hurt someone’s whole family if he refused to join.
    â€œOften it seems like there are too many problems to fix,” Celia said, “and there are lots of situations that kids can’t change. But there are things we
can
do to stop the violence. Because it’s 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, it’ll 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€œWe can announce it at school,” said Beto.
    â€œWe can tell people on the radio,” Juan suggested.
    â€œWe can put up signs,” said Yeny.
    â€œThose are great ideas,” Celia said, pulling a tiny notebook and pen from her back pocket. “Now what are we going to need, and how are we going to get those things?”
    Hands shot up all over the group. Kids offered extra pencils, scrap paper, and felt markers that their older brothers and sisters didn’t use anymore. Juan said he knew someone at the radio station that he could ask, and someone else said that he’d 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.
    â€œThe next step,” said Celia, still scribbling in her notebook, “is