ABSTRACT
The youngest child I saw working anywhere was just three years old. His wide open eyes shone in the street lights of Acapulco as they stared up at me from behind the box of chewing-gum, daring me to be so hard-hearted as to deny him the few pesos for which he was still hoping at nearly midnight. In his tiny frame resides much of the history of Mexico. An Indian, this was his land until Hernán Cortés arrived and successfully exploited Aztec-Amerindian strife to gain control for Spain in 1521. Spanish was his language, but the box he held in his hand was Chiclets, the product of the American company Adams. Despite the Mexican revolution of 1910, Mexico's emergence as an industrial economy has brought it increasingly under the sway of its dominant northern neighbour. Sixty per cent of Mexico's total trade is with the United States, and the all-pervasive American presence is as prominent here in business as it is spilling out of its shorts on the Acapulco beaches. Like thousands from the surrounding shanties, the Chiclet seller was desperately poor, but all around him lay conspicuous consumption.
