Red Light? Cha-ching!

At most 4-way intersections, when cars stop at stoplights, people come out into the middle of the street – usually in the crosswalk – and perform. Most of the time they juggle or do acrobatics. At night the most interesting to watch are the fire jugglers. Some of them eat the fire too! During the day there are lots of small girls that are thrown up onto the shoulders of guys cheerleader-style. There’s a lot of aerial flipping and twirling. These girls tend to wear a lot of make-up and tight leotards with shorts. In Viña I saw some really terrific break dancers once.

The acts usually end when the cross traffic light turns yellow. The performers walk up and down the lanes and pleased drivers and passengers roll down their windows and give them money. It looks like mostly change, but there is a 500 peso coin which is just about $1 US, so it’s unclear to me how much money these people are actually making.

I wonder how this would go over in the States. I don’t think those people who sell candy “for charity” at street corners are very well received. And even less so, are those who just stand with a cardboard sign begging. Perhaps we’d be more inclined to roll down our windows and empty our pockets if we were getting a show?

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Another common “service” people can get at stoplights is superfast window washing. The light turns red and a team of people with clothes and bottles of waxy liquid disperse themselves among the waiting cars.

I’m always surprised when I see a driver nod and the washing begin. All the cars here have window washing fluid capabilities. And there are gas stations just as frequently here as in the States too. It’s not like people can’t wash their own car windows for free. Yet, they still pay the stoplight crews.

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These performers and washers are all ages. Most of the jugglers have a hippie sort of look to them. I imagine them having second jobs selling homemade woven bracelets or carved wooden things on a blanket in the streets. On one occasion I saw an acrobatics group that appeared to have just been let out of high school. No, generally speaking, none of these intersection moneymakers appear to be that poor or that homeless that they’d need to resort to such stoplight antics.

It perplexes me. Nevertheless, I have to respect them. They work hard for their money! They aren’t just standing in ratty clothes holding a crappy beat up sign and hoping for a handout. All these little moneymakers I’m encountering throughout Chile – the parking assistants, the people selling any number of things off of a sheet on the sidewalk, the stoplight performers and window washers – they all work for the monetas (coins) they get.

Slowly my perspective has shifted. Initially I thought of them as beggars, now they’re just the same old people that I meet when I’m walking down the street…