Not all translating is as straight forward as I'd like. There are many words and phrases that, when translated literally, lead you down the wrong path or don't make any sense at all. Pueblo Joven is one of these.
"Pueblo" often means a "town", "village" or "settlement", although it can mean "people" in general, and "Joven" generally means "young". Initially I was led to translate it as "young people" or, because of the context as "young town". Much of these young towns suffered from poor conditions and nutrition and eventually I found out that another translation for Pueblo Joven in English is "shanty town".
When we talk about shanty towns in English we think of those areas on the edge of large cities where the poorest people from the countryside eek out an existence of poverty and hunger. However the Spanish, or Peruvian term "young settlement" carries different connotations.
The people who live in the Pueblo Jovens arn't necessarily trapped between hardship and margalization, they're just living in area's that haven’t yet matured and reached their potential. This, I believe is an important crux of Development.
I've visited a few shantytown and one in Lima struck a chord that I still remember. I was seventeen when I visited El Chancheria, the pigsty, and its only now, nearly ten years later that I begin to appreciate what I saw.
The first thing I saw when I stepped out of the car was a dog, lying dead on the dune, it's eyes burrowed out by insects and left to rot. The road was in a valley between two steep dunes, the sand wet and damp despite the fact there had been no rain there for many years. The houses that clung to the hillside were made of posts and tarpaulin, the floors the same inside the abode as outside, moist earth.
We visited a few of the houses. At the time I was with a Christian Organisation that was running several projects in the area to help the people become more self sufficent. One was a duck project, where the people were given two ducks, one male, one female. The ducks laid eggs for the peoples breakfast and, when they had chicks, these were then eaten or passed on to other families.
This micro development slowly allowed families to find other means of raising money and feeding themselves then selling sweets on the streets of Lima. There were other projects to, but sadly I don't remember them all.
The other thing that struck me was that although there were no lights or concert floors here at the expanding edge of Lima, several hundred meters up the road the houses had both, as well as more developed walls and rooms. The people still lived in what we in the comfortable rich West would term poverty, but the town was less young, more mature.
There are of course other important factors, and it is not as simple as saying that if we give enough ducks to poor people they will develop to some semblance or a shadow of our own lifestyles however I think that the idea of Pueblo Jovens is much more useful to dialogues of aid and development then simple concepts of shantytowns.
"Pueblo" often means a "town", "village" or "settlement", although it can mean "people" in general, and "Joven" generally means "young". Initially I was led to translate it as "young people" or, because of the context as "young town". Much of these young towns suffered from poor conditions and nutrition and eventually I found out that another translation for Pueblo Joven in English is "shanty town".
When we talk about shanty towns in English we think of those areas on the edge of large cities where the poorest people from the countryside eek out an existence of poverty and hunger. However the Spanish, or Peruvian term "young settlement" carries different connotations.
The people who live in the Pueblo Jovens arn't necessarily trapped between hardship and margalization, they're just living in area's that haven’t yet matured and reached their potential. This, I believe is an important crux of Development.
I've visited a few shantytown and one in Lima struck a chord that I still remember. I was seventeen when I visited El Chancheria, the pigsty, and its only now, nearly ten years later that I begin to appreciate what I saw.
The first thing I saw when I stepped out of the car was a dog, lying dead on the dune, it's eyes burrowed out by insects and left to rot. The road was in a valley between two steep dunes, the sand wet and damp despite the fact there had been no rain there for many years. The houses that clung to the hillside were made of posts and tarpaulin, the floors the same inside the abode as outside, moist earth.
We visited a few of the houses. At the time I was with a Christian Organisation that was running several projects in the area to help the people become more self sufficent. One was a duck project, where the people were given two ducks, one male, one female. The ducks laid eggs for the peoples breakfast and, when they had chicks, these were then eaten or passed on to other families.
This micro development slowly allowed families to find other means of raising money and feeding themselves then selling sweets on the streets of Lima. There were other projects to, but sadly I don't remember them all.
The other thing that struck me was that although there were no lights or concert floors here at the expanding edge of Lima, several hundred meters up the road the houses had both, as well as more developed walls and rooms. The people still lived in what we in the comfortable rich West would term poverty, but the town was less young, more mature.
There are of course other important factors, and it is not as simple as saying that if we give enough ducks to poor people they will develop to some semblance or a shadow of our own lifestyles however I think that the idea of Pueblo Jovens is much more useful to dialogues of aid and development then simple concepts of shantytowns.
Hey Adam,
ReplyDeleteGlad you're doing well, we've got your letter on the church website. www.christchurchchester.com
God bless
Tim