Pascua Infantil:
On the first three mornings of Holy Week, the catechists in four communities celebrated "Pascua Infantil" ... remembering the major events in the final days of Our Lord Jesus Christ: his last supper, crucifixion and Resurrection. Pictured above are some of the children from Los Blancos, as they dramatized the memory of the torture inflicted upon Our Savior.
Slow agony:
With the breakdown of trade barriers and the swift movement of capital throughout the world, as with any economic or political system change, there are "winners" and "losers". It is next to impossible that the boys from Los Blancos will suffer the torture of being nailed to a cross. However they move towards adulthood in a blighted area, suffering from an increasing scarcity of adequate jobs.
The new nails:
The Dominican Republic abides people who nail their youth to the cross of unemployment. "Am I my brother´s keeper?" The crafty goats benefit from the corrupted system of justice and betray their own countrymen by weakening local agricultural production through excessive importations. How will these children deal with unemployment?
Thirty pieces of silver:
Dominican family members in New York send money back to the island and make decisions about how to spend some of that money: more often than not they chose the easy path... investment in a bar. Thus the young men grow up in an environment where the pain of unemployment is numbed by Presidente beer and Brugal rum. Others invest in lottery schemes to catch precious income from the low paying agricultural jobs.
Simon who helps to carry the cross:
Beside the chapel in Los Blancos there is a small industry: a furniture shop. The owner together with relatives in the states set up a business that makes beds, tables and chairs. Every week you can see a truck carrying the finished products towards the large market in Santo Domingo. Within the shop you can find young men learning a craft. Also you can observe Haitian women who instead of selling boot leg rum (cleren), prefer to bake home-made bread and sell it to the youth coming off the mountain farms.
It depends where you choose to look:
Just as that first Good Friday, it depends on where one looks... both those who nail and those who help carry the cross are present. May the children grow into people who know how to help others carry their crosses!