To look into Demetria Montero de Colonio's eyes is to glimpse a world of struggle and hope. Demetria's eyes are set in a strong face of sculpted features and weathered skin. Her spirit, like her skin, is calloused by years of vending on the streets of Huancayo, Peru. Demetria, known widely as Mama Demi or Mamita, is an ambulante, a street-vendor who earns her living selling vegetables along Calle Mantaro - a crowded street in the market district of Huancayo. Despite hardships and setbacks, Mamita perpetuates the seemingly timeless tradition of street-vending by teaching her daughters and granddaughters to be ambulantes.
Street-vending is one of the earliest economic activities to be documented in Latin America. Recently, however, increased rural poverty, urban migration, and economic stagnation have sparked explosive growth in the informal sector in most major cities. Chronic unemployment and government red tape have driven many Peruvians, like Mamita and her family, to ignore government regulations and set up business in the streets.
Between 1985 and 1987 the number of ambulantes operating in Huancayo, a bustling regional center of 200,000 in the Andean central highlands, doubled to 7,000. Once primarily the realm of unskilled rural migrants and urban poor, the ranks of ambulantes today swell with educated would-be professionals as well as refugees from violence-torn regions of Peru. While Peruvian officials struggle to service overburdened and crowded urban areas, ambulantes like Mamita create their own jobs, political organizations, and advancement opportunities with little help from government agencies. Their work is disrupted by instability and insecurity. They are vulnerable to the whims of suppliers, purchasers, municipal authorities, political moods, economic swings, and weather. However, en masse, the ambulantes of Huancayo constitute a highly visible, numerically significant, and politically potent element of the urban economy.
A niche within the urban economy
In the past five years, the ambulantes of Huancayo have gained considerable legitimacy. There is even a law named for them that specifies the conditions under which ambulantes are allowed to operate. Accordingly, Mamita and her daughters, as all ambulantes, are required to register with the municipal authorities and pay two fees. One, a matricula, is an annual licensing fee. The other, the alcabala, is a daily operating fee. In return, Mamita is assigned a fixed location along the edge of a street, where she is allowed to conduct business and is guaranteed freedom from police harassment.
Because Mamita is a fresh produce vendor, she must pay two additional fees. When she visits the police department to pay her matricula, Mamita must produce a certificate of good health. These cards are secured through the public health department of the city government, or on the black market. Twice a year, she is required to bring the scale that she and her daughters share to the police department to be justified. There has been a sharp outcry among Huancayo's ambulantes this past year as the fees attached to securing an operating license, health certificate, and scale balancing have increased dramatically. Regardless, Mamita is well aware that only after completing the required formalities can she legally vend.
The law governing ambulante
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