Quotes About Poverty

Esto sirve para tranquilizarnos la conciencia, hija —explicaba a Blanca—. Pero no ayuda a los pobres. No necesitan caridad, sino justicia.

Cómo puedes defender este sistema de vida= !Mira la pobreza! ¿Te gustaría vivir así? -No, Jaguar, pero tampoco me gustaría tener más de lo que se necesita - replicó ella

Esta violencia es el resultado de una guerra perpetua contra los pobres.

El espectro de la pobreza, como el de la soledad, rondaba siempre a los viejos.

the capital city had grown in alarming fashion: cardboard walls, tin roofs, people in rags clearly visible along the road from the airport. Since this made a very bad impression on visitors, for a long time the solution was to put up walls to hide them. As one politician said, 'Where there is poverty, hide it.

I discovered that social climbing was a middle-class phenomenon, the poor never gave it a thought, they were too busy trying to survive. Over the years these communities acquired political savvy, they organized and became fertile territory for leftist parties. Ten years later, in 1970, they were decisive in electing Salvador Allende and for that reason had to suffer the greatest repression during the dictatorship.

Sociologists say that forty percent of Chileans suffer from depression, especially women, who have to put up with the men. You must remember, too, that our country goes through major disasters, and that there are many poor, so it seems rude to mention one's own good fortune.

Qué enciende la pasión? La propia fantasía, supongo. ¿Qué la apaga? La rutina, si uno se descuida, y la pobreza.

Weinig oude mensen zijn tevreden, Irina. De meesten leven in armoede, met een gebrekkige gezondheid en zonder familie. Dit is de moeilijkste en kwetsbaarste fase van ons leven, erger nog dan je kinderjaren, want met de dag ga je verder achteruit en er wacht je geen andere toekomst dan de dood.

Se había alejado de la acción y había acabado encerrado en su mundo académico, lejos de la dura realidad de los pobres en América Latina.

llevaba ahora a Blanca a ver a los pobres, cargada de regalos y consuelos. —Esto sirve para tranquilizarnos la conciencia, hija —explicaba a Blanca—. Pero no ayuda a los pobres. No necesitan caridad, sino justicia.

wretchedness of some and the arrogance of

It occurs to me that this sobriety, so deeply rooted in my family, as well as our habit of veiling our happiness or well-being, was founded in the embarrassment we felt when we saw the poverty all around us.

Los soldados estaban aún en ascuas por la despiadada guerra civil, el país se hallaba empobrecido y desordenado, y los indios eran sometidos a trabajos forzados. Nuestro emperador Carlos V había ordenado en sus reales cédulas tratar a los nativos con respeto, evangelizarlos y civilizarlos por la bondad y las buenas obras, pero ésa no era la realidad.

I realized also that in Nahuel, that town of hospitable neighbors, you only had to scratch the surface to uncover the ugliest of vices, though my mentors insisted that cruelty wasn't inherent to the human condition, merely something born of ignorance and poverty. "It's much easier to be generous with a full belly than an empty one," they said. I've never believed that, though, because I've seen that both kindness and cruelty exist everywhere.

Pedro Tercero tuvo que renunciar a sus paseos al pueblo, porque su padre lo requería a su lado. Lo secundaba de mal humor, haciéndole notar que se partían el lomo por volver a poner en pie la riqueza del patrón, pero que ellos seguían siendo tan pobres como antes. —Siempre ha sido así, hijo. Usted no puede cambiar la ley de Dios —le replicaba su padre.

Chile, unlike other regions of the continent, did not offer the possibility of wealth beyond dreams. Gold and silver mines could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and the minerals had to be torn from the rock with unspeakable effort. Neither did Chile have the climate for prosperous tobacco, coffee, or cotton plantations. Ours has always been a country with one foot in the poorhouse; the most that the colonist could aspire to was a quiet life dedicated to agriculture.

In Chile, poverty and solidarity go hand in hand.

Esto sirve para tranquilizarnos la conciencia, hija -explicaba Blanca-. Pero no ayuda a los pobres, No necesitan caridad, sino justicia

This is to assuage our conscience, darling," she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor.

la peor pobreza es la de cuello y corbata, porque hay que disimularla

No hay peor pobreza que la de la gente venida a menos, porque se debe aparentar lo que no se tiene», había confesado Nívea a su primo

To see my country with the heart, one must read Pablo Neruda, the national poet who in his verses immortalized the imposing landscapes, the aromas and dawns, the tenacious rain and dignified poverty, the stoicism and the hospitality, of Chile. That is the land of my nostalgia, the one I invoke in my solitude, the one that appears as a backdrop in so many of my stories, the one that comes to me in my dreams.

They all agreed that under communism they had been just as poor, but at least there was food and security, whereas independence had brought them only ruin and abandonment.