Alejandra's Addiction: A Short Story

It is a warm holiday night in Mendoza, Argentina. People come and go along Plaza Independencia, in the heart of downtown Mendoza. Families walk along the streets, probably going to have dinner somewhere, others heading home. Zonda wind blows hard on everyone’s faces. Passers-by cover their faces to avoid dust and dirt getting into their eyes and try to seek shelter. However, there is a group of people slowly gathering on benches on one side of the Plaza Independencia. They are not sheltering from the wind but rather exposing themselves to it. Timid they sit along one another waiting patiently.

9:30 p.m. Suddenly, like angels, a group of people carrying pots with food and jars filled with juice approach the people waiting for their meal.

She tried visiting psychologists, and then psychiatrists who gave her pills that “made her feel off and dull”. She tried studying since she thought that college would help her feel fulfilled, yet her graduating did not make her feel accomplishment. Alejandra was in a personal inner search. She was undergoing a period of frustration, of crisis, and she felt stuck in life. She wondered, “Why am I feeling this way? What is my mission in life?”

“In that inner search, I began to study the Bible and met new people. There was a woman who always mentioned the people at Plaza Independencia, so I began to feel curious about them. That is how I reached the group ‘Ayuda Urbana’,” Alejandra expresses.

Alejandra has always loved to help people. Assisting and caring about the elder customers of the supermarket she works in has always been satisfying for her and, mysteriously, she found a parallelism between them and the people in street situation she was introduced to. It was there where she discovered that human contact was what she was lacking; it was that what would fill in the emptiness in her life. Both the elder customers and the people in need were defenseless and underprivileged people seeking help, support, and love, and she was eager to offer

He looks at Marlene and she smiles at him. He smiles back and warmly hugs her.

“All kinds of people come here to eat: people in street situation, people who have economic necessities, and people who are in a better position but still come to receive food and share a special moment with us,” says Marlene.

The website losandes.com.ar states that according to the INDEC (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos), Mendoza has a 33,5% of poverty; over 3% more than the country’s average. The website also reveals that, out of that percentage, around 300 people are in street situation, and that the government acknowledges that the number could increase.

When the volunteers begin to hand-in the food, people patiently wait in an orderly line —they already know that women and children are given priority in line.

As Marlene speaks to us, people of all ages surround us: young adults, elderly, children —even babies. Behind us, the volunteers gather everyone to pray for the food and to give people in need a word of hope. Nobody is forced to listen, but most of them join in and others simply step aside and continue eating. Alejandro, the pleasant and friendly man who had approached us before, politely starts to talk to us and tells us that students from the UNCuyo’s Medical College and Dentistry College go every Monday to assist them and keep a medical record of them. Later he adds with a giggle,