I have many memories in my mind about my childhood. They stay there as if that had occurred yesterday, and I know they will be with me forever.

The first remembrances about my childhood are from when I was five years old. I remember I had a small toy car. It was a little blue car, and I used to think "I would like to go to into the small car." It was a lot of fun. I experience a great feeling when I remember that. I didn't have many toys, just a few, because my parents couldn't buy them. I used to play with some pieces of rock or wood that I found outside. At this time, we used to live in a small town called Sicches, in the north of Peru.

Then, when I was almost six years old, my family moved to Lima City and everything changed for me. I was lost when I arrived there, because the mountains and the forest weren't there anymore. Everything has been replaced with a huge concrete jungle, and I didn't know anyone there. At first, we lived with my older sister who already lived in Lima.

One year later, we had to change houses again. We moved to the extension land in the south of Lima, because my parents could find a place to live there. All this process took almost two years since we moved from my native town. Well, at this moment, I was 8 years old, and I lived the most wonderful and interesting childhood. When I lived there I make a lot of friends rapidly. We were poor children, and we didn't have toys to play with, but we didn't worry too much, because our creativity exceeded our lacks.

My younger brother Enzo, who had already grown, began to play with us. Soccer was very popular among the new children who arrived like me to the neighborhood. I really enjoyed the first grades of my school because I had many friends there too. I used to play each time I had chance, I was very restless, as I still am now. I was always asking," WHY?" as I do now. Soccer was the most important thing for me like my own religion. We were a big group of friends, almost 50 children. We used to play until late at night, We played many of our favorites games, such as hide and seek, volleyball, tumbalatas, and different games that only we knew.

One terrible event was going to change our lives, especially my own life. My beloved dad died in 1984, when I was 9 years old. When I think about that day, the details make me feel very sad. That was the worst, and it hit me hard. Suddenly, my childhood had been interrupted. Little by little, the bad economic situation pushed me out of my group of friends to the dangerous streets of my city, far away from my neighborhood. For that reason, I began to work at a very young age. I did many things to improve our situation, such us bread selling very early on the mornings. Then I used to sell candies until 12 am. In spite of all, I never left my school classes. In the afternoons, I used to go out to sell cigarettes. I continued my games routine, my lovely soccer. Part of my childhood had gone with out me noticing,

In those streets, I met other kinds of children, each one with a different story. In those streets, I learned that things were not easy, and that each one of them requires much effort. I spent my childhood working hard and doing things that I should not have done. But that is life, sometimes very harsh, sometimes not. I would like to go back again to change some things. I would like to redo my childhood and each happy moment to be happy and each harsh moment to get motivation and finally to come alive again. I don't regret the life which I have lived. The experiences have given me strength to go on. When I'm in my bed, I close my eyes, and I transport myself inside my memories, and I can see each nice moment that I lived like such a "BEAUTIFUL MOVIE".