Bolivia

I am a Taxi by Deborah Ellis

For twelve-year-old Diego and his family, home is the San Sebastian Women’s Prison in Cochabamba, Bolivia. His parents farmed coca, a traditional Bolivian medicinal plant, until they got caught in the middle of the government’s war on drugs. Diego’s adjusted to his new life. His parents are locked up, but he can come and go: to school, to the market to sell his mother’s hand-knitted goods, and to work as a “taxi”, running errands for other prisoners. But then his little sister runs away, earning his mother a heavy fine. The debt and dawning realization of his hopeless situation make him vulnerable to his friend Mando’s plan to make big money, fast. Soon, Diego is deep in the jungle, working as a virtual slave in an illegal cocaine operation. As his situation becomes more and more dangerous, he knows he must take a terrible risk if he ever wants to see his family again.

My Thoughts:

I am a Taxi is a fictional story based on circumstances that are real for people in Bolivia.  The country is overrun with the cocaine industry and the government, trying to get a handle on it.  The prisons in Bolivia are so infamous that you can find a number of documentaries based on life inside these prisons.  Parents and their children live together inside these prisons.  They have their own ways of making money to pay rent for their prison cells, otherwise they will end up sleeping on the hard ground out in the open.

This is a story about how, in struggling countries, hard working people with good hearts end up getting in tough situations and then choose to get involved in illegal acts in order to fix their situation, but then end up worse-off still.  This book was eye opening to big issues that third world countries deal with today.

My Ratings:

Well written:  Yes

Easy to follow:  Yes

Held my attention:  Yes

Would I recommend this to a friend:  Yes
Did it represent the country: Yes

Content:

Sexual Content: No

Violence: Mild

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Pages: 208