The dignitaries attending today's inauguration of the Mexican President, Ernesto Zedillo, are unlikely to be shown the shabbier side of life in Mexico City.
Nowhere is this better illustrated than among the people they call The Garbage Dump Dwellers.
Mexico City, one of the largest population centres in the world. This modern city generates thousands of tons of garbage a day.
El Bordo de Xochiaca, one of the largest garbage dumps in Mexico City, is home to a group of poor Mexicans known locally as the Garbage Dump Dwellers.
These people make their living by picking through the refuse and collecting plastic containers, recyclable materials and anything else they can sell.
The garbage dump dwellers eke out an existence of perhaps eight to ten US dollars a day.
SOUNDBITE(Spanish):
"Si lo maximo que a veces sacamos de aqui es de 25 a 30 pesos mexicanos. No llegamos a una cantidad grande porque es que la gente a veces tienen y te dan y cuando no tienen, la verdad es que no le cobramos. ya es su criterio de la persona. Si le cobramos pues se enojan y nos corren de la chamba."
English translation: "Well, the most we make here is from 25 to 30 Mexican pesos a day, from eight to ten US dollars. We don't make more because sometimes they have money and sometimes they don't and then we don't make them pay. If we ask from money when they don't have it, they could force us out of our homes."
SUPER CAPTION: Garbage dump dweller - no name given
While the new Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo assumed power in a ceremony marked by pomp and circumstance, the garbage dwellers went about their day, picking through the trash.
