Macarena, 14 - transcript for this 2001 Romanian street kids documentary
They’ve called me Macarena since I was a small child, in the streets and in 
the orphanage. Because I dance too much to the Macarena.
All of the kids get high. Nobody can stop using Aurolac. Four bottles I got today, I got high wholesale. I am the most street kid, the most Aurolac kid. People give me money for food, but I buy paint. Because if I get one bottle I am no longer hungry. It’s like paradise, you dream that you eat… and I can’t give 
it up.
“I know Macarena from the orphanage. I take care of her. One day she started to cry. She was very hungry. And I had a premonition to go to her and see how she is. She couldn’t take it anymore, she was so hungry. [Men] beat her. When they see her high, they take advantage of her. Sh
e doesn’t know what’s happening to her. She doesn’t even know her name. If you are Macarena, and I am a man, I look at you getting high, I beat you, and you can cry as long as you want, I don’t care. She doesn’t stop crying, she keeps screaming. And she cries, and explains, ‘A man beat me’. And she curses him.” [Cristina].
Video footage of a Macarena wailing on the ground in the train station. A man comes up to her and starts kicking her and dragging her around, yelling, “Will you shut the fuck up! Shut up!” Macarena can’t stop crying. Cristina comes over, says, “Leave her,” and pushes the man away. Cristina wipes away Macarena’s tears, “Macarena, stop crying. Have a smoke, Macarena. Wipe your eyes off. Let’s go over there, come. You’re going to stop crying, right? Good.” Macarena keeps crying after Cristina leaves. 
“Some days Macarena comes to the Open House. She washes up and washes her clothes too. All by herself. She is very punctual and hardworking. Except for when she is suspended. Usually, she comes high, very high, to the program. We haven’t convinced her yet to give up the drugs. She followed a very difficult path, through many orphanages and institutions. Poor her, she doesn’t know anymor
e where she comes from. And I don’t think she realized that she too was born of a mother, of a human being, just like any of us. Because one day she came to me and told me, “Claudia, I must have parents too, right? But I don’t know them, right?” Which made me think that she probably didn’t realize that she was born of a mother, just like any of us. This says enormously much, because under these circumstances, it is very difficult for her to look into the fu
ture.” [A social worker].
One Year Later: The police kicked the kids out of the train station. Macarena didn’t go to live on the construction site like Cristina. She stopped going to the street kids centre. She keeps to herself.
Q: Is it better on the streets now?
Macarena: It’s not really better on
the streets now. We stay outdoors, it’s cold, and I get pain from the drugs. My leg hurts me too. I don’t have a place to sleep tonight, I sleep outside. The rest sleep in the construction site. I have been beaten, and I want to leave. The bodyguards beat us, a policeman wanted to shoot me. I don’t want to die. You know, I’m not from this country, from Bucharest. I’m from another country. My mommy and daddy are waiting for me. But I can’t go by myself beca
use I need a passport. I stay here in Bucharest. I’m not from this country. Mommy and daddy will be waiting for me. And I’ve got a sister, also Macarena. She’s in Bucharest, in a school, many happy returns. Once in a while I go past her school. She’s getting along with her classmates and doing well. We are twins from our mother and father. Twins from our mother and father.
