At a junction on Carrera 55, Spider-Man stands at a red light selling…

At a junction on Carrera 55, Spider-Man stands at a red light selling sweets between the cars. A motorbike rider behind him, a water stall beside him.

This is ordinary here: at every big junction a short performance happens on every red. Juggling with three balls, an acrobat on a rope tied between trees, a guitar at a car window, windscreen washing, selling water, coffee, chargers and sweets. Green light and it is over.

An estimated thirty five thousand people work on the street in Medellín, and the number is said to have tripled after the pandemic. Over eighty percent of them earn less than the minimum wage, which keeps them out of social insurance. Since 2020 the city has had its own policy that both regulates and protects street vending.

People often say it is mostly Venezuelans. In one survey of street vendors in Medellín they were eleven percent; the rest were Colombians. Migration changed the picture, but the rebusque, scraping a living day by day, is older than that.