"This crisis has changed our lives too much. It's horrible," says Martinez. Both she and her husband have lost their jobs, she explains in a rapid-fire staccato, so she started doing hairdressing work to help make ends meet. That ended when she decided to sell her scissors and blow dryer to pay some bills. Her family's diet used to be loaded with protein and calories: There was steak, chicken, ham, eggs, cheese, arepas. On Friday night it was dinner out; on the weekend, grilling out. "We can't afford any of that now," she says-not even cake for birthday parties. Today she relies on government food handouts and serves mostly cheap vegetables to her family-corn, celery, yucca. Her 21-year-old daughter wants to leave the country; her friends already have. She's thinking about trying her luck in Peru. "I've thought about it, too," Martinez says, fighting back tears. "I'd leave my younger girl with my mom."
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