内容摘要：Ghana’s first-ever female world boxing champion, Abigail Kwartekaa Quartey, poses for a photo after a morning training session on the beach in the Jamestown district of Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Ghana’s first-ever female world boxing champion, Abigail Kwartekaa Quartey, poses for a photo after a morning training session on the beach in the Jamestown district of Accra, Ghana, Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at

ATLIXCO, Mexico (AP) — Every year, crowds fill the streets of the central Mexican town of Atlixco on the Catholic holiday of Good Friday to witness the sight.Throngs of half-naked men walk through the scorching streets blindfolded, toting 70-pound chains and pieces of cactus lodged in their arms and legs. It’s part of awhere participants say they are paying penance for their sins.

A masked penitent in chains with cacti attached to his arms takes part in a Holy Week procession in Atlixco, Mexico, on Good Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)A masked penitent in chains with cacti attached to his arms takes part in a Holy Week procession in Atlixco, Mexico, on Good Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A masked penitent in chains holds out his arms to have cacti attached to his arm, before taking part in a Holy Week procession in Atlixco, Mexico, on Good Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A masked penitent in chains holds out his arms to have cacti attached to his arm, before taking part in a Holy Week procession in Atlixco, Mexico, on Good Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)A man looks for plastic items at Karakoy ferry terminal in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

In the evening, his father brings his truck around and they load up the days’ haul of paper and plastic from Dogan and others in the area to sell to recycling facilities. After being processed, it will be used in industrial applications or reused as carton and paper.Late at night, thieves sometimes stop them on the streets, asking for money.

“If we refuse, they threaten us,” Dogan says. “We work more than 12 hours, sometimes 17 (a day). If we take a day off, we go hungry.”A man pushes his cart with discarded plastic items and cartons at Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)