Bolivia's shoeshine outcasts pin hopes on Morales

LA PAZ (Reuters) - His dark eyes glinting from behind a black woolen ski mask to hide his identity, 22-year-old shoeshiner Abel Alvarez is praying Bolivian President Evo Morales wins a recall vote.

At the bottom of the ladder in South America's poorest country, former street urchin Alvarez and fellow shoeshiners as young as seven pepper the streets of La Paz, and complain they are shunned as untouchables.

They wear masks so classmates cannot recognize them as they earn 35-50 bolivianos ($5-$7) on a good day shining shoes -- the underclass in a land where some 60 percent of the population of about 10 million is poor.

But they say the fact Morales is Bolivia's first Indian president and a former coca farmer of humble origins, has helped erode the discrimination they face on the streets, and are proud of his socialist reforms.

"He's the same color as us, the same race," Alvarez said, gesturing at his dark brown skin. "He's doing great things. Nationalizing energy resources, cash handouts for the young and poor, eradicating illiteracy."

"We're now the owners of our own land and resources." He has been shining shoes since he was eight, and dreams of being a lawyer. La Paz is Morales' power base.

Morales is expected to win a recall referendum on Sunday, a vote that pits him against a cluster of right-wing opposition governors, several of whom are pushing for regional autonomy.

But while cash handouts of 200 bolivianos ($28.50) a year for school children up to age 11 help, it is a private foundation that has stepped in to help the street children.

Isabel Oroza has set up a foundation in a middle-class neighborhood of La Paz where street children can take classes, and which is funded by a restaurant and cafe it houses.

She also produces a newspaper, called "Armed Ant," which the youths contribute articles to and then sell on the streets, inspired by the Big Issue sold by homeless on the streets of London. Some of the children have taken part in plays.

"The focus is to give them dignified work, but in exchange they have to come here and take classes so they can develop themselves," said Oroza.

She banished 20 youths from the foundation earlier this year because they did not attend classes and just turned up for free papers to sell. Some sniffed glue.

"It is great. Here I can take off this mask and be with my friends, and learn," said Babas, 21, sitting in the patio of the foundation premises, where shoeshiners meet each Saturday for tea and buns before they head to a park to play soccer.

He is studying to be a tour guide but does not give his real name because he doesn't want classmates to recognize him and insult him for his Indian roots and poverty.

"When I go back through that gate, I have to put it back on," he added. "But things are improving thanks to Morales."

(Editing by Anthony Boadle)