Will you explain the meaning of the Peruvian Child poem by Pat Mora?

The poem "The Peruvian Child", by Pat Mora, is a poem
about the differences of cultures.

The narrator of the poem
is obviously a tourist to the land as denoted by the following line fragment: "our guide
said." The narrator wishes to create a mental picture of the child she comes across in
the street. The child, with "mud-crusted hands or feet or face", does not create the
image the tourist wishes to take home with her. Instead, it creates a very negative and
sorrowful image for her.

There is also fear seen in the
faces of the locals. They seem fearful of the people, different from them, who have
invaded their lives.

In the end, the poem speaks to the
fact that, many times, when "we" are on vacations or in areas very different from ours,
we fail to understand the minds of those who live there. We do not wish to remember our
excursion as one which brings us sorrow. Instead, we wish to fill these moments with
memories which bring us happiness.

The image of the child,
sitting in the middle of the street, does not offer the perfect and picturesque image we
wish to embed in our minds.