Virus shatters Latin America's middle class dreams

Lorena Rodriguez, 47, who worked in the informal sector as a nanny, shows a gold bracelet before pawning it at a state-run pawnbroker, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Quilpue, Chile August 12, 2020. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido

BUENOS AIRES/SANTIAGO/LIMA/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - When the coronavirus hit Chile and abruptly cost Lorena Rodriguez her job, the 47-year-old nanny took a painful decision to pawn her jewelry - gifts from decades earlier - for cash.

Like more than half of Latin Americans, she worked in the informal sector, looking after two children in an upmarket area of the coastal city of Valparaiso but living comfortably on joint income with her husband of 700,000 pesos ($905) a month.