NEWSLETTER

BY JUAN PABLO AGUILAR AND GUILLERMO RIVERO
TRANSLATED BY MEGAN MCDOWELL
PHOTOS BY RAMIRO CHAVES


LOURDES
A resident since December 2007, Lourdes is still turning tricks. She had been living in the street and a friend invited her to come and stay in the home. At first she doesn’t want to talk about her life, but with a little gentle prodding she agrees, especially when it comes to talking about the previous director of Xochiquetzal: “The old director didn’t let us go out to work, she said she didn’t care if we needed money. Every 15 days we had to give 100 pesos for gas and another 100 for the stove, and if we didn’t pay she didn’t let us take baths. She intimidated us. Once, I threatened her. I told her I was going to the authorities to charge her with holding me prisoner.

“With Rosalba, the new director, it’s different. We all work together. We’re happy, even though when the old director left we lost some supplies. Before, we would get supplies from outside, but not anymore. Sometimes there’s no onion or tomato, but Rosalba gets by without asking us for anything. I don’t know how she does it.”

For Lourdes, it’s better to work in the mornings. Although she dresses like anyone else, in Tepito people identify her: “The men know who tricks and who doesn’t. Sometimes I go out to the store on an errand, and suddenly someone surprises me from behind, asking me to go to a hotel. I refuse and they beg, even if it’s just a little while in the park. I say no, because when I go out to the shop I’m not working.” According to Lourdes, it’s not about the time, but about duty: “Clients usually don’t take long, five or ten minutes. They’re ‘in and out,’” but duty (such as shopping for the house) comes first.

A childless widow, Lourdes saw selling her body as the only means of survival. She complains that people think prostitution is the easy way out, but that they don’t understand its problems—especially those that come with age: “You have to just take everything, like disrespectful clients who ask for things rudely. I’m old, but come on, it’s not such a big deal.”

When she started out in the trade, ten years ago, Lourdes got three or four clients in a working day. Now, when she’s lucky, she gets one: “I don’t think I’ll keep doing this much longer. I’ll do something else, even if it’s just washing dishes. I also don’t think I’ll stay in the nursing home much longer. I feel a need to be alone.”


TO BE CONTINUED
HOUSE OF THE SETTING SUN | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |

See all articles by this contributor

Comments

Anonymous, on Jul 21, 2009 wrote: This is incredibly sad. I guess you figure that prostitutes get out of the business eventually but in reality they can’t escape that life. At least there’s a place for them.
	catbird, on Jul 21, 2009 wrote: this makes me sad
Anonymous, on Sep 15, 2008 wrote: lol she should become a suicide bomba
Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote: This is such a great article! It’s good to know a place like this exists. These women are inspiring! Such badasses. It definitely sheds light on the appeal of being a prostitute, and equally on the issues many of their clients have (and makes you think- why do people have these issues?) Thanks for writing this, guys and displaying a little bit of their world for us to see. :)
Anonymous, on Jul 5, 2008 wrote: this article is very sad, the things these women have gone through are horrable.
Anonymous, on Jul 3, 2008 wrote: <3 Thank you for this, Vice. So often I despise you, but this article shows exactly why you must endure.
Anonymous, on Jul 2, 2008 wrote: Hmmm.... so it is--Oh wait. You’re reading an article about old hookers in a magazine called Vice.
Anonymous, on Jul 2, 2008 wrote: Excellent article, but the line : Where an Aging Hooker Can Find a Little Piece, Oops, We Mean Peace, is vulgar and offesinve.
Anonymous, on Jul 2, 2008 wrote: Esto está tan triste. My heart goes out to these woman, and my fist to the fuckers who disrespect them. For the womens’ sake I hope there is such a thing as reincarnation and they get a better deal the next time round.
Anonymous, on Jul 1, 2008 wrote: buen artículo que demuestra que los mejores tiempos, aunque pasaron siempre encontrarán lugar en la remembranza
Anonymous, on Jul 1, 2008 wrote: happy mothers day.... ha
	dom, on Jun 30, 2008 wrote: Paula is pretty hot. How much is 5 pesos?
Anonymous, on Jun 30, 2008 wrote: Fuck yeah prostitutes!
Anonymous, on Jun 29, 2008 wrote: Good to know that these women have a place where they can be seen just as women, not like sexual workers. Prostitution isn’t the earliest profession in history, but the first way of slavery.
Anonymous, on Jun 28, 2008 wrote: The reality of this article made me a little sick.
Anonymous, on Jun 27, 2008 wrote: sad :( the world makes me sad
	elcarrito, on Jun 27, 2008 wrote: Great article! It’s really sad to think what this women have gone through. Sucked into a life created by the secret lusts of scumbags in a failed economy that leaves millions of people without a choice. These women are fighters...