Intervistas con las chicas

The last few days that I had in Lima before I went to Cuzco were spent going to Iquitos Ave, the main drag of prostituion in Lima and talking to the girls. I had to go while I could because my friends from the church group in Georgia were leaving on Sunday, and they were great translators. The interviews were pretty successful. Very similar answers across the board. The girls that were currently prostituting were not going to school, although they would like to be. When I asked the girls to tell me about their work in the streets many of them said things like "I´m embaressed" or "I don´t want to." One question that had really different answers was: "How much money do you make a night?" I got answers from some nights nothing to 400 soles. I don´t know how common it is to make 400 soles a night or if that´s true. Finally, one of the last questions was "Would you prefer other work?" and all of the girls except one said of course, but there is no other job where they could make as much money.

Okay, so I know that the entry before this one was VERY confusing, but that´s because 1) I honeslty didn´t know at the time what all happend and 2) I prefer not to use names. However, I am going to post an interview with the girl (I´m going to call her Marie) who was dragged from Genericion with one of the girls (I´m going to call her Sandra) who wanted to go back to the streets. Hopefully it will make a little more sense:

Sandra brought Marie to Contumasa, the hostel where 6 girls that are being trafficked live(6 to my knowledge). When they got there, two of the girls yelled at Sandra for bringing her along. Marie met Jorge (not real not), the man who runs the hostel. There she went into the bedroom of Jorge which had many things like a tv and dvd player. There was a big bed and there were also bunk beds. When Sandra is there she sleeps in the room in bed with Jorge. Sometimes Jorge sleeps with two girls. Marie saw Sandra get into bed with him. That night, Jorge bought food for all the girls. Sandra left Isabell and Jorge alone in a room. Then, Jorge asked Marie, “What are you doing here? You should go back to San Bartolo (Genericion), otherwise you would become a prostitute and find a “husband” (pimp).” Marie said that yes she did want to go back. He told her that if she wants to stay she can because he won’t do anything bad to her. After Marie said she wanted to back he reassured her that she can always come back. Marie said she’d prefer to sell candies. Jorge replied that that’s how they all start, but once you start making money and points (clients) she will be back. If she chose to stay in the streets she could come back. After that another girl Candice (not real name), age 14, came back and said she was going to buy a case of beer and they could drink all night long.

Lucy asked Marie if she thought that places like this should exist. She said that it’s supposed to be a hotel for adults but it’s filled with kids. She did see one older couple there that smelled like drugs. Marie also saw a man pay Jorge 120 soles, when it only cost 3 soles to sleep there for the night. She said she thinks these places shouldn’t exist and that he’s doing something wrong. He would tell Marie that she could make 400 soles a night. She thinks that he says those things just to make her stay.

Sandra told Jorge not to let Marie leave because if someone found here than she would be in trouble with Lucy. The other girls found Marie in the hostel and told her to leave with us “the gringas” (slang in spanish for white people). Marie left that night because we were there and she could go with us.

So from this interview, we found out a lot more information about the hostel. Right now I am working on building more evidence about this so that the information can be turned over to authorites when I leave. Another interview that gave us a lot more information was with Candice (not real name):

Candice lives with Jorge in the hostel. When asked what kind of guy is he she says that he’s hit one of the girls before, he yells at the girls, and he has the girls change in front of him. One time he asked one of the girls for 200 soles and never gave it back. Candice said that she isn’t treated badly by Manuel. Sometimes he gets jealous of her because she is with someone else, (she says it´s not her boyfriend but he kind of is). He even told her that he gets jealous and she can tell that he gets grouchy. He asked her to sleep with him and offered to pay but every time she’s said no.

Right now, I am taking a little break from the craziness of the streets of Lima. I´m in Cuzco for a little bit relaxing, and seeing Machu Picchu. While I´m here, I am paying a friend of mine to do some really infromal interviews with these girls while I am gone. When I get back I´m going to pick up right where I left off.