While in Cuzco . . .

I gave my microphone to my friend Ruben who knows a lot of the girls on the street very well and he went and asked them some questions. The interviews were shocking. Again the name "Jorge" is not real, and the names of all the girls interviewed were omitted.

• What’s a night on the streets like?
o They don’t pay us much, the clients pay the pimp. It’s about 20 soles per client or “trick.” The pimp gets 5 soles and the girls get 15 soles. I have one kid and the father of the kid doesn’t help at all with money so she needs to work.
• What do you think about your friends, can they change?
o All of us want to change, they don’t want to be prostitutes, but they reality is we need the money so we have to do it.
• What do you think about La Casa de Veronica?
o I think that it’s going to be really good and helpful for the girls. She hopes that her friends can get help there.
• Do you want to live there?
o She doesn’t know because she’s not sure if they would accept her and her child.
• Question about Jorge
o The girls sleep with him sometimes. She has slept with him before but she doesn’t like it because he just sleeps with whoever is there and she doesn’t like that. Jorge charges the girls 5 soles a night for a room.
• Has he ever touched you?
o No, he only does that with the other “kids.”
• Have you ever seen any of your friends being touched by these guys?
o Yes, all the time.
• Do the guys watch you change your clothes?
o Jorge gets mad when they go to other rooms to change. Karen usually goes to the bathroom but the other girls are used to it and they change in front of them. Karen doesn’t live at the hostel anymore because she doesn’t like the environment. Now she’s renting a room somewhere else.
• Do you think these girls shouldn’t be here anymore?
o The little girls shouldn’t be here, they should be somewhere where they won’t be sexually abused. Her friends are 13, 14 and 16.
• Do you want to give any advice to your friends?
o They should take the opportunity to change when it’s given to them. If they have kids they need to think about their kids future. They can’t spend their whole life in this. She doesn’t like it but she doesn’t know what to do.


• Tell me a little bit about your life here in Grau
o I don’t really like it, I want to change.
• You work here, right?
o Yes.
• How much do you charge?
o 30 soles
• Do you work for someone?
o Yes
• Who do you have to pay?
o Mrs. Rosa
• How much?
o 10 soles, sometimes when she comes. When she doesn’t come she doesn’t pay her. When I don’t pay Mrs. Rosa, I gets hit or yelled at.
• How is your life here with the girls?
o It’s ugly because people touch us. They get touched a lot by people just passing by in the hostel and sometimes they don’t get paid for it.


• Why do work here?
o We need money to eat and to survive. We live in a cuarto with a man, he’s very nice, his name is Jorge.
• Has he ever abused any of the girls or you?
o Yes. One time he abused me, but I didn’t say anything. The girls have to pay for the room, 10 soles a night. Sometimes he tells the girls, if you do something for me he will charge 3 soles for the room.
• What is “something?” like having sex with him.
o Yes. One time he kicked me out of the house and I had to take all of her stuff with him.
• What do you think about Jorge?
o Jorge also gives me drugs. He can be really mean because he physically abuses the girls by kicking them.
• Do you want to leave this work?
o Yes. Lucy is helping me. I am studying now. Thanks to Lucy I want to do something else with my life.
• What do you think about La Casa de Veronica?
o That place really changes us.
• So you don’t want to do this anymore?
o No I don’t want to. I want to study and I want to do something else with my life. Thanks to Lucy I’m studying again.
• What advice would you give to your friends?
o To study. Move on. Stop doing this. Studying is way more important than being here in the streets.


• What do you do every night here?
o I work.
• How much do they pay you for a trick?
o 50 to 100 soles.
• Do you do this to help your family?
o I mainly do this for me.
• Where do you stay?
o I was staying with Jorge but there was a problem. He tried to abuse her and her friend.
• How many girls sleep in the same room?
o A lot, 4 or 5 in a room.
• Is he good to you?
o I guess he’s bad. One time he pushed me down the stairs. He curses a lot when he speaks to me.
• Does he ever tell you to have sex with him instead of paying for the room?
o No never.
• Have you ever seen him abuse some of the girls?
o Yes when he’s drunk.
• Can you tell me about the police officers around here?
o One time the police office Tito and he “broke her head.” Tito doesn’t care if the girls are pregnant, he will hit them anyway.
• Does someone ever try to rape you?
o Yes.
• Do you want to change and get off the streets? Find something better?
o Yes.
• What do you think about La Casa de Veronica?
o I would want to live there.
• What do you want now?
o I want to get out of here. I don’t want to do this anymore.
• What advice would you give to your friends.
o To change.
• Okay, so you have to change too.
o Yes I do.


• Where do you live?
o Pueblo Libre
• How many years have you been on the streets?
o 6 years.
• What do you do on the streets?
o I am a robber.
• Have you ever prostituted?
o No.
• How much do you pay for that room?
o 3 soles
• Do you want to change and leave this world?
o Yes, definitely.
• What opportunities would you like to have?
o I want to study and go to law school.
• What do the police officers do to you?
o People are really mean here, even though I’ve been here for 6 years the police offices hit me with sticks. Once one of the police offices broke my finger.
• Have you ever received a really bad hit from a police officer? Where?
o Yes. In my face and in my finger.
• What would you like to do to stop the police officers from abusing the girls?
o I just wants the police officers to stop.
• What advice would you give your friends?
o They shouldn’t allow people to hit them. The police officers have no right to hit us because we have rights to. They have the right of speech. Just because they are authorities doesn’t mean that they can hit us.


• Tell me what happened today
o One lady came to me and tried to take me to this whore house.
• Where is this house?
o Vila El Salavador
• Have you ever been there?
o One time because a friend took me there.
• What does it look like?
o It just looks like a regular house.
• How many girls are there?
o I don’t know, I was the only girl there. A lot of men used to go there a lot. This lady wanted to girls to charge 20 or 30 soles for each trick.
• Have you ever worked there?
o I worked with her one time, but I wanted to get out of there. I didn’t want to go out with the lady’s husband.
• What did the lady do?
o She was telling me to go with him (her husband). Today the lady came to the street where she works. She wanted to take her to the house but she didn’t want to go there.
• What did she tell you?
o She wanted me to go with her. She told me that if I didn’t go with her I’m going to hit you but if you come I’m going to give you a soda. The lady threatened her with a knife. She was going to kill me she was going to hit me. This is the first time that I’ve seen him come to this street looking for girls but she’s been to other streets before.
• Do you want to report her?
o Yes.
• Yes we need to tell the police about this person, we shouldn’t allow people like this to come to the streets and take the girls and abuse them.
o Yes.
• Are you scared right now?
o Yes.
• Okay, I’m going to stay here so I can take care of you.
o Thanks.
• Anything that happens here, just let me know so we can tell the police and do something about it. You don’t have to be afraid, if you show them you afraid it’s worse.