Mexico is
fairly accepting of homosexuals but doesn’t teach homosexual health in schools.
Four or five years ago they made gay marriage legal in the capital Districto
Federal. People from all over the country come here to DF to get married
because the marriages must be honored throughout the country. But, there is
still a lot of discrimination and anti-homosexual violence that exists. For
example, homosexual couples generally don’t show affection on the streets –
holding hands and kissing in public is “not a good idea.” But, the clinic is a
very accepting and safe place, with guards everywhere so couples feel safe and
can hold hands and cuddle as they wait for their results. Well, technically
potentially devastating results, but its still really sweet.
While I was
waiting for a bus to take me to the prostitute park (see below), I got to play
with an adorable kid. She was only 5, but she was so excited about everything.
I showed her the different parts of the clinic, explained the plant
reproductive system (in Spanish nonetheless) and then we played The Ramp Game
for about an hour. The Ramp Game consisted of her running up and down a ramp.
There were variations, of course. She walked on the edge of the ramp, she did
it on one foot, she ran, she crawled, etc. It was a great game. My part was to
watch. I was really good at The Ramp Game.
Finally, at
2:00 we went to La Almaneda, a park that is known for its male prostitution.
Male prostitution in terms of the clinic means males having sex with males. Our
goal was to bring people back to the clinic to get tested, to give out condoms,
and to bring anyone who is due for treatment. When we arrived at the park,
prostitution was everywhere. If I had just gone to the park as a tourist, I
would have never have known what was going on. Octavio, the employee of the
clinic who went with me, pointed it out slowly. A group of young 20-something
boys siting on a bench, probably prostitutes. Really old guys sitting together?
Clients. In fact, the clientele seemed to be almost exclusively old men. It was
especially obvious when a young guy was standing too close to an old man,
talking. They are most likely bartering over the price and what the prostitute
will and won’t do for that price. Once the details are ironed out the couple
goes to a hotel and does the deed.
The
majority of prostitutes in the park were homeless. La Almaneda was the lowest
of the different prostitute places in the city. Here, a man can buy a night
with a man for as low as $15 USD or $150 pesos. Sometimes the guys can get up
to $50 USD nights, but these usually include more acts. (I didn’t ask which
ones).
We handed
out condoms to anyone and everyone – even the clients. But the lube that we
brought with us, now that was special stuff. We gave away 2 tubes to Octavio’s
regular study participants (There is a study about paying people each year if
they stay STD free that many of these men participate in. This study is the
reason I’m here, but its pretty dormant at the moment.) Octavio saved out last
tube of lube. After we had walked around the prostitution part of the park, we
made our way to a restaurant where a bunch of guys were sitting around a table
drinking beer. It was one of the men’s birthday and Octavio had saved a tube of
lube for him. It was probably the only birthday present he would receive but
his face just lit up when he saw it. To these prostitutes, lube is gold. “Without
lube oy yeah it hurts like a bitch, but with lube its just another job,” said
one man. From a public heath perspective, lube is very important a) to keep the
condom on so that there is not an accidental exchange of fluids and b) so that
the anus doesn’t tear and become infected.
As we
rounded the corner, I saw our favorite murderer, prostitute, robber, and
rapist! I was so happy to see him alive and well that I ran up and give him a
big hug! He picked me up off the ground and said how happy he was to see me. I
yelled at him jokingly and asked why he hadn’t come to the clinic to see me and
to get his results. He shrugged and said that he was going to start living a
good Christian life soon. Good, I said, but why didn’t you come to the clinic?
He answered that he did come but that I wasn’t there. I brushed him off and
said that I didn’t believe him. I turned to his friend and asked he was going
to come to the clinic for his results of the Hep B, C, and syphilis test. The
friend answered that he was so I said the friend had to bring our BFF with him.
But, we’ll see I'm not very hopeful that either of them will show up. Hopefully
next Thursday we will be able to come with a big van so that we can drive them
to and back from the clinic.
After I
said goodbye to my friends we kept walking. Because we didn’t have the van this
time, we had extra time. We strolled through the rest of the park. Octavio explained
that they had just expanded the park a lot and where as before the guys could
wander throughout the whole park and do their business wherever they pleased.
But after the remodel of the park, the cops now keep them to one corner of the
park only. I asked how the police could possibly know/enforce that policy. He
said that the police just don’t let them sleep on the benches in the middle of
the park, but they don’t bother them when they set up shop in the corner. It’s
an unspoken between the guys and the police. We walked through the touristy
part of the park for a while until we got to some big monument for something or
another.
On the car
ride over I said that I had been cooped up in my apartment so I hadn’t gotten a
chance to get to know the city very well. I asked Octavio if he would show me
what was what. He became a regular tour guide. Better than a lot of the other
ones I’ve had in the past, in fact. We turned down a side street away from the
park and he said that he was taking me to a modern art museum. “Great!” I
replied and into the museum we went.
We didn’t
buy tickets so we couldn’t see the whole thing but they let us in the lobby.
The majority of their pieces have modern detailed takes on old, traditional
Mexican art. There was a big sculpture with little seed beads covering it. The
sculpture was enormous and from far away, well actually even pretty close up,
you couldn’t tell at all that it was covered in these tiny tiny beads. It was a
huge sculpture at least 5x5x3ft big. An incredible amount of work must have
gone into it. Then, there was a poncho with an indigenous pattern but, it was
made by placing thread on top of other fabric. Again, a painstaking
interpretation of traditional art. The gift shop had really beautiful, colorful
stuff but it was all way over-priced. Regardless, there was just really
breathtaking stuff there It was some of my favorite art that I’ve seen. Fun, vibrant, visually pleasing,
awe-inspiring, pieces that require talent and vision. Yeah. Good stuffs.
Then we
started the long walk back to where our car was waiting. On the way, we met
another group of male prostitutes. They had an adorable little puppy with them.
We stopped to chat and they asked about me. I promised my mother that I
wouldn’t tell anyone that I was from the states so I lied and said I was from Eurpoe.
Where in Europe, they of course asked. I should have a) changed the subject or
b) told them I was from England, but certainly not c) panicked and chosen a
random country whose language I did not speak, say France. France, I said. Why
France? I don’t know. Honestly, it was the only country in Europe I could come
up with. Then one of the boys asked me what my fame was… in French! Thank god I
got what he was saying and replied that my name was Nina. I was very scared
that he would try to keep talking to me in French or about France, so I went
and played with the puppy held by one of the guys/girls.
This was
another mystery that I never did unravel. There were two adolescents from the
group that we ended up taking back to the clinic with us in the car. I think I
caught them saying “oh we are just two girls, two best friends,” but when asked
if they were males having sex with males, they said yes. They also weren’t
dressed like girls. It was ambiguous (both their clothing and the situation).
As far as I can tell, they were physically boys that considered themselves
girls that dressed like boys to attract their gay, males clientele. But, again
the whole thing was cloudy.
Anyway we
brought the two of them back. I was in the back with them and they kept trying
to ask me questions about France and I had to them. But, I kept asking that I
wanted to know about them. Then, they of course would say “ok, what’s your
question.” I didn’t have any questions! So where DO you live when you don’t
score a client and thus a hotel room? What do you DO? Oh yeah. You’re a
prostitute? Hobbies? Really, what could I ask? I stuck to really bland
questions like where are you from, how long have you two known each other, etc.
They were super open thought and talked about their clients. Sometimes they
would have 5 or 7 clients in one day they said! The one said she/he had been
with 700 men that past year. That’s a lot. Even if that number is inflated,
talk about being at risk for VIH (in Spanish HIV is VIH) They said that
sometimes they would book clients for a whole week or clients would take them
on vacation with them. They talked about the famous people who had hired them,
and how, for the most part, they enjoyed their work.
Finally, at
5:00ish I went home for the night. It was a long first day back.
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