They wear short tight skirts. And they tend to plaster on the make-up. These are the local currency whores. Like Yanelis, 28 years old, an Indian mulatta, born in an eastern province km from the capital. Her life is a small hell. Her maternal grandparents did what they could. But Yanelis only managed to get as far as finishing seventh grade. And yet her round and shapely backside, her firm breasts and her skin, the colour of coffee with cream, would get men aroused.
Especially some of her male relatives. One night, a cousin invited her to the fair and he plied her with an excessive quantity of a bog standard and insipid brew which is sold loose as draught beer. When she had passed out from drinking so much alcohol, he repeatedly raped her. She was only twelve years old. Her first customers were her own family members. For 5 pesos a quarter dollar she let them fondle her breasts or masturbate and then ejaculate on her face.
He forced me to sleep with animals and on more than one occasion I got sick. That only happens in movies. Prematurely aged by a tough life and an even worse diet, Yanelis gulps down a can of Bucanero beer and goes on with her story. I even spent a year and a half in jail. But I always come back.
Things are very tense in my home town. In the capital, Yanelis and some other prostitutes rent an extremely shabby room. Each one pays 5 convertible pesos for the room. On a good day, she makes the equivalent of 50 or 60 convertible pesos about or regular pesos. She started working as a prostitute in the area around Fraternity Park, in the heart of Havana.
When she got out of jail, she thought she needed to be more discreet. Paying a bit more gets you anal sex. There are at least a dozen such places in the city. In Havana slang they are known as chupa-chupa [suck-suck]. These are poor lost souls who stoically endure being penetrated by more than ten men in a single day in order to make a few pesos. She lives fast and for the present.
