Like most prostitutes in the Colombian Department of Cesar, Marlene Ferardo is a poor, single mother. She left her 9-year-old son and infant daughter with her parents 13 years ago and came alone to Valledupar, the capital of Cesar. Ferardo tried unsuccessfully to find work in a restaurant when she arrived in Valledupar. So she headed for the Boliche neighborhood and stopped at the Esmeralda Hotel, where she still works today.
On this Easter morning, the weary year-old sits in the doorway of the cinderblock hotel wearing orange stretch pants and a worn black tank top. The department β the U. As a result, the extreme and unrelenting violence has abated. But common crime has replaced organized crime. Many streets are now overrun by violent and determined thieves. The lucky ones find jobs in small shops that peddle cheap synthetic clothing or in restaurants that sell thin, tough steaks and fried plantains.
Others man wooden pushcarts heaped with bananas, mangoes and papayas. They also sell small cups of sweet coffee, potato chips, gum and cell-phone minutes. Five other men compete for customers on the same corner. At the Cachetes, a brothel in a slightly safer part of Valledupar, the owner provides each woman with her own bedroom and two meals a day β meat, beans, rice, and, inevitably, a variety of the same soup. They work six-hour shifts, starting at 7 p.
Salsa, reggaeton and Vallenato β a popular brand of Colombian folk music that originated in this region β blared from the speakers. Every one of the 25 prostitutes at the Cachetes is a single mother. And, to a woman, they send home money to care for their parents and children, whom they see only occasionally.
Pauola, for example, last saw her children two months ago. She has worked as a prostitute for nearly a year, but looks more like a teenager enjoying a high-school dance. Her long black hair is pulled up in a clamp, and her face is only lightly made up. She ignores the men, and instead laughs and grins at a table with friends.
