Carla e Elaine tem um trailer do lado da Vila Mimosa onde servem garotas de programa, clientes, e residentes do bairro. “Eu amo esse lugar,” diz Carla. Nenhuma trabalha como garota de programa, mas ambas se consideram aliadas das garotas. Video em português; filmado em 2012.
Carla and Elaine run a food trailer next door to Vila Mimosa, Rio’s red light district, where they serve women who work there, their clients, and residents of the surrounding neighborhood. “I wouldn’t trade Vila Mimosa for anywhere in the world,” Carla says.
Even though neither has worked as a prostitute, both consider themselves allies to the women who work in Vila Mimosa. “Everyone has her own story and her own reasons,” says Elaine.
Have you ever worked as a prostitute?
Carla: No, never. Even when I had the necessity, I didn’t have the disposition. That’s why I say, the women who work in Vila Mimosa have hearts of steel.
Elaine: To be able to work as a prostitute, sometimes necessity is not enough. You need to have the disposition.
Carla: I don’t think it’s “easy money,” like some people say.
Elaine: I’ve never worked as an escort, and I don’t work as an escort now. We have a food trailer in Vila Mimosa.
Carla: But she defends them.
Elaine: I defend them.
Carla: But she used to have a lot of prejudice against them.
Elaine: I respect all the girls who work in there. Everyone has her own story and her own reasons. And I defend them. If a guy comes and tries to start something and call someone a whore…. No. She isn’t a whore.
Carla: Another expression I hate: “Women with the easy life.” Is it easy to go to bed with a man you’ve never met, who left work all sweaty and dirty, without a drop of personal hygiene? You think that’s easy? For the amount of money they make in there? Easy?
Elaine: It isn’t easy.
Carla: These days, the guy collecting cans makes more money in a half hour than the women in here in Vila Mimosa.
