mm |
|
History of the "Shady Ladies" in Manzanillo by Susan Dearing Prostitution and red light districts have long been an aspect of Mexico's social settings. A red light district, known in Mexico as the "Zona de Tolerancia" (Zone of Tolerance) is a neighborhood where prostitution and other businesses in the sex industry flourish. The term “red light district” was first recorded in the United States in 1894, in an article in The Sentinel, a newspaper in Milwaukee. Other mentions from the 1890s are numerous, and located all over the United States. |
|
Please click on photos to enlarge
The Zona de Tolerancia in Manzanillo, most likely started with the development of the port (about 1825), and, later, when they started building the railroad (1880). |
And, when ships visit a port, they bring in merchant marines, and along with ships, you need dock workers and day laborers to load and unload. Then there are businessmen, politicians, farmers--and don't forget tourists--That's a lot of men--and men have needs... |
Prostitution has existed in Mexico, either legal or illegal, for centuries. One thing that has to be differentiated is actual prostitution from adultery. Adultery by women was harshly punished, but prostitution was a different situation, since women sold their time and services to men. There was no adultery when there was social consent. |
For hundreds of years, many Mexican wives have turned a blind eye to a husband's consorting with prostitutes and mistresses. Birth control was nonexistent in Mexico until the 1970s--and (still) discouraged by the Catholic church. |
Having a husband visit a prostitute
would give a married woman a break from her marital obligations, which often
resulted in pregnancy and more children. The Tolerance Zones are usually located within a few blocks of the downtown business district and the railroad depot. One hundred-plus years ago in Manzanillo, there was more to the red light district than the two short blocks it is today. It featured saloons, gambling houses, and prostitutes who worked mainly in bawdy houses and shack-like cribs, but also in dance halls and variety theaters. |
A bawdy house would have a bar and dance floor up front, a place for a band or a piano, and rooms in the back--sometimes two floors of small cubicles, not much larger than space for a bed and wash stand. |
In the early days, many times, if not
most of the time, the bathroom was down the hall. At a price of 1 to 5
pesos, prostitutes attracted local residents from all walks of life and an
array of visitors from sizable numbers of sailors, dock workers, ship hands,
railroad workers, cowboys, farm hands, ranchers, businessmen, soldiers,
politicians, students, gamblers, and tourists. These professional prostitutes were dedicated full-time, and were known in the community for their services. No one thought badly of them, as is done today in Western societies. All men and women in town knew of their profession; it was not hidden, but considered a necessary part of society. The managers of old-time Mexican brothels during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were mostly men--necessary considering the typical rough clientele. The prostitutes ranged in age from the teens to the sixties but were usually in their twenties. Though some worked part-time while holding other jobs (such as taking in laundry), or engaged intermittently in prostitution when money was short, most were dedicated to the trade. The bawdy house would open in the evening, starting with a show (not necessarily sexual, but maybe a little raunchy). Perhaps a band, sometimes a comedian, maybe a piano player. Drinks started flowing and the men started loosening up, with the help of the scantily-dressed ladies wandering around the room. |
The life of Mexican prostitutes was hard. Though prostitution paid better than most jobs open to women, few prostitutes prospered. Most were poor or not far from it, owned little personal property, and were beset by the ever-present threats of violence, venereal disease, pregnancy, and harassment by city officials. In the early 1800s, it is possible that some of the girls were enslaved, kidnapped or bought in the Philippines, China and Malaysia. Other prostitutes may have been indigenous Indians, captured in other remote areas. Men were taken captive, too, and used for general labor and to work aboard ships. Since birth control was non-existent--the only option was abstinence (no money there) or the rhythm method (not very effective)--many prostitutes did become pregnant, which took them out of the work force for about 2 months yearly. |
Many prostitutes hoped they would meet a man and marry. And sometimes it happened. To men of Colonial Manzanillo, an area with very few women, having a wife, whatever her past, meant free sex, and a round-the-clock maid and nanny, saving him money that he would have spent on those services. And there were many women who were willing to trade The Life for a new life. That also meant that a prostitute's child, if a girl, would have a chance to go to school and get an education, instead of growing up into The Life. Boys of working girls were mostly put to work, as soon as they were able to hold a shovel or pick. Since there was a shortage of women in Manzanillo, and an overabundance of men, and the port was slowly growing, many common men chose the only women available to be their wives. |
Hunting and gathering, and subsistence farming--NOT
prostitution--are the world's oldest professions, but "working girls"
have been found in nearly every civilization on Earth stretching back throughout
all recorded human history.
Wherever there have been money, goods, or services to be bartered, somebody has bartered them for sex. If you go to the Zona de Tolerancia in Manzanillo, bring money--the ladies todaydon't trade their services for goods.. |
NOTE: This is the first in a series of articles about women in Manzanillo, and their roles in history. The feature stories are dedicated to Amalia Garcia, who died in May 2010 at the age of 95. Amalia was a courageous woman who saw the best and the worst of Manzanillo's history--and lived it. Future stories will feature Amalia, and her daughter Rossella Caligaris, who currently owns the Maria Cumbé Boutique on the boulevard in Salagua.
Author Susan Dearing has lived in Manzanillo 20 years, and is the author of the guidebook, "Manzanillo and the state of Colima, Facts, Tips and Day Trips."