Around 1870, modernization
arrives in the Argentine countryside, and the gaucho
without any fixed occcupation will be considered either
a vagrant or an outlaw, which may earn him a prison
sentence or military service in the frontier. His
woman, the “china” of bucolic sunsets
waiting mate in hand by the rustic gate, falls into
poverty and has no option but to work as a servant
in the landlord´s house – in which she
must “serve” in every capacity- or sell
her charms for some coins. And thus is prostitution
launched in an Argentina which was quite avid for
labour of this kind. |
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The turn of the century finds Argentina as a land
of opportunity and it is swarmed by migratory waves
fron the impoverished European countries. Some arrived
in this wild and unknown land with their families,
but others preferred to risk it alone, and their loneliness
had to be alleviated somehow. A population in which
men otnumbered women fostered new working possibilities
and introduced the Golden Age of Prostitution and
Ruffianism.
The “white slave traffic”, the“whitest
trade”, the “road to Buenos Aires”,
are the names of an organized industry which involved
vast amounts of money and power, and “imported”
European women to equip the brothels. It was a clandestine
operation, marginalized by the law, but neverthelesss
public due to its inevitable association with the
police and the politicians which gave it carte blanche.
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It was directed by the notorious Zwi Migdal, a Jewish
mutual aid organization which, as early as the 1900’
s, eventually controlled the payed sexual life of
Argentinians and immigrants. With brothels all over
the country but mainly in Buenos Aires and Rosario,
they arranged the shipping of women from Poland
and other European nations; women who had been deceived
into coming to an unknown country, alone and ignorant
of the language, and who were auctioned to the owner
of a chain of whorehouses.
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Although Buenos Aires had
not authorized the activity, “merchandise”
was abundant and public., as Roger Salardenne observed
in 1930, during his world tour of fleshpots :
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“...The capital of Argentina has been invaded
by wanton women from all the countries of the world.
They do not ply their trade in the streets. They search
for their clients preferably in caffés, ´dancings´,
cabarets, playhouses and theatres. We may say without
incurring in error that every unaccompanied woman
in the street, after nine o´clock in the evening,
is a prostitute.” |
On the other hand, in Rosario prostitution
was not only permitted, but also perfectly regulated
since 1900. In the brothels, the women kept the
tally of customers with tokens or “chapas”,
as in the Petit Trianon in the infamous Pichincha
street, so that they did not handle money, which
guaranteed their safety in the case of robbery,
and administrative control. The government looked
after hygiene and health conditions, compelling
prostitutes to keep a “sanitary card”,
where the medical doctor who checked them on a periodical
basis, set down, together with a sealed fiscal stamp,
the patient´s condition: HEALTHY, SICK, MENSTRUATING,
EMPTIED.
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The intensity
of the erotic life was showcased not only in the brothels,
but also in the “porteña” ( of
Buenos Aires) expression par excelence; the Tango.
The popularity of that music, together with the sensuality
of the dance, which relegated it to marginal circles,
produced tangos with picaresque or saucy titles, as
“69”, “Dos al Hilo”, “Metele
Bomba al Primus”, “Tocame la Carolina”,
“Afeitate el 7 que el 8 es Fiesta”, “Empujá
que se va a Abrir”, and many other subtleties
of the same kind, impossible to translate to English
with same sense. |
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