Rio is one of the capitals for the world market for sex; it is one of the most renowned and socially diverse with regards to the demand and supply of the trade. The number one place to find luxury brothels is Copacabana. Along the sea front, Copacabana offers sunsets and shelter to anyone from every corner of the world that meets there in exchange of money. Maria works in Copacabana, charging Reais 65 Euros for two hours.
She lives in Leblon, the rich quarter in the South of Rio, and has two daughters. Every weekend she goes to a club called Balcony near Prado Junior Street. She almost looks German with her blue eyes and pale skin, and has a scar on her shoulder from an accident, she smiles at me. Only expensive prostitutes work there, only the most beautiful, often coming from the many favelas in the South of Rio. Some are lucky enough to have bought themselves an apartment in the area, and some are hopeful that one day they will marry a foreigner, as many already have.
Maria is supported by a businessman from Sardegna, he is the proprietor of a supermarket chain. He sends her around a thousand Euros a month and phones her every night to check that she is not going out on the streets to sell sex.
She receives the calls, and after he hangs up waits about an hour or so, in case he rings back as he so often does , then she goes out to be with her colleagues and the tourists. He has promised to take her to Sardegna, where he has bought a house to call her his official lover. We are in Vila Mimosa. We are the two Italians, Lorenzo and I, and we want to interview someone. We have to pay — instead of paying for sex we are paying for someone to tell us their story.
My parents died and I needed a way to support myself. Also, we take care of ourselves a lot more here; we take HIV tests every three months and whoever gets an STD has to move on and find somewhere else to work.
