Debat narrates the daily life of two prostitutes, mother and daughter, with whom he lived in Barcelona

"A guy came.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
20 December 2022 Tuesday 21:43
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Debat narrates the daily life of two prostitutes, mother and daughter, with whom he lived in Barcelona

"A guy came. And when he undressed, there was nowhere to catch him. He had spots all over his body, his ribs were visible but he was quite paunchy. He was a monster, man. Oh, I think and vomit. (... ) It was hard, I thought I wasn't going to be able to, eh! And I concentrated on his clothes, I imagined him in New York crossing avenues while he fucked me, smoking on a street with those gray jackets and the knotted scarf, while he fucked me non-stop for an hour. He didn't even have the big dick, nothing at all."

The Argentine writer Laureano Debat moved to Barcelona in 2010 to study a master's degree in Literary Creation. He arrived with a scholarship and with little money, so he decided to share a flat. He found a room in Plaza Letamendi. Jimena and Sonia, mother and daughter, rented it to them. The apartment was central and clean and the girls welcomed him as if he were family. Laureano lived with them for nine months, became fond of them and became his confidant. Jimena and Sonia, mother and daughter, were prostitutes. Now, Debat has reconstructed his coexistence with them, his routines, his day to day in a novel, Nobody's House (Candaya).

How did you get to that floor and when did you find out what your landlady did?

A Letamendi neighbor knew Jimena. He told me that he lived with his daughter and that he wanted to rent a room to a man. I loved the floor. And they were very nice. I didn't know they were prostitutes until one Monday morning I saw Sonia dressed all sexy. She didn't understand anything. It was a surprise and caused me a certain fear. But she had come to Barcelona looking for stories and one fell on me out of pure chance. I stayed at home. I liked them and I felt very comfortable.

They perceive their job differently. Sonia looks more upset, Jimena, more unconscious...

Sonia did not see the playful part of prostitution. She prepared for her job, trained by watching porn movies, had her tits operated and trained in the gym to have a good figure. Her mother, Jimena, perceived it as an adventure, as the youth that she could not have, because she married very young in her native Chile and had five daughters and an alcoholic and sick husband to take care of her. Upon arriving in Barcelona, ​​she entered the world of vices, drugs, alcohol, paid sex, bisexuality... Jimena would go out to work outside the home. Sonia only served clients on the floor and with a schedule, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

There is a moment in the novel in which it is perceived that the work of these women is horrible and causes suffering when Sonia talks about a client who has made her want to vomit...

I don't want to judge. In Nobody's House, I expose the facts and leave the judgments to the reader. As a narrator I wanted to understand them and it seemed unfair to judge them. But there is no doubt that there was suffering. Sonia felt retching from the smell of some customers, even though she made them take a shower before offering her services. And Jimena, although she seemed happier, suffered from depression, she locked herself in her room for days and did not want to go out, she cried... But I cannot comment, because I became friends with them and because I mixed, I had to do with one of the girls. There was even a time when I ran out of money and I considered dedicating myself to prostitution.

How were the customers?

There was everything. But in general they were married men, over 50 years of age and with some purchasing power. People who took advantage of the lunch break to have sex. Quique, for example, was a client of Sonia's, he worked at the Treasury in Plaza Letamendi. Before sex and quite naturally, she showed us the photos of a trip with her family. Jimena had a client who was a Mosso d'Esquadra. Sometimes, the fixed ones were invited to eat. It's funny, because I've read French literature from the 19th century and in Paris at that time courtesans did something similar, entertained their clients before going to bed.

How did they get the clientele?

They advertised in Loquo and put up a photo. When a client left they called him, but they did not lengthen the conversation to prevent the man from masturbating and getting free. They told him where the house was, but they only gave him the specific address when he was already in the vicinity. That was his failsafe. They also had some limits. Sonia did not practice anal sex. She was then 32 years old and charged 100 euros for half an hour and 150 for the whole hour. Jimena's rates, who was 53 years old, were lower: 60 euros an hour, 40 for 30 minutes.

How did they get into prostitution?

Sonia struggled in Chile and came to Barcelona in her twenties. She worked as a waitress and soon met Max, who pimped her and brought her into that world. She began to earn money and sent it to her four little sisters in Chile. Jimena came later. She already suspected what her daughter was doing and she also entered. It's like an inheritance in reverse, because it was her mother who followed in her daughter's footsteps. They both worked for Max, but then went off on their own and set out on their own.

You recount in the novel that Sonia and Jimena took a lot of pills. Jimena also took drugs and drank. Is it necessary to be anesthetized in some way to practice prostitution?

I can't even imagine what it is, because I lived in the dressing room, I never saw everything in full. But sometimes they served nine guys in a day each. It must be brutal. They consumed many drugs to overcome life itself and in the novel I have included a vade mecum in each chapter. It is a literary game, but it is true that there was a drawer in which they reached in to take handfuls of ibuprofen, cyclobenzaprine, zolpidem, modafinil, dimenhydrinate, riboflavin, favilax or diazepam, among other things.

Perhaps the most terrible thing in this story is when the little sisters arrive from Chile and one of them, in her twenties, also becomes a prostitute...

Now it may seem terrible, but at that time it was like naturalizing what was lived in that house. The girl arrived, she had no papers and she ended up doing the same thing as her mother and her sister. At that time, the economic crisis in Spain worsened and they lost many customers, they had to lower rates and, suddenly, they also needed the income that their little sister generated.

What has happened to Jimena and Sonia?

The last time I saw Sonia, she told me that she wanted to quit prostitution. I know that they returned to Chile and that she had a son. I contacted her to tell her that I was going to write this book and she did not object to her, but although I was very fond of them and came to consider them family, I have not heard anything else.