Vila Mimosa
Vila Mimosa is one of the most famous red light districts in Rio de Janeiro . It is considered one of the largest heterosexual prostitution neighborhoods in the world.
location
The Vila Mimosa district is located near the old town of Rio de Janeiro between the São Cristóvão and Praça da Bandeira metro stations. The central street is Rua Soteiro dos Reis, near Praça da Bandeira. It is " between the ruins of the Leopoldina train station, the tracks of the suburban train and the old slaughterhouse, near the Maracanã football stadium ." The area is 2,500 square meters and is surrounded by two canals, Rua Francisco Eugenio and Avenida Osvaldo Aranha and includes the streets Rua Soteiro dos Reis, Rua Ceará, Rua Hilário Riberio and Rua Lopes de Sousa.
history
Vila Mimosa, or Vila Mimoza, as the quarter was called in its early days, was inhabited by refugees from the Second World War , mainly single or widowed women from Eastern Europe who came from poor backgrounds. The disrespectful expression “Polacas”, light-skinned European girls who were exploited by Russian pimps, originated from this period. The first red light district was built in the Zona do Mangue, near what is now Avenida Presidente Vargas, in the center of Rio de Janeiro. The first generation of immigrants increasingly mixed with the Brazilians and disappeared over the years.
Today the Vila Mimosa is a complex, social structure made up of small businesses, pubs, bars and around 150 places where prostitution is legal. Ex-police officers are often the operators of the brothels. While there is often a bar on the ground floor, prostitution is practiced in around 70 apartments or rooms, which are at least ten square meters in size. The operation is designed for 24 hours. According to the AMOCAVIM, around 4,500 people (3,000 men and 1,500 women) frequent the entertainment venues on weekends, especially on Friday and Saturday. Vila Mimosa is protected by privately operated security services that are paid for by the residents. Transvestites and male prostitutes are strictly prohibited from pursuing their trade in the Vila Mimosa. AMOCAVIM also decides on brothel openings. The AMOCAVIM as a cooperative and interest group has also ensured that the sex workers mostly work independently, i.e. without pimps. The clientele as well as the sex workers come mostly from the lower class, which has also resulted in moderate prices in the Vila Mimonsa. No property tax is levied on the business. The sex workers are cared for by nuns of the "Missionaries of Life"
Project "Cidade das Meninas"
The route of the planned express train, also known as Trem Bala ("ball train"), will be built in the immediate vicinity of the Vila Mimosa. The residents, business owners, bar and restaurant operators and prostitutes are protesting against this and have already raised considerable funds against this construction project. Cidade das Meninas (“City of Girls”) is primarily a project by sex workers who have planned a 1,825 square meter new building. This new building, which is planned by the architect Guilherme Rodrigues Ripardo, a student of the famous Oscar Niemeyer , is to contain a small amphitheater for fashion shows, rooms for vocational training, a kindergarten, medical facilities and a parking garage.
reception
Carl D. Goerdeler writes about the Vila Mimosa:
“ Rap and funk hammer out of red light caves, the air is cut, chickens are sizzling, women comb their hair and show what they have. An intimate walk through the "Vila Mimosa" - the real red light district of Rio de Janeiro. Through the railway underpass, past the garbage cans, garages, the slaughterhouse and the dead windows, over the cobblestones of Rua Ceará around the curve - and you are in a film by Federico Fellini. From the fog of charcoal grills and beer bars, women's bodies, fat, fat, arid, peel off. They crouch like cats in front of the crates, pour their chocolate molds over the parapet, sway their basins in front of the stream of men that gushes through the stalls and crates like a Christmas market with its stars, its glimmer, its sweet perfume. Rap and funk hammer out of the red light caves. Much is shown, little is said. A quick number, 20 minutes for barely 20 euros. The narrow staircase and the narrow door show the way. Meanwhile, the carnival-like hustle and bustle continues in the alley. At any hour. Every day . "
The Swiss author Stefan Zweig , who fled to Brazil from the terror of the National Socialists, reported on his impressions:
“ A sight I have hardly seen anything like in life. Window to window or rather door to door, a thousand or even fifteen hundred women of all races and colors wait here like exotic animals behind the bars . "
Time portrays another picture of the Vila Mimosa:
“ It stinks of urine and vomit. Old television screens are showing porn movies that drunk men watch to get in the mood. The women who work on the streets of Vila Mimosa and its dark barracks in Rio de Janeiro have reached the bottom. "If you want to survive here, you need a bit of brutality," says the Brazilian Cicera (53). She lived through this hell for years in the Vila Mimosa before she managed to jump . "
Trivia
The Vila Mimosa is also the stage for some stars of the Brazilian porn film such as B. Natasha Lima. Well-known personalities such as the painter Di Cavalcanti and musicians such as Dicró or Mr. Catra e Cartola have given the quarter a different reputation. In 2003 the musicians MC Serginho e Lacraia wrote a song in homage to the Vila Mimosa. Vila Mimosa is often used as a film set.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ a b c d e Rio de Janeiro: In the corrugated iron garden of lust, by Carl D. Goerdeler, April 18, 2009
- ↑ Associação dos Moradores do Condomínio e Amigos da Vila Mimosa - Community residents and friends of the Vila Mimosa
- ↑ The Missionaries of Life: An Aid Project for Prostitutes in Rio de Janeiro , DRadio, February 18, 2012
Web links
- Rio de Janeiro: In the Corrugated Iron Garden of Earthly Delights, by Carl D. Goerdeler, April 18, 2009
- Sexo para quase todos: a prostituição feminina na Vila Mimosa / Sex for almost all: female prostitution in Vila Mimosa. Elisiane Pasini, July - December 2005 on ScieLO (pt.)
Coordinates: 22 ° 54 ′ S , 43 ° 13 ′ W