After a lifetime spent working the streets, the women were destitute and alone, and had nowhere to go. Violence and abuse, damage and loss, are the threads that link all the stories in the house. The scar on her left thigh from the knife ripping off her school uniform is still there.
She ran away from home at 14, to escape her abusive brother. A truck driver gave her a ride to San Francisco. There, she spent her 15th birthday alone in a bedroom, eating chicken sandwiches and drinking beers.
But before long she returned to Mexico. She had the first of her four children at 16, worked in the fields, owned a cabaret, became a professional wrestler and had countless lovers but only one real love. She also tried to kill herself four times, the last time in a rented room at the Bar Nebraska on the outskirts of Guadalajara. You lose your dignity as a human being. The 16 residents, ages 53 to 87, are responsible for cooking their meals and cleaning their rooms and all the public areas. Here, Angie takes a break while cleaning the bathroom.
Aguilar, She does not like to talk about her past, and every time she starts her story she cannot hold back the tears. Instead, she recited part of a poem she wrote:. What hurts me the most was having to do it. Payi was a vedete, a cabaret star. She has many newspaper clippings with photos of her. Many details about her are unclear, since she can't hear or speak. She also lost vision on her right eye.
Paty in her room, where she likes to spend the afternoons coloring printed out drawings. Her husband was killed by his drunken coworkers, pushed out of a third floor hotel room window. But the money just wasn't enough. And not just any typewriters. The Olivetti, you know? The good ones. That day Angie was in charge of cooking and serving lunch.
