Three Years in Zona Norte
The Chiclet Vendor and The Dancer
From Zona Norte - he sells Chiclets gum on the street.
Pat has lived in the Zona for almost 20 years, however, she speaks almost no Spanish. I had met her on a previous trip down and on this day, I offered to buy her a few tacos. It was quite funny with us both trying to figure out how to say that she wanted onions on her asada taco! Update: in the summer of 2017, I received word that Pat has passed away in the local hospital. I know she had epilepsy. It was widely rumored that she also had HIV but I do not believe that is true. I have not spoken with her husband since she passed.
Unlike many of the expats working in Zona Norte, Christy is completely fluent in Spanish, even having the correct accent. She says when she gets tired of Zona Norte and the life, she'll go back to the US, get in rehab, and then become a drug counselor. Update: Christy left Tijuana in December 2016. She got in a sober living program in San Diego and is doing well, maintaining her sobriety as she develops living skills for functioning in the US.
Tina has implants and the men she's with often want to suck on them. She showed me this pacifier that she pulls out when they try and do that and she rubs it on the bottom of her shoe and tells them to suck this instead. I mentioned that she could probably charge more for doing that and she said she does...
Alex speaks excellent English. He is coy about what he does and where he's from but he's lived here at the Kumbala for many years. After we got to know each other a bit more, he told me he's a writer and is working on writing a mystery novel. He explained the storyline to me and frankly, I think it is brilliant. It's not finished yet.
Pat has lived in Zona Norte since the late 1990s. She was a dancer at one of the bigger strip clubs during that time. She reports that she made 800 - 1000 pesos a day dancing. Yesterday, I saw Pat (she has been wearing this same shirt the last four times I've seen her over this past month) and her husband was with her. They have been together for more 25 years.
My fixer had asked me to not show his face in the photos I was taking but he also had a small throwaway camera and said I could shoot his face with that one. However, I was using my wide angle and as you see, there are several shots with his face. We discussed it today on the phone and he said it was fine to use whatever shots I took. He just didn't want his stateside wife/girlfriend to see the photographs.
There is this shrine inside La Hacienda bar. I've not seen a shrine inside any of the other bars so far. Raulus, my mesero there, graciously allowed me to come in and photograph it. Photography is frowned on in Zona Norte to protect the anonymity of the girls and customers. I don't shoot on the sly and always with permission to respect the people that live and work here. I have been going there since May 2015 with my camera gear always open and around my neck and if asked, I explain that I am documenting the Zona Norte neighborhood as part of a project for my schooling.
We went to Jessica's "apartment". She pays 160pesos/night to live there - about $10 USD. Unlike Gabby's apartment, Jessica's has a bathroom in the room, though the toilet doesn't work right now. A J-Lo shoebox was on her bed. She opened it up and showed us all her used needles. She keeps them to swap out at the clinic. They will allow the addicts to trade in three used needles a day for new ones.
This is Christy. She came to Tijuana in the late 90s for "the cheap drugs" and has lived here ever since. She told me that yes, she's an addict (heroin is her drug of choice; she shoots it in her neck) but that she's also addicted to Zona Norte. There's "always something going on", she says. The tattoo on her chest says "Take a Chance on Me". She told me there is a free clinic nearby that will remove tattoos for people who want to start over. She said she's considering having it removed.
Jessica began to tell us that she had fallen a few days prior and she had cut her foot on some glass and these "very very tiny little almost invisible strands" that were wound all over her hands and in her eyebrows and on her feet. She told us she had trouble getting them all off of her and that people thought she was crazy when she would talk about these tiny strands and try to show them to people on her hands. She claimed that she could still feel them all over her appendages and eyebrows. As such, she has pulled out most of her eyebrows attempting to "remove the strands". This is a manifestation of Morgellons Disease, which is believed to be psychosomatic in nature.
This is a typical working outfit for Christy. She says she doesn't bother with the typical "ho shoes" as the sidewalks are a mess in Zona Norte and standing in them is uncomfortable. Regardless, she has quite a few clients including several regulars. She also told me that one morning, she had come down from her hotel room with her Maltese dog to take him out for a quick pee. She was wearing footie-pajamas as it was cold out. One of the mongers saw her just steps outside her hotel doorway and asked if she was working. She said, "You want a date?" He did and up they went. "It takes all kinds," she says of the encounter.
Angel works the day shift at the parking lot in Zona Norte where I usually park my car. The first few times he drove me around in the golf cart, he said he didn't want me to take his picture. But this time, he saw the other pictures I had printed to give to some of the folks and he decided that I could take his photo.