Two Years in Zona Norte
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.
Overall, Tina had a great sense of humor and we spent a lot of time laughing. This is her room for the day. It's in a hotel in Zona Norte and she pays about 6.50 USD for it daily. The graffiti on the walls was there already.
The Chiclet Vendor and The Dancer
From Zona Norte - he sells Chiclets gum on the street.
Jessica looks at a painting of herself done by my fixer some time ago. This is the first time she's seen the painting. She liked it very much. He gave her the print of it.
Tina in a quick pose on Revolucion. She is a transsexual from Costa Rica, but has also lived in the US in North Carolina.
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.
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.
My fixer is discussing whether or not they are going to spend the night together.... known locally as a TLN - Toda La Noche. He decided to spend the night with her.
Jessica writes poetry and keeps notebooks of her work. She allowed me to look at them and I found this page tucked in to the pages. The words on the page with their definitions: dumbfound, ebb, eccentric.
We ducked into a bar in Plaza Santa Cecelia and Tina fixed her makeup.
She was dancing and tossing pesos as a part of a joke from earlier in our day together.
Lots of vendors and musicians populate this plaza on the weekends. On a Tuesday, it was fairly quiet.
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.
She was embarrassed about her dirty feet.
On the streets of Zona Norte in front of Hong Kong Club that was celebrating their anniversary that day.
She likes to create collages and was excited to show us her work.
Gregg was waiting for Jessica to arrive back to his hotel room. She had gone to get some heroin for herself after he gave her the money to do so. He is a former addict, but hasn't used in many decades but still likes to hang out with addicts.
When I mentioned I wanted to take a picture of her under the Floor Show sign, she immediately ran over to the doorway and fell out on the sidewalk as a "floor show".
Jessica's self-portrait collage.
Jessica had a stash of food in her room and as we went to leave to walk to my fixer's hotel, she grabbed an apple and some peanut butter to eat on the way there. The peanut butter is in the Styrofoam cup in her hand.
