ABSTRACT
This extract from a field research diary is the record of an experience that was shared with Cassiopeia,1 a female Brazilian prostitute2 living in Madrid, in one of her attempts to leave commercial sexual activity and, in her own words, ‘make an honest living’ because her children were growing up and would soon know the real nature of her occupation in Spain. Leaving the apartment, there were a few minutes of silence. A sense of revulsion had permeated the thoughts and voice of that elderly woman, and it expressed the colonial
violence that still underpins Eurocentric thinking about the value of women from Latin America. Apart from the demeaning exploitation of labour, two elements stood out in her words: the female colonized body, understood as a threat to order, and the imposition of silence as a normality of imposed power relations. Although a feminist outlook might have increased the level of outrage about this experience, Cassiopeia, in all her wisdom, said ‘I think it better to be a whore! As a whore, I feel more important here!’ We looked at each other, laughed complicitly, and I fully agreed with her.
