In The Beast we learned the story of various migrant women who are now working in bars and brothels in Southern Mexico. They work as bartenders, exotic dancers and prostitutes. They even entice younger women to join in what they call "the Trade."
What do their stories tell us about the role of gender and race in migration? About consent, coercion and exploitation? About human trafficking? About the society that tolerates this "Trade"?
The stories from the migrant women highlight the large role gender can play in their migration, as it can determine how easy or difficult it will be for migrants traveling, and how much they will be harmed along the way. For example, women who migrate north have a very large chance of being trafficked, harmed, and sexually abused. As a woman traveling, they know they will be harmed and have to prepare themselves for what is coming, and they know it is coming solely because they are women. One of the officers working on the trail tells the journalist, “‘They separate the women from the group and take them over there to rape them.’” Then he points to a group of banana trees nearby. The bandits single out women from a group to be harmed just because they are women, emphasizing the importance of gender along the migrant trail. Similarly, Erika, one of the migrant workers, paints the picture of what a typical migrant woman's life is like, explaining “Many of these women have no previous schooling. They flee from a past of severe family dysfunction, physical and sexual abuse, and they often come to these brothels as girls, little girls, incapable of distinguishing between what is and what should be. They’re fresh powder, ready to be packed into the barrel of a gun.” If they were men, their lives would be completely different. They would not be taken advantage of and forced into brothels without knowing what is happening to them. So, the stories from the women who travel and work along the migrant trail highlight that gender can significantly alter how you are treated and how well life goes for those migrating.
ReplyDeleteThroughout Oscar Martinez’s novel, we have seen how women are most often taken advantage of throughout their journeys. Depending on where they are in their lives however, determines whether or not they might be trafficked or coerced into joining the business of sex work. The Trade and its cycle continues by promises of making money. This is used by the men who run the bars and clubs, as well as other workers in the field who are told they would get paid more to bring others in. Taking advantage of young girls who are not even of age isn’t uncommon, because to everyone else they are the prime market. Money is one of the most appealing things to those travelling on the trails, especially if they have already been in a bad situation where they were already poor. For example Erika, one of the waitresses, had been on and off of the streets since she was young (Martinez 72). Erika and the others that Martinez interviews, had all experienced hardships and were almost easy to use and pull into The Trade. Women aren’t only taken advantage of in this business, but while they’re travelling as well. This is severely disregarded by the governments all around the world, their own statistics being different from the organizations that are actually able to get migrants the help they need. Martinez found that, “At the beginning of 2009, the government of the state of the Chiapas finally started paying attention to the violence on the trails” (Martinez 30).
ReplyDeleteThe stories of the migrant women in The Beast demonstrate how societal corruption can blur the lines between manipulation and autonomy in their minds in cities poisoned by human trafficking practices. Across Southern Mexico, there are countless bars and brothels collecting migrant women to work for them. These women are on their journey away from their home countries in Central or South America to the United States. Like all migrants, they are desperate for work, money, and control of their lives. This makes them easy targets for traffickers looking to make extra money off of migrant lives. Many of the women in these stories say that it’s their own fault they’re working in the bars and that it’s by their own choice that they stay—because they want to or have to make money to support themselves or their families. But as Martínez writes, “What many of them won’t tell you is that they knew they’d be raped on this journey, that they feel it’s a sort of tax that must be paid. … They travel with that lodged in their minds, knowing that they’ll be abused once, twice, three times … Sexual abuse has lost its terror. … At a certain level, they know they’re victims, but they don’t feel that way. Their logic runs like this: yes, this is happening to me, but I took the chance, I knew it would happen” (72-73). The migrant women like to believe that they are consenting to these jobs and the treatment they receive out of their own clarity of mind. For example, one migrant woman, Erika, explains how the women are fooled into consenting from illusions traffickers sell them. She thinks it’s gone differently for her, saying “‘Whoever brings you there asks for his cut from the owner of the dive, and that, of course, is taken out of your pay. They sell you. But that never happened to me. Only to the others, because they’re stupid.’ This rationalization is commonly used as justification—those who let themselves be exploited have only themselves to blame” (74-75). However, this could not be further from the truth, as the traffickers have a perfectly programmed system for trapping these vulnerable women, including Erika. It’s a vicious cycle full of lies, deceit, and empty promises. Women flee their broken homes, then they need money and are targeted on the migrant trail. A man finds them and tells them he can get them a job and housing. Then the cycle continues. Women get abandoned by their boyfriends: they need to keep working. Women get assaulted or robbed: they need to keep working. Bar owners find them and promise better pay or housing, only to sell them again. They think it’s a temporary solution to their problems, but what they don’t realize is that the system will keep them stuck there—and it will become a permanent reality. Through these stories, Martínez exposes not only the horrors of human trafficking but also a society willing to ignore the blurred lines between choice and coercion. The “Trade” persists because it thrives on silence, shame, and a system that sees these women not as people, but as opportunities.
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