Small Mexican Town is a Major Source of Sex Trafficiking
From The New York Post
TENANCINGO, TLAXCALA — "In this small Mexican town that sends sex slaves to New York, little boys dream of growing up to be pimps.
Gaudy gabled houses that rise above gated walls are proof of the profits to be made from funneling “delivery girls” to Roosevelt Ave. in Queens.
An annual parade of pimps in plumed hats — wielding whips to settle business beefs — is evidence that cash and fear has conquered shame here.
“Many kids aspire to be traffickers,” said Emilio Munoz Berruecos, who grew up in the next village and runs a local human rights center. “This is a
phenomenon that goes back half a century.”
The town of 10,000, about 80 miles from Mexico City, is Mexico’s undisputed cradle of sex trafficking, one end of a pipeline that leads directly to
our city’s streets.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New York field office arrested 32 sex traffickers last year; 26 of them were from Tenancingo.
It’s a family business, and through the decades, the pimps have perfected methods to coerce women into sexual slavery using romance, lies and the
threat of violence.
Over the last 20 years they have branched out of Latin America, sending sex workers to New York and other U.S. cities, experts said.
At first glance, the little municipality looks innocent enough.
A big yellow Catholic church anchors the town square, decorated with animal-shaped topiary. The main roads are gaily draped with purple and white
banners.
But during a drive along the side streets, where authorities say some of the major trafficking clans live, it becomes clear Tenancingo is not the
average Mexican town.
Sprawling homes painted pink, bright orange or kelly green stand three and four stories in the air, replete with pagoda-like turrets and massive
finials shaped like eagles or angels.
Plaster swans decorate balconies. Windows are covered in mirrored glass etched with wolves or flowers, making it impossible to see inside.
Townspeople have long called the houses “calcuilchil” or “houses of ass” in their indigenous Nahuatl language, according to anthropologist Oscar
Montiel.
“The entire community isn’t OK with it. However, to say something against the traffickers is seen as dangerous,” said Rosario Adriana Mendieta
Herrera, who runs a state women’s collective.
During carnaval in February, traffickers return from the U.S. to celebrate. The streets fill with revelers as caped pimps parade their prostitutes
around and whip each other.
“They try to see who can stand the most lashes,” said Mendieta Herrera.
Every Sept. 29, Tenancingo celebrates its patron saint, St. Michael the Archangel, with a procession. Some call him “San Miguel Caifancingo” or “St.
Michael of Pimpville.”
Behind the pomp is a tightly organized business.
Each family sends its youngest and most handsome men across Mexico to pose as salesmen with nice clothes and fancy cars, Munoz Buerrecos said."
[Edited on 6-4-2012 by Gypsy Jan]
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\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
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