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(Taken from the Chicago Tribune)
Not far from the beautiful beaches of Acapulco, Mexico, a 14-year-old girl named Yolanda used to ride her bike along a dusty road. She was 1 of 10 children, the daughter of a farm worker and a laundress, and her education ended after elementary school. One day, as she was riding, a 28-year-old man snatched her from her bike and raped her. He told her she had to marry him because no one else would want her after she was raped. Her parents agreed, and they were married.
Yolanda eventually escaped from her husband when she became pregnant and he ordered her to get an abortion. She ran back to her parents and vowed to keep the baby. Not long after that, when Yolanda felt hopeless and trapped, a smuggler told Yolanda he could take her to the United States for $750. It would be a better life for her child. Yolanda left without even telling her parents.
When she arrived in America, Yolanda was held prisoner for four months inside a series of Southern California homes. She was 19, unable to speak English, and had no idea exactly where she was. She and the other women, some as young as 14, were told that they would be jailed and deported if police found them.
Each day, for 12 hours a day, she submitted to sex with man after man, until she felt her life slipping away. Men started arriving at 11 am and didn't stop until 11 at night. Each young woman served nine or ten customers a day.
"There were times when we had our periods," Yolanda says. "They would just give us some sponges and tell us to wipe ourselves. We were just kept there all the time. We slept where we worked." Window bars were used to keep the girls inside, and the house's windows were always covered.
Taken from the Chicago Tribune, December 28, 2005, “Sex slavery scars refuse to heal: Mexican struggles to recover from 4 months' servitude,” by Patrice M. Jones, Tribune staff reporter.
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