They have to eat and pay the rent, after all. They have to buy the documents they need to stay in Havana for at least six months and bribe the police so they won’t detain them for harassing tourists. They also have to pay to be there, making a buck. If they don’t, they are sent back to their provinces of origin in the interior, and there isn’t much they can do there, at least nothing to feed their hopes that they will one day be able to stop selling their bodies. In contrast to La Rampa, located in the very heart of Vedado, or the more popular discos in Miramar, the Payret and Parque Central sidewalks are the areas where Havana’s cheapest prostitutes work.
