Scenes from the Spanish Crisis: Local Wives Turned Prostitutes

It’s pretty easy to find prostitutes in Madrid.

They stand around on certain streets, and advertise openly…

Anyway, you know your country’s in crisis when an “escort service” starts offering local housewives who need help paying the mortgage.

Seen around my barrio: local wives turned prostitutes.

Yeah, that’s a real flyer.

That chest measurement seems a bit unrealistic… But anyway, translated into English, that says:

VALLECAS

MARRIED SPANISH WOMEN FALLEN ON HARD TIMES

STARTING AT 140 CM CHEST

TOTAL DISCRETION

24 HOURS (ALSO HOUSE CALLS)

Vallecas is my neighborhood, a working-class area in the southeast of Madrid.

There was an article in El País back in ’08 about how Spanish women were re-entering prostitution after the real-estate bubble burst. When times were good, only immigrants were working in the “sex industry” for the most part.

In any case, I had never seen something like this so blatantly advertised before.

Oh Spain, how you have changed!

See also: Scenes from Spanish Austerity.

Fun times,

Mr Chorizo.

P.S. Prostitution is legal here, or at least mostly legal. I’m not really clear how it works, but there it seems pretty common and accepted.

P.P.S. A lot of people show up on this page looking for where to find prostitutes in Madrid. Well, sorry. I’m not sure I can help you with that. But if you want, you can read how to go whoring in Madrid for some background.

P.P.P.S. I don’t live in Vallecas anymore. Actually, I live in a place where I’m pretty much surrounded by brothels. So far, nothing bad has happened because of this. I occasionally see some weirdness on the street if I happen to be walking around very late, but nothing major.