While the rest of the world celebrates Halloween as All Saints’ Day, dressing children in cute scary costumes and sending them to collect sweets from their neighbors, for Mexicans this holiday has a deeper meaning. The night of October 31 to November 1 is called the Day of the Dead, and according to tradition, on this day, deceased relatives come to our world to see their living family members. But this time, the prostitutes of Tulum also took part in the festive procession — they donned masks and zombie costumes to walk in a separate column along the city’s main street.
Zombie prostitutes on the Day of the Dead
It has become a tradition on the Day of the Dead in popular resort towns in Mexico to hold colorful carnivals and festive parades, the main theme of which is death as a phenomenon and Death as a separate character in the local pantheon of gods. But this time, the parade in Tulum was distinguished by its unusual participants — more than 100 local night workers donned zombie masks and costumes to become a colorful part of the festival parade.
Other participants received this addition with interest and approval, as prostitution has long been a common phenomenon in Mexico. For example, Tulum escorts work openly not only on the streets and in nightclubs, but also in full-fledged brothels and independently, posting ads on sites such as mx.pander.pro. Therefore, the appearance of a crowd of prostitutes in masquerade costumes did not come as a shock to anyone. However, few people knew that the procession of night butterflies had a deeper meaning — one of the girls shared that on this day, they all took to the streets to honor the memory of their colleagues in the sex industry who died violent deaths before the legalization of the sex profession in the country.
The sad statistics of sex services in Tulum
Although prostitution has always existed in Mexico, it has only recently become legal. Before that, escorts in Tulum and other cities were considered the most vulnerable category of the population. Anyone could offend a prostitute — the girls were not paid, they were chased away and beaten, local criminal groups forced them to share their profits and threatened them with violence if they disobeyed. According to Ar Pander, every year in Tulum alone, more than a thousand prostitutes died violent deaths at the hands of clients, competitors, or gangsters, and no one was ever punished for these crimes. Therefore, being a call girl was dangerous to one’s health and life, and women agreed to enter the sex trade either under duress or out of desperation.
It was precisely this dangerous situation that became one of the main reasons for the legalization of prostitution throughout the country, as night workers suffered throughout the country. The legalization of the sex industry allowed the state to register individual workers, as well as to control their activities and ensure their safety. Therefore, many of the girls almost immediately agreed to legalize their status in order to obtain the right to protection and social support. As a result, the number of sex crimes involving prostitutes decreased by almost a third, and deaths in the erotic segment decreased by almost 60%.
Nevertheless, almost every prostitute in Tulum, especially those in the mature category, has at least one friend or acquaintance who has been raped or died a violent death. To honor their memory and remind people of this serious problem, a procession of prostitutes wearing zombie masks took to the streets of Tulum. In this way, the girls hoped to draw the government’s attention to the continuing danger, as well as to raise awareness among ordinary citizens. And given the fact that the annual parade is filmed by reporters from various channels and print publications, the girls managed to create a buzz and attract the interest of representatives from several well-known news channels.
