"From Now On, You'll Be My Whore": The Story of Luna's Kidnapping and Escape

 

At the age of 18, she went from Badalona to Zaragoza to attend training for a supposed job as a tourist guide, but there she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution

When Luna was 18 years old she answered a job ad in a newspaper to work as a tourist guide. They told him he had to go to a training in Zaragoza. Once there, she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution in a roadside club . A month later she managed to escape, but the experience marked her forever:

"When someone tells me you're a victim, I say no... I'm a survivor. Since then, I've been in psychiatric treatment and have collected two suicide attempts. They took part of my life, but I have won; I am here."

He's spent decades in silence, but now he's eager to talk about it. He wants his story to be known to denounce in the first person , now yes, the hell he lived and that he had to keep silent : "I do not come from a disorganized family and I had never given my parents a reason to bow their heads . The shame was so great I couldn't explain it."  

Fear has haunted him until now. 36 years have passed and even today he asks us not to say where he lives.

A long and painful process of remembering and healing

Accompanied by family, friends and specialists, Luna went through a very complex and painful process of remembrance and healing , from which a book came out, " Mercancía Robada" , which tells her story in the first person as a  survivor of a network of sexual exploitation . By writing it, he removed everything that had been cornered in his memory: "This is a cure, it is to unload the rucksack and remove a very large stone."

They kidnap her in a training for tourist guides

When she finished high school, with the selective exam passed, Luna was not clear what she wanted to study, so she decided to look for a job: " I just answered an advertisement in a newspaper , I wanted to be a tourist guide for a year and then go to the University."

Once at the training, in Zaragoza , they ask for the identity card to register it with the Social Security. She does not suspect, but "at one point we take a break, there were juices and brioches. I remember feeling very tired", she explains. 

The next memory he has is waking up in a flat, not knowing where he was : "I was awakened by the screams of my companion, who were beating her. I see that I have no shoes, no coat or bag; and I demand that they give me back my stuff, but the slap I got left me sitting on the ground." The one who beats her is the pimp, Pablo, who also rapes her.

When she is alone with him: "He makes things clear to me and tells me that from then on I will be his whore ." For a month he forced her to prostitute herself in a road club in Burgos. They made her call home so as not to raise suspicions and that no one would report her disappearance: "The police themselves were there, at the road club," she adds.

He manages to escape but the nightmare continues

After a month locked up, her period came and, taking advantage of the fact that they made her work,  she managed to escape one night . It was after a brutal beating: "He had beaten me the night before and I thought it must be the last time he did it; I picked up strands of my hair from the floor and decided it was over."

He put his pajamas on over his clothes and walked all over Burgos. When he arrived in Barcelona, ​​he still had to ask for 100 pesetas in the queue at Sants station to catch the last train home. 

He managed to escape, but when he got home the nightmare didn't end . A few days after escaping from those who sexually exploited her, a call shook the whole family: they asked for money, with the threat of going to look for Luna's younger sister , who was 10 years old: " We they asked for 250,000 pesetas , which according to them, was what they had paid for me and they wanted to recover the investment."

He explains that a local policeman, a friend of the family, advised them to pay and turn the page. And so they did. They also changed the locks on the house, the security doors and accompanied their sister everywhere.

The trauma continues to this day: "I didn't want to be in photos, I cut my hair, I was always dressed very loosely, because I didn't want the clothes to mark my body." Nowadays, she rarely wears make-up, she explains, because during that month she was forced to do it. Despite the fact that this violence and exploitation turned his life upside down, he feels that they have not been able to bring him down .

There are still many Pablos

La Luna is convinced that Pablos - as the pimp who sexually exploited her was called -  are still many and very dangerous . 

"Thirty years ago we were all Spanish, you can't bring that history to the times that are going on now, but you can the experience, which for many women is the same. Not enough is being done to avoid it, or to recover these girls." 

Foreign women have an added difficulty getting out of it, she points out: "Imagine a person brought in from outside, who doesn't speak the language, how can he go and ask for help? Who can he turn to?"

 

Where to ask for help and report

Women who are experiencing violence from their partner or ex-partner have several resources to seek help. So can your environment.

There is the specific telephone number for attention and information: 900 900 120.

It works 24 hours a day every day of the year, attends to consultations and emergencies; it's free; it is not registered on the mobile and is confidential.

In case of an emergency in the face of an attack, you can also call 112.

Since April 2021, the whatsapp 601 00 11 22 has also been working to offer information and advice to women who are victims of male violence.