Many women who work the streets in the Zona Norte have a spot that is their own.

At 53, Martha Patricia Ruiz was still selling sex. Many women who work the streets in the Zona Norte have a spot that is their own. Martha Patricia’s was right below the office of El Cuete.

In 2012 she had an HIV test at El Cuete that came out positive. She had such severe stomach pains in October 2013 that an ambulance took her to Tijuana General. “I spent two days there,” she said. “They didn’t give me anything for my pain. It hurts me to walk.”

One morning she told the normally sympathetic office manager at El Cuete that she had missed an appointment at CAPASITS earlier in the week. “You tell me to go, but you don’t give me money,” she complained. “Since when are we a couple?” he asked, his patience exhausted.