Sex, Travel & Latin American Women

By Jason Bennett

"Sex, Travel & Latin American Women" is a breezy tale of 24 years discovering the sexuality of Latin America while roaming the streets of the world created by the Spanish. The story stars the men who travel to Latin America seeking romance and the Latin beauties that await their arrival.

It is a story relaying the history that created the world traveling men see today, providing insight into economics and politics that set the stage for a rugged and enchanting experience that draws men from around he world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jason Bennett
• Release date: Dec 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9780615925837

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Sex, Travel & Latin American Women

Jason R Bennett

Copyright 2013 Jason R Bennett

Smashwords Edition

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David…you earned a place in memory.

Contents

Prologue

Traveling Men Populate the Earth

Jump Starting Latin America

Spain’s America — A Weak Foundation and an Unfair Society

Modern Latin America as a Product of History

21st Century Latin Realities

Life’s Veterans on a Mission

The Girls Travelers Meet

Work — What the Family and Neighbors Think

Working Girls in Their Office and Their Rules

I’m Not Talking About That Girl

Coping on an Un-level Playing Field

The Balanced Life with Latin Beauties

I Did it My Way

Victorious in Latin America

Vocabulary

Prologue

In 1989, I traveled to Latin America for the first time. I was poorly prepared for a world I knew little of and perplexed by new languages, cultures and sharp contrasts. Twenty-four years later, I began writing about some of my learning. I’ve chosen to recall some of the bumps and bruises and hard knocks I’ve suffered as well as the successes.

I’ve tried to write a brief story that would appeal to travelers without getting bogged down in tough tales of history or politics. I tried several times to write my story by jumping directly into the day-to-day interactions I’ve had with the Latin world. Approaching my experience as one of day-to-day living failed to tell the back-story as to the ways and reasons that the world in South America is so different from the world in North America or Europe.

In the day, overwhelmed by Latin America, I began peeling the onion so that bit by bit the world came into focus and human behavior began to have reason and context. For me, the reasons and contexts made adjusting and responding possible in a way that was healthy and positive. For the reader, it’s the back-story that will provide an understanding of Latin America’s origin that shapes the present and the sexuality traveling men encounter.

I’ve included some history of Spanish exploration, colonial governance, the resulting weak institutions and exploitation that prevail to this day because those elements form the Latin woman and the streets that visitors walk. I recognize that any technique or perspective I might use to paint the Latin American picture isn’t going to result in a flattering view. Nevertheless, I will present my truth. Often, I joke and say to Latin Americans that I’m a fake national of their country. Of course, they laugh, but I do feel I’ve adapted as best I can to their world. I have some small level of connection with their culture. As I write, I am relating my experience in direct, unflattering language, but that does not diminish my feeling of connection and regard for the Latin world that has accepted me. I’ve balanced the harsh reality of the Latin women’s life against the frailties of the traveling male, by striving to create perspective. My truth is not the glossy picture presented on the travel website.

In Latin America, the last generation has seen the growth of the all-inclusive hotel industry. These all-inclusive hotels are always located on large, prime real estate. They host many restaurants, many pools with swim-up bars, game courts, snorkeling trips, horseback rides, dance lessons, evening extravaganzas featuring local dancers, and the flavor of the local community. These hotels are gated, fenced, and guarded to insulate the traveler from the poverty that surrounds them. Guests pass their vacation entirely within the grounds of the hotel, being waited on and catered to by an English speaking staff in starched uniforms. Families who visit these all-inclusive hotels return from their vacation raving about the kindness, courtesy, and wonderful service they were accorded while passing out $20 bills to those who served them during their stay.

I encourage the reader to understand that only 10% of Latin Americans ever stay in these hotels and that I am writing about the 90% of Latin Americans who live and suffer in corrugated metal housing and never ending sprawl that exist throughout the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world. I am writing about the desperation traveling men encounter in the cities of Latin America, not the pleasures of a luxury vacation.

I hope my notes shorten the steps in the learning curve of a few travelers and that collisions between traveling men and the beautiful women they meet are gentler.

Traveling Men Populate the Earth

No man is a man of honor where women are concerned.

G.B Shaw

Whether traveling for the purpose of conquering foreign lands, or to defend one’s kingdom, or for tourism, or sport, or a host of reasons, men who travel have always found a way to detour into the village where women just might be waiting. These visits to the village always seem to rejuvenate guys.

Modern Travelers Stumble Toward Sex

I suppose the history of the world is the history of men setting forth for sexual conquest. It surely is the history of western civilization, and men who travel to Latin America are a contemporary part of sexuality through the centuries. To consider sex and travel, I’ll arbitrarily state that western civilization started with the Crusades, which were a series of wars between 1095 and 1291 in Asia Minor. The Pope sent his loyal to Asia for the purpose of resisting the encroachment of the Muslim world into the Holy Land.

During the Middle Ages, the French were called Franks and the Muslims labeled as Saracens. The literature of the era records a tale told by both the Franks and the Saracen of massive numbers of hostages taken by both sides for the glory of God. Hostage taking seems to have been a common way to gather sex partners. Both male and female hostages were captured by the Christian and the Muslim army. Many were ransomed back, many brutalized, and great numbers of nubile girls divided up among captors for sex, romance, love, to be slaves, and for royal marriage. The hostages taken were of every social class and status. What seems to be thematic is a steamy sexual obsession between the east and the west with both sides having skin in the game.

WWI and WWII

Who among North Americans and Europeans doesn’t remember the stories from both world wars of GI’s drinking and courting the hookers and gentlewomen of every theater of war? History books and our oral histories tell of brides from every continent being swept off their feet by young soldiers with stockings, cigarettes, chocolate, and trinkets for children.

Historians tell of GI’s returning with women from 50 countries, maybe 200,000 from Europe alone and as many as 100,000 from Asian countries, and even 14,000 German girls made their way to the US with their GI. The soldiers were carefree, happy-go-lucky fellows, many of whom found the love of their life in a church, and more who found their love in a joint of ill repute. It’s curious that new accents and the sight of strange exhilarated both the soldiers and the local women. Sex worked for both the boy’s team and the girl’s team.

The Amerasian

Asian wars through the last 80 years have given us new vocabulary. In 1982, the US Congress defined Amerasian as a person born in Asia to a US military father and an Asian mother. Amerasians come from Japan, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines where the US military has long had a very large presence. It seems as though soldiers in Asia through the last couple generations have gotten lucky, too. The last generation of military made Thailand a world famous sex destination.

Men Who Travel to Latin American

People travel for many reasons. There are any number of northern men who get off the plane in a Latin capital and are picked up by the mission field van then whisked off to a gentle, benevolent world of helping the poor. These men will offer hope to people in despair and will glean an understanding of Latin Americans suffering from their effort to soften the realities of poverty. Others will arrive at the airport and be picked up by a newer van and driven to a four star all-inclusive hotel on the beach or at a volcano. These folks will enjoy golf and fishing and will be insulated from people living in poverty. Many, often couples, will arrive and get into a sixty-passenger bus and travel from resort to mountaintop, to monument and church, and they see the harsh reality from afar as they take in the natural beauty of the destination country. It is when the traveler is free of the crowds and starts looking for the girls that my experience will ring truest and be instructive. When the traveler gets free from the organized tour, the ghetto and the sexuality of Latin America isn’t far away with all its appeal and life lessons.

Not long ago, I was in Cuenca, Ecuador for two weeks and was treated like an honored guest, accommodated on the street, never mistreated by cab drivers or merchants. Cuenca is the second or third largest city in Ecuador situated at 9000 feet. The colonial city is intact, and the architecture is splendid, and the nights are cool.

Later, I visited Quetzaltenango, Guatemala for eight days. Xela, as it’s called, is a