The nasty secret of human trafficking in South Florida is out—here is one woman’s story, and what local lawmakers are doing about it.
Cindy Alvarado was actually at a graduation party. It was a rare night that she was not turning tricks—but she was tired. Empty. Going through the motions. She recalls the exact moment her pimp, “Grace,” rounded the corner of a hallway and stopped in front of her.
“You owe me $5,000,” she said. “And I want it this weekend.”
That small encounter was all it took, after all this time. Alvarado knew in that moment that it was over; she wanted out.
She walked outside and called 911.
“I’m a prostitute,” she heard herself telling the operator.
The operator asked why she didn’t just stop. She told her she couldn’t—she had to pay her friend or she would be exposed. That’s when she heard a word that has stayed with her ever since: coercion. She was directed to the Lake Worth Police Department, where she learned another term: human trafficking.
“That was a very hard moment for me, because for six and a half years, I gave up everything and every relationship I had because I was ashamed of being a prostitute,” Alvarado says. “And [then here are] people in law enforcement telling me ‘You are not a prostitute. You are a victim of human trafficking.’ That changed my life.”