War and prostitution in O Ciclo das Águas, by Moacyr Scliar

Abstract

The book O ciclo das águas, by Moacyr Scliar, first published in 1975, was inspired by the issue of trafficking in Jewish women brought to America, between the late 19^th and mid-20^th centuries, where they were forced to be sex slaves in the Zwi Migdal, an international network of prostitution. These women became known as polacas, a term that became pejoratively associated with foreign white women and prostitutes. According to Moacyr Scliar (1985, p. 100): “O ciclo das águas has as its background the 'white trade' to Latin America, particularly to Argentina and Brazil, in the period from 1880 to 1930, approximately”. The narrative intertwines historical and fictional elements: from the protagonist Esther, there is an approach to the event of the trajectory experienced by hundreds of Jewish immigrants who went to America, where they believed they would find better living conditions and greater freedom, but who actually ended up entering prostitution to be sex slaves. As for the title of the narrative, O ciclo das águas, there is an allusion to the various changes suffered by the protagonist, in the symbolism of water itself, which in its calm and unruly, clean and dirty movements and cycles, can refer to moments of human life and, more specifically, to the story of these women who were prostituted.