{"id":10783,"date":"2026-06-02T13:22:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/polvos-calles-y-saberes-una-guia-viva-por-y-para-las-trabajadorxs-sexuales\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:50:40","slug":"polvos-calles-y-saberes-una-guia-viva-por-y-para-las-trabajadorxs-sexuales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/polvos-calles-y-saberes-una-guia-viva-por-y-para-las-trabajadorxs-sexuales\/","title":{"rendered":"Polvos, calles y saberes: A Living Guide by and for Sex Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, June 2, the global sex workers\u2019 movement commemorates a date born of struggle, dignity, and resistance. In 1975, more than one hundred sex workers occupied the Church of Saint-Nizier in Lyon to denounce police repression, violence, and the appalling conditions to which they were subjected.<\/p>\n

Fifty years later, we are still here: organizing, creating autonomy, and building tools to support our strategies for survival and collective care.<\/p>\n

This is a day of struggle against stigma, criminalization, and institutional violence. It is also a day to demand recognition of our human, labor, social, and health rights. From Metzineres, we want to focus on something very specific: access to information, self-care, and the ability to make decisions about our bodies, our drug use, and our work.<\/p>\n

A Living Tool of Community Knowledge<\/b><\/p>\n

A few months ago, during the Raval Festivities, we presented for the first time the draft of a tool that carries within it the pulse of this neighborhood and of the womxn who inhabit it: Polvos, calles y saberes. Autocuidado y estrategias de trabajadorxs sexuales que usamos drogas.<\/b><\/p>\n

This material did not come out of an academic laboratory or from a table of experts detached from our realities. It was born from a collective process that combined informal conversations in the street, weekly assemblies at our space in the Raval, community paellas, and working groups created specifically to share knowledge, gather experiences, and shape this guide. The process began in July 2024 through training sessions, interviews, and fieldwork, with the support of researcher Livia Motterle, but always with the protagonists at the center.<\/p>\n

From this process came 20 in-depth interviews and a document of more than 100 pages that gathers real strategies for survival, harm reduction, and the defense of rights.<\/p>\n

Our way of collecting knowledge is collective and community-based. That is the key. We know that those who best understand what happens in a room with a client, on the street, or on the margins of institutional circuits are those who have lived it. That is why this material is also an exchange: shared experiences, situated learning, and reflections built among peers.<\/p>\n

Information to Break the Stigma<\/b><\/p>\n

Stigma and criminalization feed on a lack of information, on silences, and on taboos. Naming what we live through is also a way of caring for ourselves, organizing, and demanding rights.<\/p>\n

This guide is not a closed document. It is constantly in motion and is updated with every new lesson learned, with every strategy we share, and with every conversation that opens up new questions. It is material made by and for sex workers, but also an invitation to continue weaving networks of mutual support and community resistance. Polvos, calles y saberes<\/b><\/em>\u00a0is a starting point, a travel companion, a conversation that remains open.<\/p>\n

Sharing Knowledge: From the Local to the International<\/b><\/p>\n

Our struggle does not remain only in the streets of the Raval. Over the years, many of us have built ties with peers from other countries who have done sex work in different parts of the world, carrying with us diverse experiences, knowledge, and strategies. One of the most powerful experiences was the first Sex Workers\u2019 Summit in Colombia, where we were able to meet leading voices in the struggle from different parts of the world.<\/p>\n

This project is rooted in an intersectional perspective: it does not segment, separate, or rank. It sees each person in their entirety. Because substance use remains a taboo subject for many sex workers, offering this material means opening a space for accompaniment and support based on real experiences, not on external formulas or moralizing views.<\/p>\n

On this International Sex Workers\u2019 Day, from Metzineres we demand the right to information as a human right, the right to work without criminalization, and the right to make decisions about our own bodies.<\/p>\n

We invite you to read Polvos, calles y saberes<\/b><\/em>, to share it, to discuss it, and above all, to journey through the knowledge that is born from the margins.<\/p>\n

Today and always: nothing about us without us.<\/b><\/p>\n

Download the guide in Spanish here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This project was carried out with the support of Ajuntament de Barcelona \u2013 Directorate of Feminisms and LGBTI Services of the Management Office for Culture, Education, Sports, and Life Cycles.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, June 2, the global sex workers\u2019 movement commemorates a date born of struggle, dignity, and resistance. In 1975, more than one hundred sex workers occupied the Church of Saint-Nizier in Lyon to denounce police repression, violence, and the appalling conditions to which they were subjected. Fifty years later, we are still here: organizing, creating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10783"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10803,"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10783\/revisions\/10803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metzineres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}