Under the Spanish colonial administration, prostitution was widespread and regulated. In 1885 there were two hundred registered brothels in Havana. The majority were located in the waterfront and industrial areas of the old city and employed mostly Canary Islanders, Black, mulattos, and poor white women. By 1900 the number had increased by one half. Prostitutes were numerous on such streets as Virtudes and Prado. Some eastern European prostitutes came with the early 1900s immigration wave. In the 1950s special districts and brothels existed catering to different socioeconomic levels. Thus, one brothel catering to tourists had English-speaking, fair haired, and blue-eyed young Cuban girls. From the mid-1950s American gangsters influenced not only the brothels, but also the hotels and casinos, from Havana to Varadero. In 1958 Havana had 270 registered brothels and an estimated 11,500 women working as prostitutes. It was a boast of the Revolution of 1959 that it had ended both the industry and the socioeconomic conditions that provided its labor force. Under the economic conditions of the “Special Period” of the 1990s, however the government began to condone prostitution to enhance tourism, and smartly dressed jineteras were highly visible in all tourist hotels.
In 1996, thanks in large part to the Cuban male’s machista reluctance to use condoms, some 40,000 Cubans were suffering from syphilis or gonorrhea, and many others from AIDS.
