Safe Heaven (Red)

Between intense red and green walls, Delia hangs next to a big loud jukebox where along with the sounds of the latest Latino hits, a well-known piece is about to be danced, a flirting routine that starts with a smile and ends when solitude is alleviated.

Delia who is 18 years old forms part of the working crew of a restaurant located in New York where the waitresses´ job is not only to provide a menu but also to keep company to the lonely customers. In this ritual, the male customer invites the waitress to join him at the table by getting a drink for her, and the momentary couple will converse, laugh, and in some cases become intimate. Her presence at the table will last until the drink is finished or she is required at another table, where the same cycle will be repeated.

The first part of this work is focused on young Mexican women who have recently arrived to United States. Some of them have indigenous backgrounds so that Spanish is not their first language. The majority of waitresses have grown up in environments of limited education and health services. Like Delia, most of them have come to the United States looking for a better quality of life and money to send to their families back home.

Sharing similar cultural and economic backgrounds with their clients, these women live a staged rendezvous every night. They share in an encounter where confidence is the secret ally that mitigates the pain of longing for an abandoned place or the absence of a loved one. But what happens when they go home? What is their place of comfort and confidence?