The Sexual Question

Abstract

As Vargas Llosa explains in his memoir, A Fish in the Water, Alberto's experiences in Lima's barrio rojo were based on his own: "The majority of the characters in my novel La ciudad y los perros [The Time of the Hero], written using memories of my years at Leoncio Prado as a basis, are very free, distorted versions of real models, while others are completely imaginary. But the elusive 'Goldifeet' is there as my memory preserves her; self-assured, attractive, vulgar, facing up to her humiliating job with indomitable good humor and giving me, on those Saturdays, for twenty soles, ten minutes of bliss." Vargas Llosa, A Fish in the Water, p. 105. On Vargas Llosa's La ciudad y los perros, see Aguirre, La ciudad y los perros.