The Salt Mines is a penetrating documentary about a bizarre location in ‘the most hybrid of cities in the most hybrid of nations’.Literally and metaphorically on the fringe of New York City is a former meat storage depot where broken-down trucks are dumped and the stocks of salt for the roads in winter are kept. In these salt mines live Latin American transvestites who prostitute themselves to keep themselves in crack.Video-makers Susana Aiken and Carlos Aparicio became friends with Gigi, Giovanna, Sarah and other transvestites who give up their deepest secrets in the video. In long shots they talk (and quarrel) about sexual identity, their childhood and the relationship with their parents and with the church. Despite, or maybe thanks to their harsh life on the streets there is a striking solidarity among the latinos. They eat and talk a lot together and manifest themselves as a tight group. Every dollar earned in prostitution is immediately spent on crack. Someone in the film compares the use of crack to a constant orgasm. Most don’t wonder what they are doing in the salt mines; that is self-evident to them.
