LIVING

Delgado started working the night shift because that was what she was first offered having got her licence. She points out that other women, if they have a family and children, can’t really work at night, but she’s single and is happy to work those hours. Her typical day sees her arrive home around 7am and go to bed about 7.30. She sleeps until early afternoon and then does various tasks and errands until it’s time to start work again. And she says it doesn’t interfere with her social life: “No, on my day off [at the weekend], if I can, I meet up with friends to go to the cinema or for dinner or a walk.” When asked about how others respond to female taxi-drivers, Delgado admits that male taxi drivers sometimes makes comments. “Not the young men, but the older ones. They try to make me scared.” In contrast, male clients sometimes comment on how brave she is while others say it’s good to see a woman driving a taxi. She shrugs such things off, although says that they do motivate her.

Delgado has many stories about clients, even though she’s been doing the job for such a short time, and she explains most of them with a cheery laugh. The ones who fall asleep and have to be woken when they arrive at their destination. The woman who forgot where she lived and gave a non-existent address. The man who asked her to wait while he went to get his ‘tool’ at 5am in the morning and turned out to be a maintenance man at El Corte Inglés.

When asked if she’s ever felt uncomfortable, Delgado’s eyes widen as she remembers a recent incident when a couple started getting a bit too comfortable in the back seat. “They were two young people, Germans or British, maybe. Foreigners. They asked to go to Paseo de Colom but didn’t give any address—they said they’d tell me when we’d arrived.” After hearing a strange noise, Luz looked round to see the woman sitting on the man’s lap. “I told them ‘not here please’”, and the woman moved back to her seat. But a few minutes later, it happened again—Delgado could see the woman had her skirt hitched up—and she told them to get out of the taxi. They did so with no problem and paid their fare to that point, going on their way apparently unperturbed. But, Delgado admitted, “It was horrible for me.”