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Stéphanie Borcard & Nicolas Métraux/INSTITUTE Photo:

Mechelle, 19, works at a bar on Fields Avenue, a major street running through the centre of the red-light district in Angeles. While walking with her mother on this street when she was 9 years old, her mother pointed to a man and said, "That’s your dad." Today, she can’t remember his face. She only knows his first name and that he is an American doctor from Santa Maria, CA.