Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - Mystic Mother | 4. Operation Goddess Temple
Episode Date: September 20, 2022When a reporter exposes what really happens during a “whole body healing” session, the Temple unknowingly welcomes in a new kind of seeker, undercover detectives. Want the full story? Unlock al...l episodes of Witnessed: Mystic Mother, ad-free right now by subscribing to The Binge — All Episodes. All at Once. Plus you’ll unlock brand new stories, dropping every month — that’s all episodes, all at once, all ad-free. Just click ‘Subscribe’ on the top of the Witnessed show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Camp site media.
Just a note before we get started.
This episode deals with some sensitive subjects,
including sex and sexual assault.
Please take care as you listen.
On September 7, 2011, Rebecca Carrara was in the middle of a session when the temple was raided.
We kind of got hauled around for a while until we all ended up in the cell at jail.
She wasn't fully dressed when she was arrested, so she asked if she could go back inside
to get some clothes before she was taken to jail. I remember grabbing my jacket and thank God I did because it was
so cold in there. I remember us all like crawling up and a ball on the floor holding each other
and just with my one jacket covering all of this up as much as we could just to keep warm.
to cover all of this up as much as we could, just to keep warm.
Rebecca didn't know how long she'd be there, and at some point she realized she didn't have her medication with her. The medication she took every day for anxiety.
She started to panic, and I just didn't know what to do if my anxiety would get out of control.
So I'm just trying to use my tools that I learned about breathing and meditation. I was just freaking out. While Rebecca and the other goddesses huddled together in a jail cell, the Phoenix Police Department
was preparing to share their huge success.
Over the last six months, the Phoenix Police Department's Vice Unit began investigation to the Goddess Temple.
This is Joe Yonner, the Phoenix Police Chief at the time.
Under cover officers, made deals with employees who were involved in the operation. unit began investigation to the goddess temple. This is Joe Yonner, the Phoenix
Police Chief at the time. Under cover officers made deals with employees here at
the goddess temple. The deals were to exchange money for sexual acts.
You're gonna be happy. You're gonna have happy.
They used investigative techniques to determine and to discover how the business operated.
It's Detective Campbell, 7-828 with Detective Herman, 8154.
We are going to the temple to meet with the gatekeeper about our employment status there.
They determined that Tracy Elise, who you'll see, is the founder of the Goddess Temple.
She and others would hire employees to come in, conduct sex acts for money.
During the raid, officers searched every room in the temple.
They found envelopes filled with cash, financial documents, sex toys,
and at least five binders labeled seekers.
More than 18 people were arrested and indicted, and there would be more to come.
The police and county attorney had the attention of the media, and they were saying the opposite
of everything Tracy had been saying for years.
This is not a religion.
Instead of John's, they were called seekers. Instead of sexual intercourse, it was called sacred union.
The women were not called prostitutes, they were called goddesses.
Instead of a brothel or a house prostitution, they call it a church.
We believe that no matter what you call it,
no matter how you disguise it,
that this is a crime and the crime in this case is prostitution.
From campsite media and Sony music entertainment, you're listening to
witnessed Mystic Mother. Episode four, Operation Dottestemple. Okay, so even if Phoenix PD officers weren't reading the new times every week, there was
no way they could ignore the article we heard about last time.
It explicitly accused the temple of prostitution.
It was actually handed the Phoenix New Times article multiple times from different sources. This is Detective Amber Campbell testifying in court. She was one of the
detectives in charge of the investigation. We received it from somebody at
City Hall, somebody from another police agency. We received it from our own command staff within our building and everybody inquired us
to whether or not we were going to investigate.
So they investigated and they started where a lot of seekers started.
We started looking at BackPage.
BackPage.com was a classifieds website, best known for its adult services section.
It's the number one place in the Phoenix Metro area for an individual to go to advertise their services, illegal services.
Backpage was shut down in 2018 by the Department of Justice, and the site's founders faced charges, including facilitating prostitution. They pleaded not guilty to those charges, and according to the Associated Press, they
deny that the site allowed ads for sex and claimed the site's content is protected by
the First Amendment.
A mistrial was declared in 2021, and the case was still ongoing at the time of this recording.
And while we're on the subject, the founders of Backpage are Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin,
who are also the founders of the Phoenix New Times. Yeah. So anyway, the police started on Backpage.
Every couple of days, sometimes daily, we would go to Backpage, type in the Phoenix status Temples phone number, email address,
and print off every single Backpage ad associated with the temple.
Detective Campbell also printed out everything posted on the Temples website.
PhoenixGodisTemple.org.
It was important for us to one know the language, know the amounts that are being requested, knowing the
pictures, the people, it's a great source of intelligence for us. Even though there was a lot of
information on the website and in the ads, it wasn't enough to get a warrant to arrest anyone.
They needed actual evidence of prostitution. In other words, proof that sex was being exchanged for money.
They needed to get inside the temple.
So they called and made an appointment.
I had seen you before on your website a while ago.
I kind of wanted to come see you.
Remember that call we heard earlier from a seeker?
I don't know if it's your eyes or what it is.
It's like a deep soul kind of thing or something.
I don't know.
And what you like put as your temple being?
I go by JJ.
JJ was actually a detective who went undercover with Tracy.
I think anybody that works undercover has to take on a certain persona.
A persona, like a name and a backstory.
For example, JJ the Rancher.
JJ says when you're developing your persona,
it's best to draw on what you know.
Last thing you wanna do is,
you know, hey, how you doing?
I'm an airplane pilot.
You know, oh really, I fly planes too,
and you don't do a deadly squat about flying airplanes,
so you know you've already messed up.
So, you know, I think you just wanna relate to
the people that you're with and understand that world.
JJ wouldn't agree to an interview
unless we agreed not to use his real name.
Our team struggled with this a lot.
By most journalistic standards,
anonymity can be granted to a source
when they're safety or well-being is threatened
by publicly using their name.
But police officers are in a position of power
and usually wouldn't qualify.
The reason we decided to talk with JJ
and give him the anonymity he asked for
is because some of the people we talked with
felt wrong by the way the police handled the investigation.
So we wanted to get the perspective
of someone who was on the inside and understand how it worked.
JJ no longer works at the Phoenix Police Department, and he was clear that he could only represent himself.
But he has more than two decades of experience in law enforcement in Arizona, and he's worked multiple undercover investigations. If you're exchanging money or any other sort of thing in exchange for sexual services,
then it would be deemed as prostitution.
My assignment at that time was to see if whomever I was having contact with was participating
in that kind of activity.
You may be wondering how JJ plans to do this without getting physical.
In Arizona, it's illegal for officers to have sexual contact with anyone who's the subject
of an investigation or who's in custody.
Believe it or not, that's actually not true in all states.
And even though it's illegal in Arizona, it still happens.
Journalists uncovered multiple instances of this in the last few years.
Here's how it should work.
An undercover officer like JJ is supposed to see if this suspect will agree to a sexual act in exchange for money.
And then they leave. Before anything goes down.
And yes, that means suspects can be charged with prostitution,
even when nothing sexual has happened.
So JJ has to find a way to walk right up to that line
with Tracy.
The plan was he'd go in, wearing a hidden recording device.
Other officers would be listening to the exchange
as it was happening.
And once they determined that there was an agreement
to exchange some kind of sexual act for money, they would call JJ cell phone. He would pretend like it was
work and say he had to go. So instead of doing anything sexual, JJ and Tracy talked about it.
They were conversations about how she was going to rub me down with coconut oil because it was
an antiseptic and this, that,
and the other thing, she talked to me about chakras
and Yoni, I think, was a term.
We don't have the recording of JJ in person with Tracy,
but we do have the transcript.
JJ asks, so what are you going to do
with rock coconut oil?
And Tracy responds,
we're going to put it on our bodies.
Then JJ specifically asks Tracy
if she's going to put coconut oil on his cock.
His words, not mine.
And she says,
absolutely, I want to.
JJ also testified about his exchange with Tracy in court.
I, excuse me, but I told her that I would like to put my
Cochra in her Vashakra.
She said, yes, I could put my Cochra in her Vashakra.
She said, we will do what pleases us, quote unquote.
So yeah, this whole thing is a lot to listen to.
It's an awkward thing to be involved in, and so those are awkward words and
awkward comments used in an awkward situation.
Besides the obvious, the other awkward thing was the discussion of money.
JJ brought it up multiple times, both in the phone call with her
when he booked the appointment and also in person.
And Tracy always tries to dodge it.
Remember that call?
Oh, you're as I've seen you know.
So when JJ offers to pay for the session,
Tracy stops him.
So I did bring some temper-blessing money
at which time Miss Elise did tell me
that she appreciated it, but we mustn't do that.
We mustn't discuss that in the temple.
Tracy also knew undercover cops might come to the temple.
She even had seekers sign a form saying they weren't law enforcement.
But none of this, the careful terminology, the waivers,
the avoidance of money talk,
none of it could actually protect her, or anyone else involved with the temple.
In fact, it would all be used against them.
That's after the break.
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During the investigation, officers scheduled sessions with the handful of
goddesses. Other officers posed as goddesses seeking employment.
And they collected a lot of evidence,
undercover recordings, online ads,
and a detailed understanding of how the temple operates.
With this, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office
had enough evidence to ask a grand jury
for an indictment of 33 people.
They used that indictment to get a judge
to grant them a search warrant.
And you know what happens next.
Bam, bam, bam, open up, please.
According to the police report, the officers knocked,
announced themselves, and then entered through the front door.
But to Rebecca and others inside the temple,
it felt like an ambush. They were unarmed and in some cases undressed.
And there was a SWAT team with guns and tactical vests. It felt scary and violent. Almost everyone
we talked with called it a raid. But not JJ. I really don't like hearing the term,
this place got raided.
Or, you know, that's a street term.
Sure, we raided it.
You know, maybe even some police officers somewhere say,
yeah, we raided.
But no, it's a search warrant.
It should be thorough.
It should be precise.
To me, raiding is like riding down in a village
and burning everything and just, you know,
ah.
JJ wasn't part of the team that entered the building, but he was there when everything
went down.
We're not here to hurt anybody, but we are going to quickly extricate everyone from this
premises so that we can do the legal search that we're authorized by the court to do. JJ also says that when serving a search warrant,
officers have to be prepared for anything.
He gave an example.
Imagine a seeker was there that day,
and maybe he had a warrant out for his arrest.
If he heard police entering,
he might think they were there for him,
and he might have a weapon.
So he could start firing or
barricade himself in a room, or do any number of things that could threaten the safety of
others.
It can be the most innocuous, safe-seeming situation in an enanosec, and it turns to
shit.
And so that's why they use these search warrant teams.
Search warrant teams like the Special Assignments Unit,
AKA SWAT team.
Search warrant's are always traumatic.
I don't care if I went and knocked on your door
and you said, come on in, it's still a traumatic event.
You've got people you don't know coming in to look
through your things.
So I can understand a person in that building
feeling traumatized or scared.
It's a scary situation. This is true for several of the goddesses we spoke with. No
matter what you call it, it was one of the most traumatic moments of their lives.
And it seemed like an unnecessary show of force. This is a seeker who was also really upset
about how everything was handled. It seemed they were doing something for the benefit of the cameras,
to show how tough they were being on a bunch of unarmed women.
Because of the embarrassment of their being,
what under the eyes of the law was a house of prostitution in the middle of Phoenix.
Not only did it seem excessive,
it also felt unjust,
because most of the people arrested that day were goddesses.
No seekers were taken into custody.
Police detained and questioned some,
but they were all released that same day.
We reached out to the Phoenix PD for comment,
but they referred us back to the original police
report.
In 2011, Sergeant Steve Mardos said that they didn't arrest seekers because the temple
didn't keep detailed records of their clients, but the main reason is because police are
quote, focused on the temple and its employees.
That's according to a Phoenix New Times article by the same reporter who wrote about the temple.
It's true that most seekers who went to the temple didn't use their real names.
I'm not sure what was inside those binders, police found during the search.
But in a 2019 court filing, Tracy wrote that gatekeepers had recorded,
names, dates of visits, type of ceremony, and real phone numbers for most of the seekers
who visited the temple.
And two seekers we spoke with said they weren't concerned about arrests.
I'm speaking from a perspective of male privilege here, but I knew my position was secure because
they never go after the Johns.
It takes two to commit prostitution, but the way these laws are enforced hasn't always been equal,
and there's a long bend to be about who should be punished, the client or the sex worker.
While historically the sex worker has faced harsher punishment, in recent decades most states have moved towards equal punishment, including Arizona.
JJ was quick to point out that clients are arrested in Phoenix,
though clearly that's not what happened in this case. And then there are many
who believe no one should be arrested and punished for prostitution. Because if
it's consensual, it's a victimless crime. If an adult wants to become a sex worker,
that should not be a crime. This is Tara, who we heard from last time.
She wasn't arrested or charged in this case, but she feels strongly about this.
I want people to remember that there were no victims.
Tara's perspective is that everyone who practiced at the temple was a consenting adult.
They were thereby choice, they could leave at any time, and therefore no one was harmed.
Tracy argues this too.
JJ's perspective and the perspective of many law enforcement agencies is a little different.
Was there anybody at the goddess temple that said, you know, maybe I'll try this,
and then they're like, oh, this isn't such a good idea. And that maybe they felt,
I want to get out of this. How I wanna get out of this.
How do I get out of this?
Is that person a victim?
Detective Campbell testified in court
that she believes there were victims at the temple.
Victims of a crime called pandering,
which is when someone encourages someone else
to engage in acts of prostitution.
Detective Campbell gave an example.
There's an individual without naming names or any specifics, but who indicated that she
was without a home, a place to live, and came to know the Phoenix Goddess Temple and was told
that if she came to the temple, she would be provided with housing. In turn, she was to work as a goddess and have sessions.
And that would pay for her housing.
Campbell says some of the women were vulnerable and felt manipulated.
They came to the realization after the raid, but they felt duped and betrayed based on their thinking that what they were doing was legal.
There's this idea that comes up a lot when we talk about sex work.
It's ingrained in our culture that no one would just choose to be a sex worker. That sex workers are people who are in desperate situations,
or who are being forced into it and trafficked.
And by that logic, when someone is arrested for prostitution,
that person is not only the perpetrator of a crime,
but is also a victim.
So even though sex work and sex trafficking are different things, law enforcement doesn't
always make the distinction.
To me personally, I don't know the difference between the two.
Since the 90s, the City of Phoenix has offered prostitution diversion programs to help people
get out of sex work.
At least one of them was a post-charging program,
which required a guilty plea before entering the program. And then, once the program was successfully
completed, the charge would be dismissed. But Detective Campbell said that in the early to mid-2000s,
the Phoenix PD's Vice Unit was arresting mostly young women for prostitution,
and they realized that most of them were victims and wanted help. The Phoenix PD's Vice Unit was arresting mostly young women for prostitution,
and they realized that most of them were victims and wanted help.
Many of them are physically, sexually, or mentally abused.
At some point, many of them have substance abuse problems,
either alcohol or drugs.
And even if they weren't being abused or trafficked, they were still in need.
You know, I have to college tuition to pay. I have dental bills to pay. They don't have an education.
They can't support themselves and their children on a minimum wage job.
You know, they just got evicted from their house. Their car broke down.
So in 2011, the city developed Project Rose. Rose stands for Reaching Out to the Sexuality
Exploited. It was an experimental and controversial pre-charging program, co-founded by Phoenix
PD Lieutenant Jim Gallagher, with a professor at Arizona State University's School of Social
Work. According to Al Jazeera, Gallagher had locked up the same woman nine times for prostitution,
which led him to believe that simply locking up sex workers wasn't the solution.
Project Rose was supposed to offer an alternative.
Here's how it worked.
Dozens of cops would conduct multiple online and street-level sweeps,
and arrest anyone they suspected of
prostitution. But unlike previous diversion programs, they wouldn't be taken to jail and
charged, at least not at first. First, they'd be taken to Bethany Bible Church.
That's after the break. para la brecha. cortadoxos puedes imaginar cuál es y cómo descubrela. and we're going back further to the 50s, the aftermath of World War II, and a series of tragedies in Hollywood.
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Project Rose was a collaboration between the local police department and the school of
social work, and those sorts of alliances are becoming much more common, as the courts
move towards not wanting to seem like they are just criminalizing sex workers and forcing
them to serve prison time for prostitution.
This is Crystal Jackson, who we heard from before.
She's a professor at Texas Christian University, and she studies sex worker rights.
They would go around and they would identify basically people who are engaging in sexual
labor, arrest them, and then bring them to a church, and then get screened as to whether or not they are victims of
trafficking and in need of services or are they criminal prostitutes who deserve to go be jailed
and then be heard in court. At the church, eligible victims received food, clothes, options for safe housing, mental
health counseling, and options for detox and drug treatment, according to a press release.
And they were offered an opportunity to enter a diversion program, provided by the agency
Catholic Charities.
If they successfully completed the program, they wouldn't be charged.
But if they didn't complete it, they could be jailed, charged, and prosecuted.
And just think about how terrifying that is, so you save the ones you deserve it,
quote unquote, and punish the ones who don't.
Project Rose was heavily criticized and protested.
Monica Jones, who we heard from before,
is one of the people who protested it
while she was a student at Arizona State.
She believes sex workers don't need to be saved.
As someone who engaged in sex work,
it was a choice of mine to engage in that, right?
Because I need it money in this place of where
me being a black trans woman,
having no economic stability
allowed me to have that support and economic stability in my life, where I became a part of society,
where I cannot pay for my college classes, I can pay for my transportation back and forth,
from college, I can pay for my food, and everything else. And so it is a choice.
my food and everything else and so it is a choice. Shortly after protesting Project Rose, Monica was arrested for manifesting prostitution. Like we mentioned
last time, that means an intent to commit or solicit prostitution. The ACLU of
Arizona helped Monica appeal her case and her conviction was vacated on
the grounds that she received an unfair trial, and Project Rose was shut down shortly after.
But the laws around manifestation are still on the books.
Monica says laws like this cause harm, when what sex workers really need is harm reduction.
An arrest can lead to a domino effect for someone who's already struggling.
Jail time and felony charges can cause someone to lose their job, access to housing, or
custody of their children.
And for some, it can lead to deportation.
So even though police say their goal is to help victims, the risk of arrest can deter
sex workers from seeking help when they
actually need it. And they often do need it because the chance of sexual violence for
sex workers is high. Tara, who we heard from earlier and who identifies as a sex worker,
says, that's part of the reason she and other goddesses felt relatively safe practicing
at the temple.
I think most women ended up at the temple because the temple was an amazing place to work,
for the work that we did.
You know, it was either that or work by yourself, which is scary and dangerous.
Working around other people can also reduce the risk of assault, but it can't prevent
it altogether.
And unfortunately, several people say it happened at the temple.
We're going to talk about what happened,
and we know that can be a lot to listen to.
So if this feels like too much for you right now,
go ahead and skip forward two minutes.
Okay, here's Tara.
She was at the temple with a seeker she'd seen twice before.
We were in the middle of a session and he forced himself upon me and when he did I froze
up.
And I stayed froze up for quite a while.
And I remember coming out of the room and just not feeling right.
I said I think something bad just happened." Tara says she told Tracy, and
instead of calling the police, Tracy called the seeker. She said she'd had a conversation
with him and that he was sorry and he didn't realize that he had cross-ney boundaries.
Tracy told Tara the man was banned from the temple, but Tara felt like that would be really
hard to enforce.
He could come back with a different name, and not everyone would recognize him.
So it didn't make her feel any safer.
And Tracy said after that she was going to put hammers in all the rooms.
And I just remember thinking that's ridiculous.
There was no employee handbook for how to handle a situation like this.
And Tara, it was clear Tracy was out of her depth.
After she called the secret, Tracy organized a meeting to talk about what happened with
the community.
But Tracy didn't show up.
Instead, she asked the man who led Sunday services to lead the meeting.
So this was actually the most traumatizing part of that whole rape for me is they gathered
the entire temple together and made me tell the
story to the temple to everybody.
I literally felt like I was on the stand.
Tara doesn't blame Tracy for her assault, but she does wish Tracy had been more supportive.
And despite all of this, for Tara, the benefits of working at the temple, outweighed the risk.
She says the vast majority of her experiences were really positive
and it was still the safest environment for her to practice in.
So she stayed.
I think she tried to take the actions that she felt would make people feel better.
But again, we're doing something illegal where
we're the criminals, so there's just simply no protection for us.
There's no protection, and there are also devastating consequences. The
charges brought against temple members would include conspiracy, illegal
control of an enterprise, money laundering, racketeering, and prostitution.
Most of these are felonies.
And partly because of the severity of these charges,
no one arrested in the case would qualify for project
rows, according to a court filing by state prosecutors.
It's not mixed religious freedom and religious practices
with criminal activity.
The two are two very different things and should not be confused.
This is the Maricopa County Attorney from that time, Bill Montgomery.
Ultimately, it's his office that will be responsible for prosecuting everyone arrested in connection
with the temple.
This press conference was an opportunity for him to set the record straight.
Let me further underscore one thing while it makes for
Selecia's headlines. This was no more a church than Cuba's fantasy island.
Bill Montgomery wanted everyone to know in no uncertain terms. He was not going to be convinced
that this was anything other than a criminal enterprise. And he wasn't
going to let anyone else be convinced either.
And I don't care whether you want, you want to call it a donation, a fee,
or that you want to call your activity healing or a tangent practice,
except the money for sex is against the law.
Law enforcement in this county will hold you accountable, and will prosecute you for doing it.
That's next time on Witnessed, Mystic Mother.
Basically, it was made clear to me that I was facing a minimum of 11 years in prison.
There's all these pressures that the system puts on you to try to make decisions that are in your own best interest, but how do you figure that out?
I had no chance.
I wasn't going to change the law, or make it safer for sex work, or my family.
Do I think the goddess energy is going to get us out of this? No.
It didn't matter to me at that point. I just wanted my baby back.
Tracy, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.
The mother has been attacked. My religion is real and this can be a big scene.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault or abuse, you can find help and
resources at rain.org.
That's r-a-i-n-n.org, 4.673.
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Witnessed Mystic Mother is a production of Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment.
It's hosted and created by me, Katie Henneck and me, Leah Henneck. This series was reported by Sarah Ventree and written by Sarah Ventree and Emily Martinez,
additional reporting by Katie and Leah Henneck.
Sarah Ventree is our managing producer.
Our story editor and executive producer is Emily Martinez,
additional editing by Mike Meyer,
produced by Katie and Leah Henneck, associate producer, Sidney Fleishman,
additional production assistants from Mo LaBorde
and Ron Warner.
A huge thank you to Rebecca Ross, our legal researcher.
Our theme song was composed by Betsy Gans and Chris Norby
and performed by Betsy Gans, Chris Norby, and John Rouse House.
It was recorded and mixed by Michael Krasner and mastered by Chris Norby.
The series was sound designed and mixed by Claire Mullin.
Our recording engineers are Mike Delay and Gavin Reign at Real Voice LA.
Special thanks to Campside Studio Manager and Mix Engineer, Ewan Lyte Ramuein, and
Campside producer Manager and Mix Engineer, Ewen Lyte Ramuwen, and Campside Producer, Johnny Kaufman.
Our fact checkers are Sarah Sneeth and Kali Hitchcock,
additional research from Alex Yablon.
Thanks to Debra Don, Hugh Urban, Susan Starritz,
Rianne Isler, Sphrana Borkataki-Varma, Phoenix Khalida,
Natalia Winkleman, and Miriam Wasser.
And thanks to Tracy Elise,
who gave campsite permission to use videos she created.
The Pat McMan show is a production of K-A-Z-T-T-V.
Monica Jones is the founder and CEO of the Outlaw Project,
an organization that builds tiny homes
for trans women of color in Arizona.
For more information, check out the outlawproject.org.
And a special thanks to our operations team, Doug Slaywin, Alia Papers, and Alison Haney.
Campside Media's executive producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa Gregorioides, Adam Hoff, and Matt
Share.
If you enjoyed Mystic Mother, please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. en el desgrigorriatus, Adam Hough, y Nat Share. Si te gustan de mi madre,
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