'My past doesn’t define me': Sacramento child sex trafficking survivor finds purpose in helping others
“How far low I’ve been just makes me so grateful for the life I have today,” Angela Vega says.
“How far low I’ve been just makes me so grateful for the life I have today,” Angela Vega says.
“How far low I’ve been just makes me so grateful for the life I have today,” Angela Vega says.
Angela Vega never imagined she’d become a role model, or “Angela 2.0,” as the Sacramento judge who expunged her criminal history once said.
She’s now a staff member at Community Against Sexual Harm (CASH) in Oak Park, an organization that helps connect sex trafficking survivors like herself with resources and where she says the women who walk through its doors are “greeted with dignity and respect.”
“I’m so grateful,” Vega said with a smile. “I know my past doesn’t define me.”
Vega has worked at CASH for the past four and a half years. She said her smile has come from all the healing work she’s done after 27 years of being “caught up in the lifestyle.”
“How far low I’ve been just makes me so grateful for the life I have today,” she said.
'It just didn't dawn on me as a child'
Vega grew up in Oak Park with two sisters and a brother who sometimes didn’t have hot water or clean clothes.
“I ran with a lot of different people and I drank at an early age, at 11,” she said.
She first fell under the influence of sex traffickers at age 13.
Federal law describes sex trafficking as when "a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age."
The Department of Justice says coercion could be "subtle or overt, physical or psychological."
In Vega’s case, the owner of a liquor store near where she lived told her that if she came by after closing hours, she could have “whatever you want.”
“And I didn’t know that meant come when we’re closed and have sex with multiple men. And we will feed you liquor,” Vega recalled. “It was just like, ‘drink this, drink this,’ and next thing you know I’m having sex.”
For the next two years, people would also drive her to other places where she would have sex with multiple men, she said.
“I didn’t think about it. And at that time, I totally disassociated from it. I didn’t see the wrong and I didn’t see the ugliness,” she said. “It just didn’t dawn on me as a child.”
Vega said that if she could “go back to 13-year-old me, I would tell myself, ‘don’t walk through that door because it’s going to rule your life until the age of 40.”
A 'sisterhood' but also dangers on The Blade
By age 15, Vega knew how to “catch a date” by walking The Blade, an area on Stockton Boulevard that is known for prostitution. Another location she walked was along Broadway near Highway 99.
“I learned early on, giving my money to someone, that made me [think], ‘Oh, they like me.’ Oh, they’re going to stay with me,” she said of relationships with traffickers. “Oh, they’re going to protect me.”
There was also a "sisterhood" among women who would warn each other about buyers to avoid. But the work was still dangerous.
"A lot of friends of mine met their death that way, meeting, getting in the car with the wrong person, getting taken off and getting killed," she said.
Vega said she was also abused and physically assaulted.
If it was easy to get caught up in the lifestyle, getting out meant overcoming deep shame.
“With each day and with each situation, my self-worth went lower and lower and lower,” Vega said. “And when you’re already working with nothing, nothing from nothing is nothing.”
In her head, “All I could hear is, ‘You’re never going to be good.’”
Vega isn’t sure how many times she was arrested but estimates she has three pages of mug shots and from age 18 to 40 was busted “maybe every six to nine months.”
For two years, Vega said, she was unhoused and living under the X Street overpass.
“I needed help. I felt worthless,” Vega said. “I felt lonely. I was just tired of the shame that I carried.”
Finding 'intention and purpose' by helping others
CASH was created in 2008 by Sacramento police officers, survivors and Oak Park residents to offer a safe place for women to receive care and support.
In 2018, Vega became a client at CASH. Each day she would return and offer help by organizing clothes, helping to clean or staple papers.
With the help of a CASH clinic, she was able to get a full expungement of her criminal history.
The judge who granted her expungement said, “Look at you, Angela 2.0,” she recalled.
“And I couldn’t agree more with him because that’s what I feel like — Angela 2.0 — the real Angela,” she said.
Vega became a staff member at CASH in 2021 and said that becoming a role model is “an excellent feeling.”
“My mantra here at work is find your purpose, stay focused and know your worth,” she said.
Her organization helps to "plant the seed" for change when women walk through its doors. They also go out on Friday nights for outreach and invite women to take advantage of their resources.
It seems like “more and more” of those Vega and other staffers encounter are unhoused like she has been.
Vega said that sometimes she’s told, “Thank you for showing that women like us can get out of it, that there is hope.”
Vega's work has helped her gain self-worth. She feels like she’s “contributing to the success of other women.”
“When I walk down the street now, it’s with intention and purpose,” she said.
The story was produced as part of the KCRA 3 Investigates documentary "Escaping The Blade" about sex trafficking in Sacramento County. Watch the full report here.
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