In the age of the Internet, the idea of watching porn in an actual movie house might seem like a quaint act from another era — like pumping water or dialing up AOL. At a recent party of 30- and 40-year-olds, someone asked how many people had been to a porn theater. Only three hands went up. Mine was one of them.

Let me explain.

It was the 1990s, in the Chilean city of Concepción, and prevailing Catholic propriety prevented certain art-house masterpieces from showing at "proper" theaters due to their racy sex scenes. This is why my first — and, until recently, my only — trip to a porn theater was to see "The Tin Drum."

Based on a novel by Günter Grass, the Oscar-winning film about a boy who refuses to grow played at a local cine erótico. The Cine Windsor, a faded 1940s movie house with frayed carpets and worn seats, screened a mix of pornography and anything considered too avant-garde in the nudity department.