LUNCH & LEARN

Sexual Violence

It is important to understand that Latinos do not identify as a group of people with a single, racial or cultural identity, but rather as a mixture of various cultures and races from over 22 countries in North, South, and Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean. Thus, some Latinos feel more comfortable defining their identity through their country, nation of origin, or culture, such as: Dominican, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Chilean, Mayan, Chicano, etc.

There is no such thing as an all-encompassing Latino culture; each nation has its own history, its own indigenous beginnings, and ties to its land. To melt the experiences of diverse peoples with roots in Mexico, the Caribbean, or Central and South America into one identity with just one label or name is to deny all of their uniqueness and difference from one another.

It is important that sexual assault advocates learn as much as they can, and in an ongoing fashion, about the collective histories and cultures of the individuals and communities with whom we are working. We must always be aware that it is not enough to know about “Latino” culture; we must always be fine-tuning our knowledge and learning to understand as much as we can about the evolving attributes of the unique cultural heritage of each individual, family and community that we serve.

Interpersonal Etiquette:

A key for sexual assault counselors, advocates, educators, and outreach staff to establishing relationships and building trust with survivors of sexual assault. Working with Latino communities the importance of interpersonal etiquette within Latino cultures is crucial. The concepts of "respeto" and "personalismo" are central to the behaviors that are expected when Latinos engage with non-Latinos and professionals.

Respeto is characterized by a number of particular kinds of interaction:

• When speaking with elders and professionals, Latinas will always use the respectful pronoun “usted.”
• Respect for one’s elders and/or professionals may be demonstrated by agreeing with that person w/whom they are speaking even if she does not, in fact, agree at all; may express disagreement or dissatisfaction by withdrawing from conversation or other interactions.

RESPETO IS CHARACTERIZED BY A NUMBER OF PARTICULAR KINDS OF INTERACTION:

• As direct eye contact may be interpreted as a sign of disrespect, Latinas will often avert their eyes & cast only a quick glance from time to time at the person w/whom they are speaking; since counselors and advocates are seen as professionals, there may be no eye contact at all in the first meeting.
• It is important to understand that they are by no means trying to be disrespectful by not giving you direct eye contact.

Personalismo: may be defined as open friendliness and easy communication in situations in which there is trust and acceptance. Generally, in Latino culture, there is more physical closeness between people and less personal space when engaging in conversation, however, this may not be true for all Latinos or for those who have become more “Americanized.”

Personalismo is characterized by the following behaviors:

• Touch such as hugs/pats on the back; are common between family & friends & even between “macho” men.
• Non-verbal consent with what is being discussed may be conveyed by diminishing the size of the “personal space” between 2 people; distance a survivor may choose to keep between herself & advocate could be less than an arm’s length.

Latino Familias

LA FAMILIA: Extended Family and its Role in Preventing and Responding to Sexual Assault Family is very important in Latino culture, and more specifically, extended family, called “la familia” in Spanish. The people who support and care for one another in many Latino communities are often more than just members of the nuclear family

LA FAMILIA (cont.)
Often includes not only grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and sometimes even neighbors and close family friends, but two very key people to how the family functions and supports itself: the madrina and padrino, loosely translated to godmother and godfather. The madrina and padrino are often seen as family elders or wise people to whom members of the family might come with problems and difficulties. Both may offer advice to younger members of the family on how to cope with an interpersonal issue or a situation like sexual assault.

When counseling a Latina survivor of sexual violence, it is important to be aware of the extended Latino family system; the roles, influence members of the family may have on how the survivor chooses to respond to and heal from her assault. A sexual assault advocate would do well to ask a Latina survivor about her support system and her familia, even asking specifically if she has a madrina or padrino who may be involved in helping her in her healing process. It may also be important to find out if members of la familia are encouraging the survivor to get help from outside la familia or asking her to cope with the sexual assault internally within the familia structure.

Most importantly, it is essential as a counselor and advocate to respect the familia structure and the support it can offer provided it is not doing the survivor any harm. It is also important to note that within many Latino families, the oldest siblings play a key role of responsibility in the family structure. The oldest sibling, both the female and the male, are expected to care for the family in a way that younger siblings do not have to. Especially in the absence of a parent, the oldest sibling will step in and take on a caretaking, provider, and parenting role. The significance of this responsibility in situations of sexual assault can be twofold: if the person assaulted is the oldest sibling in the family, she may feel that she cannot take the time to care for herself to recover from the assault because of her responsibilities to her brothers, sisters and the rest of the familia.

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BARRIERS THAT BATTERED IMMIGRANT WOMEN MUST OVERCOME IN SEEKING HELP

Most battered immigrant women (cont.):

• Power and Control Factors: The following factors are used by abusers of immigrant women to solidify their power and control to inhibit the immigrant woman’s ability to successfully flee violence or stop her abuser’s violence.

Most battered immigrant women: (cont.)

• do not know that domestic violence is a crime
• lack access to information about laws that can protect them. Their knowledge about what the legal system can do for them usually comes from their abuser.

MOST BATTERED IMMIGRANT WOMEN: (cont.)

• do not know that the legal, medical, and social service systems will help them even if they continue to live with their abuser
• are not allowed to learn English
• often work two jobs and do not have time to learn English, even if their abusers allow them to do so
• are isolated from friends & social service providers who speak their language
• Their own Culture

MOST BATTERED IMMIGRANT WOMEN: (CONT.)

• Believe they cannot receive help from: Police & courts because they are an arm of a repressive government as in their home country.
• Courts because at home the person with the most money and the strongest political connections wins -- (usually the man.) Judges because they come from countries where testimony is not valid evidence & the work of a man is legally worth more than the testimony of a woman.

Immigration Issues

Undocumented women to the United States who are victimized may be nervous to seek the services that they need in fear of being reported to the Immigration and Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) and being deported. It is not uncommon for a person who is abusing a woman who is not a legal immigrant of the U.S. to threaten to report her to immigration authorities to have her deported.

However, it is virtually impossible for this threat to be carried out as BICE will almost never respond to calls reporting a single individual who is illegally in this country. That being said, as legislation and social climates change, it is important for sexual assault victims and their advocates to look carefully at the possibility of deportation and to be careful about its threat. An advocate working with a survivor with immigration issues must seek specialized legal services on immigration matters.

Immigration services

U VISA

PURPOSE OF THE U VISA

• U visa facilitates the reporting of crimes to law enforcement officials by trafficked, exploited, victimized or abused non-citizens & ensures victims receive access to justice.

Benefits of the U Visa

• Strengthens law enforcement agencies’ abilities to detect, investigate, and prosecute criminal activity while offering immigrant crime victims legal immigration status, work authorization, and protection from deportation.

Benefits of the U Visa cont.

• Immigrant survivors are ensured access to justice by alleviating fears, such as deportation, that keep victims from participating in the criminal justice system. The U visa certification follows the DOJ Access to Justice Initiative by promoting accessibility, ensuring fairness, & increasing efficiency.

Who is eligible for the U Visa?

• To be eligible for a U visa an individual:

• Must have suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of having been a victim of one or more qualifying criminal activity;
• Must possess information concerning the criminal activities.

ELIGIBILITY for U Visa cont...

• Must be helpful, have been helpful, or be likely to be helpful to a federal, state, or local investigation or prosecution of the criminal activity; and
• The criminal activity must have violated the federal or state laws of the U.S. (federal or state) or been perpetrated in the U.S. or its territories and possessions.

Wichita area sexual assault center

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