Latinas and Sexual Violence, part 2

1
National Community Outreach ProjectLatinas
and Sexual Violence
Part 2
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Immigrant Victimization

• Refugee and immigrant women are often beyond the
  reach of those who could help them.
• Rape has become so prevalent that many
  unauthorized immigrant women take birth-control
  measures before crossing the Mexico-United States
  border.

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Latina Immigrant Vulnerability

• Many immigrant Latina domestic workers (Vellos,
  1997)
• Have language barriers.
• Live in constant fear of being deported.
• Suffer social isolation.
• Depend on their employers for their livelihood
  and are vulnerable to their demands.

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Latina Immigrant Vulnerability (cont.)

• I was only 16 when I came to work in this country
  as a live-in maid. I was isolated from everyone I
  knew and felt very alone.
•   The woman who hired me took my personal
  documents and she had a temper. But I was more
  afraid of her husband and his friends when they
  got drunk. They made me very nervous when they
  would try to flirt and joke about me dancing for
  them like a stripper. They offered to pay me for
  it. I felt trapped and very afraid, especially
  when she was away.
• Translated survivor testimonial

5
Immigrant Survivors Rights

• Most survivors are eligible for
• Police response and protection.
• Services from sexual assault and domestic
  violence programs.
• Civil protection orders from the courts.
• Criminal prosecution of assailants.
• Custody and support for children.
• Emergency medical care.

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Immigrant Survivors Legal Rights

• Violence Against Women Act.
• The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
• T-Visa (for victims of severe forms of human
  trafficking).
• U-Visa (for victims of other types of crimes).

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Online Visa Resources

• WomensLaw.org
• www.womenslaw.org
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
• www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

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Needs of Immigrant Victims Services

• Interpretation by trained persons.
• Clear explanations of rights, options, services,
  and the criminal justice process.
• Legal advocacy from immigration specialists
  (bilingual staff or interpreters are crucial).
• Police protection without fear of deportation.

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Needs of Immigrant Victims Establishing Trust

• Ensure the victim is accompanied by companions
  de confianza (trustworthy) or victim advocates.
• Avoid referrals to several different advocates
  during the initial stage.
• Provide emotional support and spiritual support
  as the help-seeking process continues.

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Needs of Immigrant Victims Accountability

• Providing updates and keeping the survivor
  informed requires ongoing followup with the
  various agency contacts throughout the process.
• Promoting interagency accountability empowers
  survivors to regain some sense of control and not
  lose faith. It also helps keep a case alive.

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Building Community Partnerships

• Rape crisis centers should focus on outreach and
  prevention as well as responding to trauma.
• By developing or upgrading relationships with
  agencies already providing education to the
  Latina/o community, an individual center can
• Promote awareness of the services it offers.
• Enhance community member access to their center
  and services.
• Promote cross-training and collaboration
  opportunities.

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Building Community Partnerships (cont.)

• Established Latina/o organizations with existing
  bilingual/bicultural staff, programs, and
  community trust can be valuable allies and agents
  of change
• Local centros (Latina/o community centers).
• Promotoras (community health workers).

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Promotora/Community Health Worker

• Promotora, Animadora, Community Health Advisor,
  Community Health Worker (CHW) Workers who are
  indigenous to the community and who serve and
  train through a community-based organization or
  health service agency.

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Promotora/CHW Programs

• At least 600 promotora/CHW programs were using
  approximately 12,500 community health advisors in
  1998 (University of Arizona and Annie E. Casey
  Foundation, 1998).
•  The 2004 Centers for Disease Control and
  Preventions community health advisor database
  listed profiles of over 200 programs representing
  more than 10,000 CHWs (Lujan, 2009).

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Promotora/CHW Programs (cont.)

• According to a 2007 study (Health Resources and
  Services Administration, 2007)
• Approximately 86,000 CHWs assisted communities
  throughout the United States in 2000.
• The states with the largest CHW populations were
  California, New York, Texas, Florida, and
  Pennsylvania.

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Promotoras as Allies

• They are part of social networks through which
  community members offer and receive social
  support among themselves.
• They may already be concerned about the sexual
  violence that affects their communities and know
  where survivors and perpetrators reside.

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Promotoras as Allies (cont.)

• They can bridge the formal service delivery
  system of the survivor service agency and the
  community's informal social support system by
  directly reaching the survivors and referring
  them to advocacy and support.
• Their host agencies may already have established
  training programs that can easily integrate
  sexual assault issues (Zárate, 2003).

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Educational Tools and Activities

• Spanish-language media.
• Popular education.
• Popular culture songs and telenovelas (soap
  operas).
• Workshops, pláticas (informal talks), and
  psycho-education sessions conducted in Spanish.
• Community fairs/festivals.
• Faith-based groups.
• Beauty parlors.
• Schools.
• Health clinics.
• Resettlement organizations.

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Educational Tools and Activities (cont.)

• In the past 20 years, Spanish radio in the United
  States has grown into a major multimillion-dollar
  industry (New America Media, 2009).
•  During the first three quarters of 2009, 4.03
  billion was invested in Spanish-language media
  (JakeAdams Editorial Services and Research
  Consultancy, 2010).

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Educational Tools and Activities (cont.)

• Outreach efforts can include the following
  Spanish-language media
• Public service announcements on local radio
  stations.
• Articles in local newspapers and community
  newsletters, especially during Sexual Assault
  Awareness Month.
• Analysis of telenovela content for sexual
  assault themes for use in group discussions.
• Analysis of song lyrics for group discussion on
  male entitlement, victim blaming, sex with
  underage girls, and other rape culture themes.

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Popular Education/Educación Popular

• Popular education
• Empowers people to be the subjects of their own
  development.
• Incorporates the whole person through movement,
  song, and theater.
• Often draws on popular culture, using drama,
  song, dance, poetry, puppetry, mime, art,
  storytelling, and other forms.

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Popular Culture A Tool for Sexual Assault
Awareness

• Popular culture can
• Enhance communication among audiences with an
  oral tradition.
• Demonstrate respect for community cultural values
  and enhance group spirit.
• Demystify the information conveyed and make it
  accessible and relevant.
• Encourage participation and learning (Bates,
  1996 Proulx, 1993).
• (Kerka, 1997)

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Conclusions

• Latina/o communities are diverse and rapidly
  growing.
• Various barriers to services exist for
  monolingual Spanish-speaking survivors.
• Culture and social assumptions may hinder a
  survivors ability to define and report sexual
  assault.

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Conclusions (cont.)

• Language plays a key role in intervention and
  prevention.
• Victim advocates should be knowledgeable of the
  cultural origins of their clients.
• The use of interpreters requires skill and
  training.
• Human translations are superior to non-human
  translations.

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Conclusions (cont.)

• Community outreach promotes awareness and
  accessibility of services.
• The promotora or CHW can be a valuable outreach
  partner.
• A range of education/information tools are
  available for Latina/o outreach.
• Popular culture and popular education techniques
  can be effectively incorporated into sexual
  assault awareness work to promote the active
  engagement of diverse communities.