Soy Feminista... ¿Y qué?

:: Day 57 in Guatemala ::


I have been in Guatemala almost two full months now. I think it is time for another serious entry, especially after this very serious week. I am really enjoying working at Mujeres Transformando El Mundo. As a learning experience it has been absolutely incredible...

Last week I attended the workshop that is hosted by MTM, CONAPREVI, Fundacion Debora, and Moloj. Turns out that our discussion regarding Femenism, Patriarchy, Androcentrism, etc. served as a wonderful lead in to this week. The funny thing was, that it became really clear that the word feminism has a lot of negative connotations and is very taboo for women in Guatemala. Hence my title, I'm a Feminist... And What?

Before you read on, let me warn you - this is a long entry. And parts of it may be really depressing. Feel free to skip forward if you must. If you have ever asked me "how is work" and my answer was really vague its because I've been working with these kinds of cases for a few years now and they are difficult to talk about sometimes.

Also, there are no pictures. Sorry.


:: The Never-Ending Trial ::


Monday we traveled to San Marcos again for the continuation of the trial, which as usual was scheduled for Tuesday at 9am. We really expected that this would be the last time, even the judges wanted to wrap up the case this day. However, the defense attorney had other plans. He requested an extra five days to work on his defense (shouldn't that be done by now?) and objected to every charge on the record. Unfortunately, in some instances he had a point. I have been reluctant to say it, but the Fiscal (Prosecutor) in this case seems really incompetent. Key elements from the girls' declaration were taken out when she filed the original declarations and charges, and then added back in during the process. Clearly, this was something the Defense objected to having on the record. The trial will be continued on March 29th, and hopefully we'll finally have a verdict.

I'm sharing this small update with you because I have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of efficiency  in the court systems, which inevitably correlates with a lack of justice for victims.


:: New Place, New Client, Same Sad Story ::


As soon as we were done in San Marcos we headed for Huehuetenango which is a department that is on the Guatemala/Mexico border. We went to meet with a potential new client and her mother. This was the first interview. Of course, I can't tell you their real names. So let's say that the girl is 15 years old and her name is Nadia, and her mother's name is Maribel. All the other names I'm using are definitely fictional as well. This is  her story:            (Yes, you should have imagined the voice of the narrator from Law & Order: SVU)

Maribel has six children, three sons and three daughters. Nadia is the second to youngest of all her children. When Nadia was 2 years old Maribel separated from her abusive husband. The decision to become a single mother is difficult for anyone, but it is particularly difficult for women in Guatemala. However, Maribel was fortunate because the director of her children's school, Edgar (although she usually referred to him as el Licenciado), stepped in to help her family in their time of need. He became like a godfather to her children. Sometimes he even gave the family money out of his own pocket. As her children got older he asked Maribel to submit scholarship applications for her children because he also worked with a program that gives scholarships to indigenous children. However Maribel's family is not indigenous, so he told her that the only one the program could accept was Nadia because she is the only one that seemed to have indigenous features.

Maribel would pay for Nadia's school expenses (books, supplies, uniforms, fees, etc.) and have the factura (like a receipt but used for tax reporting purposes) written out in Edgar's name since he was her sponsor for the scholarship. When Nadia turned 11 or 12 years old, Edgar told the family that she was required to do horas sociales (community service hours) as part of her scholarship. Edgar no longer worked at the school, but instead was teaching at a the University. In fact, he spent his time split between the local campus and the one in Guatemala City - five hours away. In order to fulfill her community service hours, Edgar would take Nadia with him to his office at the local University where she would help him around the office, mostly by cleaning, filing paperwork, or arranging his bookshelves. Once in a while he'd drop her off at his house so that she could babysit his infant grandson.

When Nadia was 13 years old, Edgar invited her to attend a three-day workshop for the scholarship recipients. The workshop would be taking place at the University in Guatemala City. Although he had an apartment in the City, he arranged for Nadia to stay with his secretary at her apartment. On the way there Edgar asked Nadia what she planned to wear for Friday evening since there was going to be a Gala. Nadia of course said that she was going to wear her normal clothes since her family didn't have the money to buy her anything fancy. Of course that won't do, so Edgar said that he'd buy her nicer clothes since most of what she was wearing was old and barely fit her, otherwise the others would not accept her. In fact, he sent his secretary with her to buy a nice black dress for Friday. The workshops were about several topics including earthquake and fire-safety, but were only a few hours each day and were led by two instructors. There were about 10 other students present, girls and boys, most of whom were a little bit older than Nadia. During their free time Nadia would go with Edgar and he showed her around the campus explaining what each building was and taking pictures of her so that she could show her family later. Edgar told her that if she studied hard maybe she could attend this university and become an attorney some day - just like him.

So hopefully you've been reading this lovely story with a grain of salt. During this time, behind the scenes things went very wrong. (WARNING: The story gets ugly here, you might want to skip down a few paragraphs.) Edgar started telling Nadia stories about how when she was little she used to tell him that she wanted to be his girlfriend, and that she would hug him and kiss him on the lips. He used this story to start taking advantage of her. He told her that since she had wanted to be his girlfriend, that now that she was older she had to be his girlfriend. He said that girlfriends and boyfriends are supposed to keep secrets for each other. He started touching her, rubbing her legs, kissing her, and telling her that this is what boyfriends and girlfriends do - just ask anybody.

A few months later there was another three-day workshop at the University in the City. Again, Edgar invited Nadia to attend. This time, however, she would be staying at his apartment because his secretary could not host her. Knowing that this arrangement looked inappropriate, Edgar assured her that they would not be alone - the apartment has three bedrooms and someone else would also be coming to stay in the third bedroom, although no one ever did. That night he asked her to help him record the grades for one of his classes. He started drinking a little bit as they were working. When Nadia became tired she excused herself and went to bed. Edgar continued drinking by himself in the other room. In the middle of the night Edgar burst into her room and climbed into her bed. He told her that these were things that boyfriends and girlfriends have to do. He raped her and told her that boyfriends and girlfriends aren't supposed to tell anyone about the things that they do together. Afterwards she was bleeding. He gave her some pills to take. She didn't know what they were for so she didn't take them. She showered and eventually fell asleep crying. In the morning he was gone. He called her and told her that he had arranged for her to go home (a day early) on a shuttle. He warned her that she shouldn't tell her mother about what they had done because she wouldn't believe her anyway. When Nadia arrived home early and her mother asked her what had happened, Nadia just said that she had felt uncomfortable because Edgar had been drinking and that she wanted to come home because she had started her period early (almost a full month early).

The holiday season began and Nadia didn't have to go do her community service hours as much. During this time she avoided being alone with him. But when her 14th birthday came around, Edgar and his wife invited Nadia out for dinner and he told her that they wanted to give her a birthday present. The three of them went to dinner together, and then his wife said she had some errands to run and left separately. Afterwards Edgar took Nadia to buy her a cell phone for her birthday - saying that it was from both he and his wife. Then he told her that he had to run an errand before dropping her off at home. He drove to an area she didn't recognize and pulled into an auto-hotel, when they pulled in someone pulled the gate down behind them. He took her into a room that had a bed on it, where he raped her again, covering her head with a pillow so she couldn't scream. He told her that this was payment for the new cell phone. Afterwards he warned her again that she shouldn't tell anyone. Besides, who would believe you? I am a powerful man and you are just a little girl.


After this she avoided him at all costs. If he came to her house she pretended to be asleep in her room. She made excuses not to do her community service hours. She told her mother the workshops were boring so that she wouldn't have to go to City with him again. She was scared to tell her mother what had happened. She didn't think anyone would believe her. But after a few weeks, Nadia didn't have a choice because she was pregnant.

Now Nadia is 15 years old and has a 6 month old baby. Her mother and her sisters are supporting her, helping her with the baby, and supporting her decision to file charges against Edgar. But everyone else seems to have turned against Nadia and her family.

• Some of her family thinks that she is a disgrace to the family because she is an unwed mother.
• Her father said that they should find the man and make him marry her and take responsibility for his child.
• When they filed the complaint and the charges with the police and the prosecutor's office - someone in that office warned him so that he was able to run away before they arrested him.
• A judge arranged for his family to meet with her mother, Maribel, to negotiate. Even though negotiation is not an option in rape cases involving minors. 
• His wife and adult children have offered her money in exchange for dropping the charges.
• Several people have "volunteered" to adopt the baby. The baby which is the only proof that a rape occurred. This includes his own family and some of his colleagues.
• Even an attorney who was supposed to be helping them with their case suggested a monetary settlement even though there is an option to request monetary compensation within the criminal and civil processes. 
• Maribel believes that Edgar is hiding out in his mother's home within the city - but even though there is a warrant for his arrest the police refuse to go look for him unless she is absolutely certain he is there. 
• Nadia is afraid that someone will kidnap her baby, or do something to harm her and/or her family.

This case is heartbreaking and disheartening. In it we see all the battles faced by victims of sexual violence in Guatemala. How do you work from within a patriarchal and machista culture that blames the victim and sees no fault in the man's action, especially with a corrupt criminal justice system that encourages impunity?

But the worst part about this story... is that there is more to it. She isn't the only girl he has sexually molested or raped. He molested Nadia's older sister. He raped another young girl who ended up moving to another city with her mother and living in an apartment that Edgar pays for. Turns out that he was removed as the director of that school because someone had complained about sexual abuse, even though at the time they said it was because of problems with the staff.

I strongly suspect that he is part of a child trafficking and sexual exploitation ring, and maybe a lot of the other "well respected" people in town are in on it as well. Why? Well, granted, not all the details are in this story. But here goes:

• This is a border region where there is an especially high risk of human trafficking. 
• What kind of scholarship program has sponsors pay their student's expenses directly? And if the University and the scholarship program put together these three-day workshops why were there only 10 students? 
• Why did he take almost 25 pictures of her after buying her the new clothes?
• And that "Gala" that he bought her the dress for - apparently the students were just kind of paraded in front of a group men - it was not really a party.
• Edgar told Nadia not to say anything to anyone at the workshop, unless they directly asked her a question she knew an answer to. And Edgar kept the notebook in which she had taken notes during the workshop, supposedly because those notes could not leave the University.  

Truth is... there are several other elements that have led me, and the attorneys at MTM, to believe that there is a ring of sexual exploitation in this town. And since this guy is an attorney and is well connected - it is going to be impossible to get a fair trial locally.

:: We Hate Men ::

So after meeting with that client in Huehue you can imagine that we were all emotionally exhausted. As we sat for dinner and mulled over the details suddenly the three women from MTM start ranting about how much they hate men. Can you blame them? They see cases like this all the time. They face judges who think that filing charges for "violence against women" is a joke. The news talks about cases like that of Mindy Rojas whose husband cut off her face and left her for dead. She survived and filed charges against him, a few months later she was assassinated. They live in a country where femicide (or feminicide) and sexual violence are everyday realities. They, and probably every woman they know, have been victims of inter-familial violence. 

Mid-rant one of them turns to me and says, "I know you have a boyfriend, and maybe he's the exception. But I'm sorry. I just hate men."

And just so you know, because I know some of you are asking yourself this - No. All three of them are not Lesbians. One is Lesbian, one is Bi-Sexual, and one is Heterosexual.

But I must say, being in Guatemala really makes me appreciate the U.S. and men in the U.S. Walking down the street and being called mamacita, cachetona, linda, gordita, preciosa, etc. by men of all ages, and I mean ALL AGES, gets old really fast. As I walk down the street I size up every man I see before I determine how close I'm willing to walk when I go past him. This all makes me feel really fortunate that I've got some good men in my life. Men who are not going to take advantage of me, abuse me, or treat me as inferior or insignificant. And that I can walk down the street in Los Angeles, or Boston, without fearing that I might be targeted just because I am a woman. I have not lost faith in the opposite sex just yet.

:: You Are Missing Out America ::

This is the last part of this blog entry, I promise!

Friday I attended a workshop hosted by Project Consulting Services (PCS) about the Rights of Migrant Women. There were people, mostly women, representing organizations that work with migrant women in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. It was a small group, so everyone talked about their work as well as the conditions facing migrants, or specifically migrant women, in their countries. 

I mention this partly because it follows this week's theme. Mostly, this small group of women, and men, really impacted me. Every part of this semester in Guatemala has been a learning experience. Things like this workshop are broadening my perspective on migration as an international issue. I absolutely loved that these women from different countries were coming together to discuss how their work compliments each other's work and how they could coordinate to provide better services to this migrant population. The issues they talked about are things that inevitably have come up in the U.S. The effects of deportation on families. The causes of female migration and how it is invisible when the male migrant's experience is considered the norm. The dangers of migration for women, especially in regard to sexual violence, and sexual and reproductive health. The vulnerability of women and children to human trafficking. 

The truth is that I feel like we are missing out. Human Rights organizations in Latin American countries are reaching out to each other to build a bigger network, and the U.S. is not included. Why? Maybe its as simple as the language barrier - our information is in English and theirs is in Spanish. Or because in the U.S. the Spanish language and anything Latin American is not appreciated, and is in fact looked down upon. They are doing incredible research in the area of human rights, research that is interesting and useful because it is directly related to processes that are occurring in the U.S., but we can't access that information. The U.S. is literally building walls along its southern border, shutting its doors to Latin American immigrants. And through its increasingly nativist attitude - shutting down the opportunity for information sharing and collaboration at an international level.

Latin America is indivisible from the United States. What happens in the U.S. effects what happens in Latin America and vice versa. It is time to stop closing our eyes and pretending that if we can't see it, it is not there, or if you just ignore them, they'll go away. Grow up America. 

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Date: Sunday, Mar. 20, 2011

Days in Guatemala: 57

Date of Return to Los Angeles: May 4, 2011

Date of Return to Boston: May 18, 2011

Barbri Bar Prep Start Date: May 19, 2011

Graduation Date: May 27, 2011

California Bar Exam: July 26-28, 2011