By Josiane Martinez, Latino Program Coordinator
Juan and Crystal had plans to get married. One day he,
his partner and their children came home from church. He
started an argument after she refused to go with him to
a friends house. She told him she was tired. He became
angry and insisted. She told him that she wasn't going
to marry him. He increased his tone of voice and started
to break all the items that they both bought for the
wedding. She went to stop him and he pushed her causing
her to fall and strike her ribs on a chair. He stated
that their children were present during his violent
acts, crying and worrying about their mothers
condition. Juan knows that he can be deported as a
result of this case of domestic violence. He states he
doesnt care and that if he gets deported he will come
back again as many times as needed.
Like Juan many immigrants come every year to this
country in search of their own particular American
Dream. A dream and a hope to escape from poverty,
disease, repression, civil war, hunger and so on. Some
of them come legally. Some of them come very young,
following a parent; often a single mother who came here
previously. Some of them leaving their families in their
homeland and thinking that the separation will last one
or two years and then they will reunify. That by coming
here they will be able to send money home, their
children will be able to study, eat better and that all
around it will be a better situation.
Unfortunately the crude reality for immigrants like Juan
is that they end up working long hours a day to comply
with their obligations. In most cases under paid, with
no access to basic services like education or health
care. In terms of abusive relationships, men like Juan
not only bring with them their desire to have a better
life, but their respective baggage of how to treat their
partner and children.
Fortunately the Latino program of Emerge, founded on
1985, makes batterer intervention more accessible and
relevant to Latinos and other underserved populations.
Since people from Latin America are composed of more
than 20 Spanish speaking countries that represent an
immense and diverse human group, language is the most
appropriate tool to accesses the differences between a
Colombian, a Peruvian, a Dominican, a Puerto Rican, etc.
Another important distinction is that not all Latinos
are immigrants, approximately 64% of Latinos living in
the United States were born in the US and Puerto Rico.
These kinds of distinctions between a person like Juan
and a legal immigrant or perhaps one born and raised in
the US make Latino groups full of varied experiences
that the counselor should be aware of. We try to avoid
falling into the machismo generalization that Latinos
are uniformly machistas. No other term has been more
associated with Latinos or with Latino culture than
machismo.
We explore machismo and we make distinctions between
those aspects of the machismo that support the family,
like being honest, taking care of the family, being an
example for the children and acting romantically toward
their partner. We focus and refer clients to other
agencies for self care issues like learning English as a
second language, health care, substance abuse or
learning about immigration laws.
We acknowledge discrimination and the struggle that many
Latinos have gone through when coming to the US,
however, we encourage our participants to assume
responsibility beyond the discrimination they face. We
teach Latino men how to develop empathy toward their
partner and children by reflecting with them on their
own experience of racial and cultural oppression.
Furthermore we let them all know that we believe they
CAN change if they want to do so.
Emerge offers this opportunity to change by way of its
flexible approach to abuser education. The core first
stage group, comprised of eight group sessions, is
adapted to Latino cultures and we encourage discussion
about the differences in beliefs that occur for
different countries. The program becomes a way to
discuss the use of the Spanish language as we explore
how language can be used in a respectful or
disrespectful manner.
In the second stage, Emerge group sessions provide the
ability to focus on creating a group family atmosphere
where each group member plays a role. This becomes an
excellent opportunity to create motivation for group
members to become responsible partners and parents.
Group members become interested in helping each other as
well as in making changes in their own hurtful behavior
toward their family.
On the Emerge discussion forum (described in the article
below), we will be using the "culturally specific
components" section to continue to describe specific
interventions as well as to answer questions and learn
more from others doing this work. We want to make this
an opportunity to discuss these and other topics and
create an environment where we can all work together to
end domestic violence.
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June 2006
