River Currents

ELL essay by
BLANCA ESTELA Chávez-León

“She was only six years old. Her mother and siblings got on the bus
full of people to go home. Inside the bus, everything was dark, just a little light
on the board of the bus driver. No seats were available. Her mother was near her. Suddenly, she started to feel a hand on her leg. She doesn’t know what is going on. His hand is little by little going up. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t react. He raises the elastic on her underwear. She doesn’t know but, in this moment, she felt a lot of fear. The bus stopped and her mother took her hand because they arrived at home. She felt safe and she told her mother what happened in the bus. Her mother began to scold her. Actually, she doesn’t blame her mother because she felt fear for her daughter but this little girl assumes this was her fault. The dragons began to appear.”

For hundreds and hundreds of years, many women have endured the stigma of being a woman around the world and suffer gender-based violence, and Mexico is not an exception. This country has 65 million women aged 1 to 50 years who live in a culture where the men have been in power for a long time. After a long journey, many women have won thrones in different fields and, like Daenerys Targaryen, they have had to cut the chains, be mothers of dragons, and be a storm to defend their integrity based on constant struggles. On the other hand, millions of them continue to suffer humiliation in a Mexican culture where men’s power tends to overwhelm them. 

Mexico has had a regrettable theme that indicates that gender-based violence persists, and it has intensified in recent years, causing multiple injuries to women. Sexual assaults and domestic violence severely impact women’s emotional health. To eradicate these pitiful issues, it is necessary and urgent that the Government of Mexico, school institutions, parents, and men seriously address these issues.

Sexual assault is one of the most recurrent injuries that women receive in Mexico in a context where there are around 65 million women in the country. The Respond and Care Center defines sexual assault as any form of unwanted sexual activity without that person’s consent. Without consent, having sex is an assault. For hundreds of years, the men have dominated our society. The word “man” implies controlling your body, thoughts, and movements. This theme continues in Mexico; it has become a nightmare for women. The list of sexual assaults that women receive begins with touching in the middle of the street’s day or night, verbal obscenities, men showing their genitals to children and young girls, sexual harassment at their work, and horrible rape—to name a few. Unfortunately, for all women from Mexico, this assault has increased exponentially. The “National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationship” reports that from 2011 to 2015, “63% of women suffered some kind of violence, be it physical, sexual, emotional, or financial.” Those numbers were greatly exceeded in Mexico in the second semester of 2019, where 6 million of them were sexually assaulted, according to the Civil Organization Mexico Evalùa in Infobae, and 99% of them were not reported. We ask: why do women not report these assaults? The Justice Department in Mexico does not seriously attend to these cases, and women who decide to report these assaults are revictimized. This is the reason that a lot of women decide to raise their voices and protest in many states of Mexico against perpetrators who cause them vexations and humiliations. However, in a lot of protests occurring in 2020, police officers arrested many of them. These police officers then assaulted the women by touching them and controlling them, causing the women to be very fearful. Some of the women disappeared and weren’t seen again. For all of these atrocities, the Mexican government must admit them and enforce the law and respect the civil rights of every woman in Mexico. Institutions must provide more personal dedication to attend to all victims of these crimes. They must follow up to investigate who these criminals are and have them incarcerated. 

Another problem with the sexual abuse that needs to be resolved is that parents should strengthen the confidence of these women and support them in reporting any act of sexual assault at all times. It is important to highlight that, in 1981, Mexico adopted the International Commitment in Human Rights. In 2013, Mexico ratified the International Commitment in Human Rights, saying it is committed to preventing and eliminating violence against women, according to Carmen Manaute in Mexico Case Study: Steps on the Pathway to No Impunity. Sexual assault is a social issue that we need to eradicate. 

 “She was 16 years old, and for the first time, she fell in love with her first boyfriend. It all started like a joke when he knew she would see her friends the next day. He started with pinches on her arms because he knows she will wear a sleeveless top. Both arms were covered with bruises. The episodes of jealousy appeared a few months later. The going out with friends had to end. She could only go out with him. Three years later, he asked her to marry him. She doesn’t want it, but whenever she decides to break up with him, the outbursts of anger are escalated. After months of marriage, the only friend she had left invited her to eat. She arrived home at 6 p.m. The screams and threats began. She only saw the clenched fist directly in front of her face, and in this moment, she thought that would be her end. Once again, she thinks it was her fault.”

Domestic violence is another social issue where one’s partner abuses to maintain control. That has affected women for several years in Mexico, and it flared up in 2020 as a consequence of the pandemic. According to the compilation of The UN Refugee Agency called Mexico: Domestic violence, “Domestic violence is defined as an ‘act of abuse of power or of intentional omission that is intended to dominate, subjugate, control, or attack women in a physical, verbal, psychological, economic, property-related or sexual, whether within or outside the family home … ‘” These acts of power prevailed for many years in Mexico until women began to work to help with the household economy. Many of them became professionals in different fields, acquiring economic independence. In some way, men felt attacked because they lost total control and couldn’t dominate.

Another issue that contributes to the increase in domestic violence against women is toxic substances. Alcohol, drugs, and aggressive behavior are factors that lead to women suffering from gender-based violence. Berenice Fernandez Nieto in Data-Pop Alliance, indicates that, in 2016, 1 in 3 women were attacked by their partners, and according to the information collected by Mexican institutions, surveys indicate that the number increased during the pandemic because the perpetrators stayed home with their victims. Women should not have to endure these experiences of violence because they deserve, like any human being, to enjoy a life free of brutality any place they want to go: home, street, school, work. Like men, they should feel free and secure everywhere they go. This social issue is provoked by men, and for that it is a man’s issue. This problem needs to be resolved and prevented by the Mexican government because these women are citizens of Mexico. They should have the right to freedom from violence, and our leadership should put forth more effort in ordering that the actions dictated by the laws be carried out.

On the other hand, like we said, it is a man’s issue. Jackson Kats, in her speech “Violence Against Women” talks about how we can change the characteristics of men of power and privilege. Like all these victims, their shame is in their silence. Thus, Kats insisted that men break the silence and talk about any negative comments to damage women. He argues that men are accomplices of future perpetrators. Kats also added that society needs moral leadership to encourage our sons, young men, and brothers to break the silence and to defend and stand with women and not against them because this is the only way to eradicate or dwindle this social issue. We need to reinforce that parents must have the responsibility to educate their children to eradicate gender-based violence. Victims of domestic violence experience pain both in their nightmares with the pain in their bodies, and also the pain of hiding the shame in silence. All these struggles drag them down for many years, which causes serious problems in their emotional health. 

 “She was 21 years old and had damage in her spirit and soul.
She tried to find someone to love her differently but the story never ended like she dreamed it would one day. In appearance, she was a normal woman
without wounds, but inside, she suffered alone. Anxiety, depression, and low self esteem covered her body. Nobody knew about the struggles in her past.
This deep feeling of fear and shame kept her from moving forward.
Then one day, a bad thought crossed her mind.” 

This severe social issue affects women’s emotional health both during and after their relationship with their perpetrators. Gender-based violence not only leaves scars on a woman’s body that can probably be covered with make-up. The hidden scars are more dangerous for her; they are in her mind. Depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and suicidal thoughts are part of this emotional illness, not to mention how difficult it becomes to have another relationship. All of this is part of the trauma that women will need to recover from. Another problem that leads to depression is when women start to use alcohol or drugs to try to forget their pain. These substances increase the risk of making a sad decision like suicide. These women can ask for help from Mexican civil or government institutions. Unfortunately, government health institutions like IMSS, ISSTE, and General Hospital have many patients and few doctors. An added inconvenience is that these institutions can’t recognize when women have one of these disorders when they go a medical consultation. Henales-Almaraz et al., in their article “Clinical of Guide of Psychological Intervention of Women with Gender Violence,” suggest that doctors will pay attention to women in hospitals with injuries in their bodies or when they have an appointment for a routine visit. It‘s important to maintain the secrecy of the patient so she won’t be violated again by her perpetrator. Also, these women need group therapy to allow them to speak and confront their problems as well as to help them recover their self-esteem. Mexican government institutions should pay attention to identifying and helping these women recover because they deserve better, but the reality is different. The majority of women who decide to report to police stations usually don’t receive help, especially for their emotional health. It is mandatory that Executive, Legislative and Judicial departments keep safe, obey the law, and be empathetic with all women who go through these heartbreaking moments in their lives.

“It took her several years to come out of her inner sadness. At one point of her life everything took another meaning. She said with all her vehemence: Stop! Not anymore! She started to get control of her life, control of the dragons. She started to be the storm. She started to cut chains.” 

As can been seen above, gender-based violence is a very serious problem in Mexico. It has affected women around the country for many years. With the appearance of the pandemic, violence against women increased exponentially and with the problematic sexual assaults, domestic violence, and emotional health issues, it became a world of women in vulnerable situations. These women deserve to live a life free of violence; otherwise, the sum of missing, dead, outraged, and emotionally unstable women will continue to appear as one more statistic in Mexico. It is urgent that the Mexican government protect and help all women who at the time have denounced and raised their voices to defend themselves. In addition, schools and health institutions must be prepared to recognize when women have signs of gender-based violence and can offer immediate help. Sexism can disappear and we can help to stop it. All of us are part of this problem in the moment that we give permission to someone else to vilify a woman. If we can fight together, I know this social issue can decrease and all the wounded and lacerated women will return and will be reborn just like Daenerys Targaryen: to the mother of dragons, to be the storm, and to be the one who cut the chains to reinvent herself. 

Works Cited 

“About Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence.” Assault Response & Care Centre of Leeds and Greenville, Grenvill Community Futures Development Corp and Feddev Ontario, http://www.arc-c.ca/about-sexual-assault–domestic-violence-c27.php 

Fernandez Nieto, Berenice. “Domestic Violence in Mexico in Times of Covid-19,” Data-Pop Alliance, 23 Apr. 2020. datapopalliance.org/domestic-violence-in-mexico-in-times-of-covid-19/.

Henales-Almaraz, Ma, Consuelo, et al. “Clinical of Guide of Psychological Intervention of Women with Gender Violence,” Perinatol Reprod Hum, 2007, inper.mx/descargas/pdf/Guiaclinicadeintervencionpsicologicademujeresconviolenci adomestica.pdf. 

Katz, Jackson and TEDxFiDiWomen. “Violence Against Women—It’s a Men’s Issue,” TED, TED Conferences, Nov. 2012, http://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_katz_violence_against_women_it_s_a_men_s_issue?langu age=en. 

Manaute Oliva, Carmen. “Mexico Case Study: Steps on the Pathway to No Impunity.” Leitmotiv, file:///C:/Users/xilux/Downloads/Annex%201.4.%20Mexico%20Case%20Study.pdf 

“Mexico: Domestic Violence; COI Compliation.” European Country of Origin Onformation Network, Astrain Red Cross, http://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/972471/download#:~:text=define%20domestic%2 0violence%20as%20a,19 

“National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationship.” Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia, August 2017, en.www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/programas/endireh/2016/doc/endireh2016_prese ntacion_ejecutiva.pdf 

“The Bleak Panorama of Abuse against Women in Mexico: 99% of Rapes Go Unaddressed.” Infobea, 22 January 2020, www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2020/01/23/el desolador-panorama-de-los-abusos-contra-la-mujer-en-mexico-el-99-de-la-violaciones no-se-atienden/