Yo También: Latinx Survivors of Sexual Violence Reclaim Their Stories
Amy Hill
By Rosanna Conforme, Violence Intervention Program, Inc.
I want to tell the world that immigrant Latinx survivors of child sexual abuse are not broken. That the secrecy that surrounds sexual abuse will not silence us forever. That regardless of the cultural and systemic barriers that limit us, we will find our voices and collectively heal. We will reclaim our bodies and sexuality, achieve liberation and transformation, and dismantle the deeply-rooted systems of oppression, domination, and exploitation that allow sexual abuse to continue.
– Excerpt from “Mi Niña,” Rosanna’s digital story
Child sexual abuse—a horrific form of sexual violence—is a widespread and persistent problem that frequently goes unreported. Children are vulnerable, unable to advocate for their own interests or protect themselves from harm. Levels of language fluency and education, and limited access to mental health and wellness services, can limit survivors’ help-seeking behaviors. Many Latinx immigrant victims, families, and parents, in particular, may delay disclosing child sexual abuse because they face challenges with acculturation, are struggling to learn a new language, fear their immigration status will be jeopardized, or are economically strained. Children who do not feel safe to disclose or seek help may suffer from long-term physiological and psychological effects, and often become more susceptible to intimate partner and sexual violence as adults.
The Violence Intervention Program (VIP), Inc. understands that we have to address child sexual abuse by naming, defining it, and understanding it; that these are all crucial aspects of breaking the silence and denial. We must also develop effective and collaborative educational and criminal justice responses that ensure the accountability of adults and institutional systems that impact children’s lives. This must include training and awareness raising about the fact that Latinx communities are not a monolithic group. Instead, we must deconstruct the intersecting roles that race, gender, class, national origin, religion, immigration status, political violence, and family violence in various Latin American countries play in perpetuating child sexual abuse in our communities.
In the summer of 2019, Violence Intervention Program (VIP), Inc. collaborated with StoryCenter to conduct a three-day intensive training for VIP staff, who learned about technologies for developing digital stories, and acquired skills for engaging survivors to share on these platforms. Staff were guided through a complete media production process, from conceptualizing a story, to gathering images, to creating their own digital stories. The immersive training was powerful, in that it gave participating staff an opportunity to experience the healing process of creating their own digital narratives, each documenting one person’s powerful story.
StoryCenter shared their expertise, guidance, and facilitation techniques, and led important discussions about ethical considerations for planning workshops with survivors. This training prepared VIP to roll out a new project called “Yo También,” which offered Latinx survivors of sexual violence the opportunity to reclaim their experiences, create their own narratives about the complicated relationships between lived oppression and sexual trauma, build storytelling skills, embrace self-healing, and raise their voices against sexual violence. VIP staff supported survivors while they wrote their scripts; gathered and took photos and video clips to illustrate their work; and uploaded these materials to the cloud-based editing app WeVideo, which they used to construct short videos. The survivors who participated in “Yo También” told stories that helped them unpack their experiences of sexual violence with their peers and connect these experiences to the larger movement to end gender-based violence.
After the training and follow up workshop, VIP staff shared their videos with colleagues and some of their closest loved ones. The training workshop offered them an opportunity for self-reflection, remembrance, and self-admiration and compassion. The survivors that VIP worked with shared their videos with their children and other trusted loved ones, and came away from the storytelling experience with the realization that everyone has a story to tell, and that each person is best suited to control how, what, when, and with whom they share their experiences.
Learn more about how your organization can collaborate with StoryCenter.