UNITED STATES
Prensa Latina
By Federico Martínez, La Prensa Contributor
The call arrived late afternoon: A 15-year-old Latina in Toledo had been brutally, sexually assaulted. She was suffering from severe trauma and to make the situation more challenging, she didn’t speak English.
Jessica Torres-García, whose job as an outreach coordinator for the YWCA of Northwest Ohio’s H.O.P.E. Center is to try and help sexual assault victims in the Latino community, rushed out of her office to meet the victim and her mother at a local hospital.
“When I get to the hospital I’ll talk to the victim and her mother to find out what happened,” said Mrs. Torres-García, who notes Lucas County, lacks trained bilingual health care providers and law enforcement officials. “I will serve as a translator for the police and hospital staff.”
Mrs. Torres-García will also make sure the victim and her mother are aware of their legal rights, what community resources are available to them and if they desire, she’ll accompany them to follow up doctor visits and help them fill out police reports. There is also a women’s shelter at the YWCA.
According to national figures only 40 percent of all rapes are reported to law enforcement. Incidents of rape are even less likely to be reported in the Latino community. Lucas County does not record the number of Hispanic women who are sexually assaulted. Those statistics only include categories for white and black people. …
“There’s still such a stigma to sexual assault in the Latino community,” said Mrs. Torres-García. “Religion plays a role in it – the Catholic Church puts an emphasis on being pure so if a woman gets raped they are often too embarrassed or ashamed to tell anybody.
“Victims tend to turn to family members,” said Mrs. Torres-García, but most rapes are conducted by family members and relatives, so there is often pressure by the family to keep quiet.
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