Childhood Stressors

When my cousins (3 brothers) were little, they experienced poverty and violence. They were raised by their mom….my aunt because their father abused my aunt. Eventually, she left him and moved into a battered women’s home with her three boys. They grew up in public housing, on food stamps and Medicaid. The county we are from, “takes care” of women in need from domestic violence situations. The battered women’s shelter paid her apartment’s security deposit and application fee, as well as, gave her a cell phone. In Mexico, a woman dealing with domestic violence is dealt with a little differently. According to Ruiz, “the failure of authorities to deal seriously with domestic violence places Mexican women in grave danger and indeed enables their assailants, often giving the abuser a virtual license to kill without fear of legal consequences” (2001). “Organizations which have tried to promote gender equality in the Yucatan have proved ineffective against domestic violence, due to bureaucratic ineptness and the fact that most people are unaware of their existence or purpose. Despite their best efforts they’ve been unable to change Mexican cultural and social attitudes about male-female relationships” (Ruiz, 2001).