GenderViolenceinPuertoRico-1 (1) (1)

Gender Violence in Puerto Rico
SOAN 360
Clayton-Charles dé Souza
Prepared for Professor Maria Amado
SOAN Department
Spring 2014

Abstract
This article examines Gender Violence in Puerto Rico. It investigates the different types
of violence and discrimination against women on the island-including Dating Violence. I explore
the statistics surrounding this epidemic, in addition to non-governmental agencies that combat
gender violence and promote gender equality. I also examine the laws, legalities, and legislative
reform in Puerto Rico within the context of human rights and research how Puerto Rico is looked
upon from the perspective of the United Nations and why it is not included in many programs or
its related agencies.
This article is dedicated to friend Professor Dr. Ada Alvarez Conde , and the women of
Puerto Rico, the United States and all over the world, who fight for gender equality day after
day. Partial funding for the ethnography fieldwork part of this project was made possible by the
Guilford College Bonner Center.
Keywords: Dating Violence, Ada Alvarez Conde , Gender Violence, Domestic Violence,
Puerto Rico, Male, Female, Macho, Machismo, femicide

Introduction
Countless societies in the present day still don't get why it is essential to have a dialogue
and a conversation around the topic of women's issues and respective histories. The quick reason
for that is that by learning, taking the time to study women’s experiences in the world in America
and abroad. We must also acknowledge, and value women's contributions to society in all of
their varieties then we can really talk about progress we have made throughout history. This is
why the concentration of this paper will be on some of the different ways that Puerto Rican
women have used to express philosophies, visions, creativeness, and/or offer resources that
advance education on women's issues and equality.
The reason I am writing this paper is to raise awareness of Gender-Based Violence-
especially Dating Violence in Puerto Rico as well as the rest of the United States. Puerto Rico is
an awkward position given its current long-standing political status as a U.S. Territory. Due to
the fact that Puerto Rico is neither a U.S. State or it’s own independent sovereign nation, the
reality is that the island does not receive adequate (or if at all) support and aid when it comes to
gender-related violence the U.S. Federal Government and from an international perspective from
organizations such as the United Nations and its commissions and agencies with the likes of
UNESCO, CEPAL.
I am calling attention to this issue that affects not only so many in Puerto Rico but the
contiguous United States and the rest of the world. This should not be a political issue but a
social and moral issue. The Puerto Rican government needs to have a tougher set of amended
laws on the books to ensure there is ,at the very least, a reduction in violence against females and

that there are not anymore victims of gender violence in Puerto Rico.
There are many organizations, foundations and coalitions that are aimed at fighting
Gender Violence in Puerto Rico including(but not limited to): The Puerto Rico Coalition Against
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault ( In Spanish: Coordinara Paz para la Mujer[CPM]) 1
,
Traveler’s Aid of Puerto Rico , Casa de la Bondad, Hogar Clara Lair, Hogar Ruth, Casa
Protegida Julia de Burgos, Hogar Nueva Mujer Santa Maria de la Merced and of course my case
study-Stop the Silence Foundation( Alto Al Silencio) .2 3
Literature Review
This literature review highlights index levels of dating violence among University
Students in different countries. In the United States, the National College Health Assessment
exposed that from a sample of 11,408 students from different universities, 12.1% had had sex
emotionally abusive relations, according to the American College Health Association back in
2006.4
Dr. Muñoz Rivas, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Madrid
established back in 2006 that 45 % of students of the study sample she had done came back with
the results that these student couples had disturbing facts when they were kept for a discussion
when undergoing the process; 18.8% were insulted by their significant other and 2.7% had gotten
1
Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer. http://www.pazparalamujer.org/
2
2004 National Directory of Domestic Violence Programs. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. For a
copy of this directory, please contact the main office of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence at P.O.
Box 18749, Denver, CO 80218, (303) 839-1852.
3
Conde, A. A. (2014, February 1). Inicio. loquenodije Retrieved February 1, 2014, from
http://www.loquenodije.com/
4
"American College Health Association National College Health Assessment Spring 2006 Reference Group Data
Report (Abridged): The American College Health Association." Journal of American College Health 55.4 (2007):
195-206. Abstract. (n.d.): n. pag. Print.

threats of physical aggression5
. Towering levels of violence are obvious in young relationships
with frequency ranging between 17-28 % in Mexico based on a 2006 Public Health report in the
country6
.In Venezuela in 2007, a study was performed on the cases treated in couples therapy in
college and discovered that 62 % were in violent dating relationships7
.On the island of Puerto
Rico there is a small number of studies linked to the issue of violence in a dating “courtship”
amongst university and high school students.
A study by Guenard and Jiminez (1998) investigated where sexual violence experiences
are derived from. Practicing and committing the violation of partner violence by experiencing
growing up in the home of an abusing father or mother in some cases has been a subject matter
of numerous discussions and debates in the in previous studies, literature , this paper and with
and for Ada Alavrez especially-the subject of this paper8
. The whole goal of her Stop the Silence
Foundation is to curb gender violence at a young age before the are more victims of this crime.
According to Alvarez in her 2006 book Lo Que No Dije;Alberdi and Rodriguez (2006),
the youngsters who have encountered domestic violence, may be more likely to either commit or
be a victim of violence in dating relationships as mentioned throughout this paper. Albite Velez
5
Muñoz-Rivas, M.J. (2006). Violencia contra la mujer en las relaciones de noviazgo: causas,
naturaleza y consecuencias. Ministerio de Salud y Asuntos Sociales: Instituto de la Mujer
6
Rivera-Rivera L, Allen Rodríguez-Ortega G, Chávez-Ayala R, Lazcano-Ponce E. Violencia durante el noviazgo,
depresión, y conductas de riesgo en estudiantes femeninas. Salud Pública de México. 2006;48:288–296. Retrieved
from http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/spm/v48s2/31385.pdf. [PubMed]
7
Rodríguez, A. (2007). Análisis de las acciones de control ejercidas por docentes de escuelas publicas venezolanas
ante manifestaciones de violencia escolar. En Gazquez, J.,Pérez, M., Cangas, A. y Yuste, N.(Comp) Situación actual
y características de la violencia escolar. (pp.53-57).Grupo Editorial Universitario: Almería
8
Guenard, E. & Jiménez, M. (1998). Jóvenes victima de violencia en la relación de pareja: percepción de la
violencia, patrones de crianza, escolarización y expectativas de roles en la relación de pareja en los jóvenes
estudiantes de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras, Humacao, Cayey y Utuado. Tesis inédita,
Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras, San Juan.

and Valle Ferrer debate patriarchal power and that woman are basically required to be stripped of
their aspirations for individualism once when she becomes a mother.9
These authors (Alvarez included) make a point that laying open to emotional, sexual, and
physical or neglect that many women have during their childhood, creates a spin cycle of
violence in the lives of these types of women. The authors, combined, include in their own
research and perspectives that without the mother in the picture, the daughter becomes the
‘woman of the house’.10
This shows how ‘cultural transmission’ occurs in the daughters of
Latina cultures, which is almost like an anticipatory process for their future as women and
mothers. The internalization of this cultural norm, carried by the woman becomes a
quintessential behavior. Women truly believe and internalize that they will grow to meet their
prince charming, marry and have kids, this referred to as the binding sequence for self-
realization, according to Albite Velez and Valle Ferrer.11
Studies by Vézina and Hébert back in 2007 suggest that low parental supervision and
lack of affection by the parents in one’s childhood is connected with the possibility of dating
violence ,based on these types of factors.Violence is prevalent at least one of the aforementioned
components are present in a relationship.12
Dr. (Maria) Rebecca Ward, the former Director of the
Center for Assistance to Victims of Rape (CAVV) suggests that dating violence includes a
9
Valle Ferrer, Diana, Lillian Albite Vélez, and Islia Rosado López. 1998. Violencia en la familia: una perspectiva
crítica. San Juan, PR: Ediciones de Familia y Comunidad.
10
Morales Diaz, Nayda E.; Rodríguez Del Toro, Vivian. 2012 reviews dating violence of women in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rican Journal of Psychology 23: 57-90.
11
Albite-Vélez, L. & Valle-Ferrer, D. (2003). La ideología de la maternidad en la subjetividad femenina:
Mecanismo de opresión y violencia doméstica. En L. Martínez-Ramos & M. Tamargo López (Eds.) Género,
sociedad y cultura (págs. 110-134). San Juan, Puerto Rico: Publicaciones Gaviota.
12
Murray, C.E. & Kardatzke, K.N. (2007). Dating violence among college students: Key issues for college
counselors. Journal of College Counseling, 10 (1), 79+.

consistency of threatening behavior with constant incidents of physical abuse ,such as beatings,
sexual intercourse without consent, and emotional abuse among 13 to 20 years.13
Dating violence is a serious situation affecting crucially the physical and mental health of
teenagers. Frederick and Alexy from 2005 added that dating violence is a distressing event that
can have lasting destructive repercussions for the victims.14
Women between the ages of 12-15
years seem to be the victims and it has been found that violence tends to be more common
among younger couple15
. Morales Diaz and Rodriguez Del Toro (2012) indicate that this type of
violence was identified as a social problem from rape studies in the 50’s, which discovered that
30% of the participating students in this particular study had threatened or forced sex during
dating relationships.
One of the difficulties recognized in the research on this topic is that different conceptual
definitions and parameters measure the use, resulting in a diverse set of estimates of the
magnitude of this problem, according to Rivera’s study on the Mexican public health department
as it relates to Dating Violence.
Academic work connected to the issue of attitudes and its relationship to Dating Violence
has often shown some attitudes that support violence by men against women in dating courtships
are presented.16
Price and colleagues from 1999 also added they found that kids who keep
traditional attitudes and beliefs about the roles of women, are more likely to ,regard as true ,the
13
Pérez Arroyo, M. (2002, noviembre). Noviazgo que no son color de rosa. El Nuevo Día Interactivo. Accedido en
http://www.adendi.com/archivo.asp?num=527944&year=2002&month=11&keyword=Noviazgo%20que%20no
%20son%20color%20de%20rosa
14
Frederick, A. & Alexy, E. (2005). "Dissed" by dating violence. Perspective in Pschiatric Care, 41(4), 162-171.
15
Colón Warren, A., Burgos Ortiz, N., & García Toro, V. (2006). La violencia en la relación de pareja: Estudio de
personas convictas por Ley 54. Puerto Rico: Departamento de Educación.
16
Price, L., Byers, S., & the "Dating Violence Research Team". (1999). The attitudes towards dating violence
scales: Development and initial validation. Journal of Family Violence, 14 (4), 351-375.

use of violence by the male figure. It additionally reveals that there is a relation between
attitudes with regard to physical and psychological violence and the utilization of these forms of
violence by teenage males. On top of this, both perspectives toward sexual violence and
psychological violence were linked with the use of sexual force by men. These scholars
challenge that the comprehension of dating violence is hindered by the absence of validated and
proper tools, such as age, which measures attitudes toward dating violence.
Dating Violence with young people who have experienced it as a witness in their families
growing up is associated, also reside in neighborhoods where there are high levels of violence
and social disorganization and those are highly consistent with dating violence. This isn’t just
bound to the Island of Puerto Rico. In the United States mainland, there are reported to be as
many incidents of violence in dating relationships in African Americans than in young
adolescents of other ethnicities such as Latino/a.17
Statistics
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, about everyday 52 +/-
women are victims to Domestic Violence in Puerto Rico, in 2004, there were 22,274 incidents of
DV(Domestic Violence) were reported to Puerto Rican police.18 19
In the year 2004, 85.5% of
domestic violence victims were female and that same percentage of offenders was male. 20
31
17
Johnson, S. B., Frattaroli, S., Campbell, J., Wrght, J., Pearson-Fields, A. S., & Cheng, T. (2005). "I know what
love means." Gender-based violence in the lives of urban adolescents. Journal of Women's Health, 14 (2), 172-179.
18
Oficina de la Procuradora de Mujeres. Estadísticas. http://www.gobierno.pr/OPM/estadisticasNUevo/.
19
Oficina de la Procuradora de Mujeres. Incidentes de Violencia Doméstica en Puerto Rico 1990-2004 Resumen
Estadístico. http://www.gobierno.pr/NR/rdonlyres/4996AAEA-FDA4-4162-94AA-56FF4ADAAD65/0/
INCIDENTESVIOLENCIaDOMeSTICAPR19902004.pdf.
20

women were murdered as the result of DV alone in 2004. 21
Between 2000-2004,36% of all
female murders were associated with Domestic Violence.22
With regards to studies and statistics on Domestic Violence as it correlates to depression
in Puerto Rico, the difficulty of domestic violence has been a severe kind in Puerto Rico. As said
by figures of the Puerto Rico Police Department from 2001, 17,770 complaints were recorded in
Puerto Rico back in 2001. Between the described cases, there was an overall of 55% (9,713)
consistent with abuse, of which 37% (6,542) endured corporal force, shadowed by 31 recounted
cases where a sharp weapon was used. In excess of 50% of domestic violence instances reported in
2001 transpired in the victim's dwelling with a total of 51% (9,066). Contemporary data does not
validate abundant changes in the occurrences of the great spectacle.
An epidemiological study that was done in Puerto Rico came to the conclusion that 10%
of Puerto Rican children feel mental pain from a psychiatric disorder, according to some late
1980’s research.23 24
In the midst of that cluster, 4% grieve with depression. Some research was done
in Puerto Rico designed for UNICEF on this condition of despair in Puerto Rican kids and its likely
reasons. The results exposed that 1/3rd of the adolescents possessed indicators of melancholy. It
21
Oficina de la Procuradora de Mujeres. Situación de las Mujeres en Puerto Rico. http://www.gobierno.pr/NR/
rdonlyres/8AD91B8F-8046-4D38-BDA5
C5BE0E639E93/3718/OficinadeprocurradoramujersituaciónmujeresPR.pdf. Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer. Aquí
no se tolera la violencia doméstica en el lugar del trabajo: lo que todos/as debe- mos saber acerca de la violencia
doméstica en el lugar del trabajo. http://www.pazparalamujer.org/vd-lugartrabajo.htm.
22
23
Bird HR, Canino G, Rubio-Stipec M, Gould MS, Ribera J, Sesman M, et al. Estimates of the prevalence of
childhood maladjustment in a community survey in Puerto Rico. The use of combined measures. Arch Gen
Psychiatry. 1988 Dec;45(12):1120-6.
24
Bird, H., Gould, M. S., Yager, T., Staghezza, B., & Canino, G. (1989). Risk
factors of maladjustment in Puerto Rican children. American Academy
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 847-850.

likewise discovered that 28% of the participants, (140,000 children and teenagers) admitted that they
witnessed sights of ferocity in their family units, for example “yelling and hitting”.25
This down road
can be generationally passed down and can lead these kids to Dating Violence.
On the island of Puerto Rico, violence ultimately and its expressions has been growing,
mostly amid adolescents and young adults 18 and over. Due to the fact violence touching women
takes place in all capacities, nevertheless more so at home, it is measured as a way of using
power and control in close relationships. Consequently, its expressions scope from minor verbal
or physical abuse, sexual violence, to aggravated assault and “femicide”.Latest domestic
violence statistics available for 200926
reveal 20,389 described incidents, 17 of these, 74 (84%)
of the victims were women. For instance, for the ages of the victims, 10,366 (50%) of them were
in the middle of 12-29 years old. Femicide of women in the area of domestic violence, for the
same year, 2009, expose that a whole of 17 murders, 16 were women. For the year 2010,
statistics hoarded by Ms. Veronica Rivera, President of the Women's Commission of the Puerto
Rico Bar Association publicized an aggregate of 19 murders of women under Puerto Rico Law
54 regarding domestic violence.27 28
Regrettably, up until September 9, 2011, this number elevated to 27 women killed as
journalist/periodista Maribel Hernandez indicated in her 2011 news article in the local Puerto
25
Figueroa, J. (2001, October 24). Deprimidos mas de un tercio de los jovenes Puertorriquenos [More than a third of
Puerto Rican adolescents are depressed]. Puerto Rico: El Nuevo Dia.
26
Tendenciaspr (2010) Compendio de estadísticas: Violencia en Puerto Rico, 2009, Proyecto
Tendenciaspr, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras. Available at
http://www.tendenciaspr.com.
27
Rivera, V. (2011, September). Women in Puerto Rico (discussion forum). Accessed http://www.mujeresenpr.com
28
Morales Díaz, Nayda E., & Rodríguez Del Toro, Vivian. (2012). Experiencias de violencia en el noviazgo de
mujeres en Puerto Rico. Revista Puertorriqueña de Psicología, 23, 57-90. Recuperado em 29 de abril de 2014, de
http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1946-20262012000100003&lng=pt&tlng=es.

Rico paper Primera Hora , in addition to several additional cases under police investigation to
determine if domestic violence is truly a pandemic.29
Consequently, of this upsurge in criminal behavior and crime in Puerto Rican society,
more attention to the issue of violence in the areas of adolescents and young people associated
with drug trafficking is definitely observed. Conversely, dating violence has been either ignored
or overlooked as a form of violence30
particularly in the school location.31 32 33
Therefore, that it
is important to educate our population, young, about dating abuse so that in the future do not
become victims of a vicious cycle of abuse.
The indicators suggested by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has
informed that one (1) in every eleven (11) teenagers has been the casualty of a relationship that
has contained some form of physical abuse. These statistics infer that being in an unhealthy
abusive relationship during the teenager years can have a carry-over effect once in marriage or
any type of common relationship situation. Additionally, these types of abusive relationships can
disrupt the psychologically-normal and emotional growth and can lead to other harmful
behaviors. The CDC agency has also released reports that kids who are in dating relationships of
abuse are more likely , than those who are not, to engage in risky or risky sexual acts, drug use,
heavy alcohol consumption, performing acts that lead to suicide and taking part in attacks on
29
Hernández Pérez, M. (2011, September). Madre de tres niñas es asesinada por su expareja en Aguadilla. Primera
Hora. Accessed at http://www.primerahora.com/madredetresninasesasesinadaporsuexparejaenaguadilla-
550194.html.
30
Montes, K. (2009). Nivel de conocimiento de patrones de conductas violentas y relaciones de maltrato en el
noviazgo de féminas adolescentes de 14-18 años de escuela superior (Disertación Doctoral inédita), Universidad
Interamericana, Recinto Metropolitano, Puerto Rico.
31
Theriot, M. T. (2008). Conceptual and methodological considerations for assessment and prevention of adolescent
dating violence and stalking at school. Children and Schools, 30 (4), 223-232.
32
Albizu- García, C. E. (2007). Poblaciones olvidadas: La Invisibilidad de las personas en instituciones penales. En
R. Rosa Soberal (Ed.), La Diversidad cultural: Reflexión crítica desde un acercamiento Interdisciplinario, (pp. 347-
362). San Juan, PR: Publicaciones Puertorriqueñas.
33
Nevárez Muñiz, D. (2008). El Crimen en Puerto Rico (3rd Ed.). San Juan, Puerto Rico: Instituto para el
Desarrollo del Derecho, Inc.

others or with their respective relationship partner. 343536
Given Puerto Rico’s culture, and social
environment based upon my ethnography that I explain later, this is all fitting as it correlates
with crime and poverty.
The study of Gender and Dating Violence is multidisciplinary and it has taken on and
recognized individual risk factors, such as cultural. In actuality, there are but a few studies on
violence among young couples in Puerto Rico known to begin with. Examination and
investigation has advanced recommendations and tips on the prevention of Gender Violence and
that the costs that are incurred are in the public health sector.
Dating Violence
Violence amongst couples is a problem experienced worldwide. The illnesses of gender
violence grow as there are many individuals out there who launch war-war on women
specifically. Dating Violence, however, on so many instances, has a blind eye turned on it
throughout the world, in spite of one in three women being victims of some kind of dating
34
See Peter Picard, Teen Research Unlimited, Tech Abuse in Teen Relationships Study (prepared for Liz Claiborne,
Inc.) (2007), available at http://www.loveisnotabuse.com/c/document_library/get_file?
p_l_id=45693&folderId=72612&name=DLFE-204.pdf; The Nat'l Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned
Pregnancy, 3; The Associated Press & MTV, A Thin Line: 2009 AP-MTV Digital Abuse Study, Executive
Summary 2-3 (2009), available at http://www.athinline.org/MTV-AP_Digital_Abuse_Study_
Executive_Summary.pdf.
35
Teens experience violence in their relationships at a higher rate than any other age group. Susan L. Pollet, Teen
Dating Violence Is Not ‘Puppy Love,’ 32 Westchester B.J. 29, 29 (2005). About one in three teens have been
physically, verbally, or emotionally abused by a dating partner. Antoinette Davis, The Nat'l Council on Crime and
Delinquency, Interpersonal and Physical Dating Violence Among Teens 2 (Sept. 2008), available at http://
www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/2008_focus_teen_dating_violence.pdf. In 2009, 9.8% of teens reported being “hit,
slapped, or physically hurt on purpose by their boyfriend or girlfriend” within the previous year. Danice K. Eaton et
al., Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance: United States, 2009, 59
Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Rep. 6 (June 4, 2010), available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss5905.pdf
[hereinafter CDC 2009]; Sarah Sorensen, ACT for Youth Center of Excellence, Adolescent Romantic Relationships
Fact Sheet 2 (July 2007), available at http://
www.actforyouth.net/documents/AdolescentRomanticRelationships_July07.pdf.
36
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/teen-dating-violence-2014-a.pdf

violence37
. That is essentially why my friend Ada Álvarez Conde has been dedicated to fighting
this problem so that "there is not another case." Being a product of suffering Gender Violence in
the form of Dating Violence, Álvarez Conde decided to create the Stop the Silence foundation,
the only foundation in Spanish, Latin America and the United States dedicated to offering
assistance to cases of gender violence during the dating period of a relationship “courtship”. The
dating violence issue is simply a worldwide issue. UNICEF back in 2000 warned about domestic
violence and documented that a mounting number of studies says it all about the spreading of
gender violence in all parts of the globe.38
With that, it is assessed that in the middle of 20% and
50% of women have had involvements with domestic violence, with deviations between
countries. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization in 2005 warned that between a quarter and
half of this stock has suffered physical injuries their partner is suggesting that more exposed to
domestic violence.39
In a study of gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents, youths involved in same-sex dating
are just as likely to experience dating violence as youths involved in opposite sex dating. 40
Worldwide, violence between teenagers and young couples illustrate levels of risk and danger of
an extent greater to that of adult couples41
. Similarly, Kury Obergfell , Fuchs and Woessner in
2004 reported that young are subjected to violent attacks that older women, especially within the
European Union42
. A 2008 clinical health study found that both bullies and victims tend to be
young adults between 18 and 30. Additionally, studies with adolescent couples gay and lesbian
37
Davis, Antoinette (2008). "Interpersonal and Physical Dating Violence among Teens". The National Council on
Crime and Delinquency Focus.
38
Domestic Violence against Women and Girls. Florence, Italy: Innocenti Research Center, UNICEF, 2000. Print.
39
WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women: Initial Results on
Prevalence, Health Outcomes and Women's Responses: Summary Report. Geneva: World Health Organization,
2005. Print.
40
Halpern, C. T., Young, M. L., Waller, M. W., Martin, S. L., & Kupper, L. L. (2004). Prevalence of partner
violence in same-sex romantic and sexual relationships in a national sample of adolescents. Journal of Adolescent
Health, 35(2), 124-131. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2003.09.003
41
Jackson, S. M., Cram, F., & Seymour, F. (2000). Violence and sexual coercion in high school students' dating
relationships. Journal of Family Violence,15 (1), 23−36

reported that about a quarter of them had experienced violence in their relationship.43
Gender role identity is an associated dating violence risk.44
It is recognized that teenagers
who have a conventional gender identity, especially emotional excitability and dependent
relationships, could be risky for experiencing abuse. Due to the breadth of spaces and forms of
violence, they are various terms are used to refer to Dating Violence, such as: domestic violence,
violence in itself, violence against women and gender violence. In the end, we acknowledge that
violence and violent relationships are constructed and learned socially and culturally from home
and institutions (school, church, media, etc.)
45
42
Kury, H., Obergfell-Fuchs, J., & Woessner, G. (2004). The Extent of Family Violence in Europe. A Comparison
of National Surveys Violence Against Women, 10 (7), 749-769
43
Echeburúa, E., Fernández-Montalvo, J., y Corral, P. (2008). ¿Hay diferencias entre la violencia grave y la
violencia menos grave contra la pareja?: un análisis comparativo. International Journal of Clinical and Health
Psychology, 8 , 355-382.
44
Conference Program: 3rd National Sexual Violence Prevention Conference: Building a Leadership and
Commitment to End Sexual Violence. S.l.: Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 2004. Print.
45
Dr. Ada Alvarez’s book lo que no dije (2006)

46
Image taken from the blog Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres.
Stop the Silence foundation
As a teenager Alvarez became the first author and novelist of her respective country
(Puerto Rico is neither a state nor foreign country however) to write and successfully publish a
book before her 16th birthday, which arose from an assignment of a newspaper she interned,
contributed and volunteered for. She took the liberty of interviewing several women in battered
women’s shelter victims of domestic violence in Puerto Rico, which inspired the character of
Isabel, the protagonist of the novel, who is the embodiment of three of the women interviewed.
Lo Que no Dije, the title of the novel, became for Ada in "the first step to feel how
liberating it was to talk, things get system “invites aggression not silent as it ensures that "silence
is often granted and we must combat violence. "
"It took me a long time to understand that peace does not mean submission and silence"
Ada advises young people who are victims of dating violence will not shut up since according
often explains the problem are not those who abuse but victims who decide silent about the
46
Notes from the blog site: “In 2013, the Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres (Women's Broad Movement) painted a
mural with the intention of creating awareness of gender-based violence. In 2010, the municipal government of San
Juan, then under the administration of mayor Jorge Santini, ordered the work to be stopped and imposed fines on
some of the women. With the recent change in administration, the municipal government has accepted that the
prohibition was unconstitutional, thereby permitting the completion of the mural.”

attack.47
Dating and Gender-based violence remains, miserably, the one-thing that mentally and
emotionally ‘rapes’ many women of their emotional and psychic security, comfort and welfare,
and their lives every day. That is why Álvarez Conde unequivocally wanted to launch a non-
profit that would aid, educate, and inform teenagers and college-aged females and males about
D.V. (what I will refer to Dating Violence as for the sake of this paper), a topic infrequently
conversed about in Puerto Rico. Fundación Alto al Silencio48
(Stop Silence Foundation) arranges
and manages assemblies of talks in schools all over the island of Puerto Rico to generate
consciousness and collects resources from from place to place and online on its webpage, blog49
,
and Facebook page50
that just does not simply offer materials, facts, evidence on the warning
signs of a harmful relationship and how to get emergency assistance, nonetheless furthermore it
provides data, news updates, legal statutes in place( or currently pending legislation) and a
training program for other persons engrossed and want to get involved. Álvarez Conde
shares how the basis of the foundation was crafted:
“I began the initiation of the foundation training to over 150 people at the Annual
Convention of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, where there are people from
all 50 states who work with victims and are in charge of shelters for women between other
community programs. Fundacion Alto al Silencio is the first organization dedicated to
addressing the issue of dating violence (signals, healthy relationships, self-esteem, and
community organization) in Spanish and having the Latino community as the main focus.”
47
Ada Alvarez Conde is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Turabo in Puerto Rico, a freelance
journalist, Activist and Legislative Aide for Puerto Rico Senator María Teresa González.
48
"Inicio." Loquenodije. Web. 05 May 2014. <http://www.loquenodije.com/Home_Page.html>.
49
"Lo Que No Dije." - La Coctelera. Web. 05 May 2014. <http://loquenodije.lacoctelera.net/>.
50
https://www.facebook.com/FundacionAltoAlSilencio

The foundation started with over 150 people receiving training at the yearly Convention
of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, where there are people representing all 50
states that work with victims and charged with the tasks of running shelters, in addition to the
community programs. As mentioned, it is the first known foundation that handles and specialized
in dating violence, with regards to noticeable signs, healthy relationships, self-esteem issues,
community organizations, etc., in Spanish and with the Latino/a demographic as its chief focus.
The Stop the Silence Foundation has a blog on the Internet www.loquenodije.com with
more than a quarter million visits/hits from people who in some way or another looking for
information on this epidemic.51
A study locally in Puerto Rico, a total of 1,112 young people between the ages of 12 to
19 years experienced violence in their relationship, as well as 3,220 youth ages 20-24 years.
Similarly, 87% of high school girls reported incidents of violence, psychological abuse being the
most common.
52
51
Stop the Silence Foundation
52
Alto Al Silencio/Stop The Silence Foundation logo

One of the talks offered by Fundación Alto al Silencio in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, to 200 students. 53
Ada Alvarez Conde
Alvarez’s body of work includes campaigns in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic
regularly. Her work, activism and her published book Lo Que No Dije prompted her, to move to
Miami upon completing her studies at the University of Puerto Rico to attend Graduate School,
to see what the trends of dating violence were in the schools of Miami-Dade and Broward
Counties in South Florida where there are large Hispanic/Latino populations. This was a part of
her graduation thesis at Florida International University. Among the activities through her
foundation, she gives talks in schools where there are large numbers of young people in dating
relationships with over 280 talks in seven years concentrated. She has also added a bonus to her
foundation by training people to be like her and give talks to communicate with others "to take
53
Courtesy of Stop the Silence Foundation/Ada Alvarez Conde

action against this evil and that it will not die with me but will continue until the problem is
eradicated," she explains.54
54
Majority of quotes from Ada Alvaarez are compiled from conversations with the Professor herself and articles on
websites and blogs

SHAPE * MERGEFORMAT
55
Courtesy of Ada Alvarez
55
Taken from Primera Hora(Puerto Rico) May 2, 2014

In order to combat violence Alvarez dared to suggest legislation that addresses this
problem. She has authored two bills which was given to the Puerto Rico Senate with the
assistance of her boss and Head of the Commission of Women Senator Meri Tere Gonzalez.
As Alvarez always alludes ,like in her book and many interviews or just in plain talk,
authorities sometimes try to minimize the consequences and possible dangers that can exist in
gender violence in dating and that those involved are "boys" and that they are immature and too
young to prosecute; "how many cases of murderers and no abusers in schools and universities, "
she indicates , "Many problems that mix are reflected, disbelieved, fundamentalism, but
discarded danger or discriminate by age" . Therefore to fix this, she says, is to do this by way of
public policy, and especially lobby for laws that help account for the problem.
As a journalist Alvarez advocates that professionals be dedicated to covering the news of
GBV (Gender-Based Violence) and therefore should be trained on how to address the issue of
GBV as "a journalist with the education on gender impacts readers and helps change the system
", for many times "their words reflect machismo and sexism without looking (on purpose) and
justifies the crimes. No crime is justifiable, “She says.
In her fight against dating violence Alvarez says sometimes violent behavior education is
influenced by culture, "I've seen lately that violence is so into the houses, on the street, in society,
in politics, making it more difficult to eradicate because it is becoming almost as normal.”
With her struggle to combat violence, Álvarez visits the Dominican Republic frequently
where she gives talks and presentations on the topic at hand. She recently traveled there back in
the fall of 2013 and participated in the Conference on Women in Latin America and the

Caribbean dedicated to the technologies under the ECLAC - Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean; Alvarez then again returned to the country on November 29th where
she gave a talk that was part of a theater festival dedicated to the prevention of violence. She
recently as of May 2014 has been awarded and recognized by the country’s government on her
works combating violence.
Male Masculinity Culture
The use and connotation of the Spanish expression machismo, used by social scientists to
explain a cultural phenomenon, needs to be carefully considered in any study of Latino
populations' gender roles. 56
Even though machismo universally is looked at as a distinctive observable fact of
Hispanic/Latino way of life, researchers furthermore have used this word to illustrate male
gender roles in a multiplicity of non-Latino cultures57
. Besides, the behaviors and mindsets
coupled with machismo have been made known to differ from corner to corner in Latin
American regions, ethnic groups, social classes, age groups, and stretches of time58 59 60
.The
apparatus of machismo are much better looked at as results of the affiliation linking masculinity
and power than as a distinctive Latino cultural characteristic. The collective understanding of
56
Machos and Sluts: Gender, Sexuality, and Violence among a Cohort of Puerto Rican Adolescents. Marysol W.
Asencio .Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Mar., 1999), pp. 107-126
57
Conference program: 3rd National Sexual Violence Prevention conference: Building a leadership and
commitment to end sexual violence. (2004). S.l.: Department fo Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
58
Andrade, A. R. (1992, 12). Machismo: A Universal Malady. The Journal of American Culture, 15(4), 33-41. doi:
10.1111/j.1542-734X.1992.1504_33.x
59
Deyoung, Y., & Zigler, E. F. (1994, 12). Machismo in two cultures: Relation to punitive child-rearing
practices. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 64(3), 386-395. doi: 10.1037/h0079532
60
Thompson, W.N. (1991). Machismo: Manifestations of a cultural value in the Latin American
casino. Journal of Gambling Studies, 7(2): 143–164.

Latino traditional gender roles, on the other hand, is profoundly subjective by the concept of
machismo, so much so that young latinos/as in many cases frequently use the term loosely to
make clear the cause of many of the not-so-good Latino male teenager behaviors, including
dating violence.
The notion of machismo entails male dominance and female “bowing down to” and be
‘Senoritas’ at an early age, which is both a source of pride and oppression 61 62
. The male figure
may put forth power and control by the use of physical violence. Physical and verbal aggression
is viewed and perceived as a justifiable expression of masculinity63
. These type of maled, from
my observation, will not do anything that would appear to be ‘equal’ or ‘feminine’, such as
myself writing this paper on this topic. Machismo also involves a sense of immunity, bravery,
and admiration from the peers. One can attest this all has to do with upholding the patriarchal
customs in their respective societies and be seen as a man by even their female counterparts and
family members.
Supposedly, to be considered a "macho," a man ought to hold all the basics mentioned in
this paper. In whichever certain population of Latino males there are, still, the basics described as
machista may perhaps be different in scale or be lacking. Latino males may contribute to
different male roles, principles, and additional types of masculinities; which for that reason, the
social, political, and/or economic forces that add to any practical machista behaviors (in
61
Burgos, N. M. & Diaz Perez, Y. I. (1985). La sexualidad: Análisis exploratorio en la cultura puertorriquena.
[Sexuality: An exploratory analysis in the Puerto Rican culture] Río Piedras: Centro de Investigaciones Sociales.
62
Villanueva, Maria Isabel Isabel Martino. (1997). "Review of Literature." (Pages 85). In: The Social Construction
of Sexuality: Personal Meanings, Perceptions of Sexual Experience, and Females' Sexuality in Puerto
Rico. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
URL: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-13514459731541/unrestricted/DISSER1.PDF
63
Zaitchik, M. C., & Mosher, D. L. (1993, 12). Criminal Justice Implications of the Macho Personality
Constellation. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 20(3), 227-239. doi: 10.1177/0093854893020003001

particularly, Gender or Dating violence) minimally cannot be dismissed as natural or exclusively
entrenched in the Latino/Hispanic culture 64 65
.
Initially put out in Spanish in 1993, “What it means to be a man: reflections on Puerto
Rican Masculinity” highlights Rafael Ramirez’s investigation of power,and masculinity, among
Puerto Rican men as well as centers on four main points: “deconstruction of the term
machismo”; “study of the meanings of masculinity”; “exploration of what it means to be a Puerto
Rican male”; and “el ambiente”, otherwise known as the homosexual community in Puerto
Rico.66
Respectively, the four issues are individually appearing as though they are of a single
chapter, and the final chapter talks about the creation of a new “manliness” kind of masculinity.
Ramirez, an Anthropology Professor at the University of Puerto Rico, settles that the procedure
of a change to this is a trial that previous academics have not figured out, nevertheless he fails to
propose his own solution. Based on current research in Puerto Rico and the United States, his
conclusions are vital with the big Puerto Rican community in this country. Even though
Ramirez’s research efforts deal with a thin topic, his paperback is a noteworthy influence to
ethnic sociology.
Puerto Rican-born writer Esmeralda Santiago in her 1998 book “Almost a Woman”
writes about how she had left Puerto Rico during what her mother or “mami” referred to a
“critical stage” in her life. Her Mami told her friend Minga that a girl her age at the time (teenage
64
Peña, M. (1991). Class, gender and machismo: The "treacherous-woman" folklore of
Mexican male workers. Gender and Society 5 (1), 30-46.
65
Rodriguez, M. A., & Brindis, C. D. (1995). Violence and Latino youth: Prevention and methodological
issues. Public Health Reports, 110(3), 260-267.
66
Ramírez, Rafael L., and Rosa E. Casper. What It Means to Be a Man: Reflections on Puerto Rican Masculinity.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1999. Print.

years where Dating Violence is prevalent) should be watched by her mother and protected from
men who were sure to take advantage of a child in a woman’s body. 67
Data collection
Case-Study: Emblematic of inner-city San Juan circa 2014
During Marysol W. Asencio’s( 1999) 3 year study of low-income, predominantly second-
generation, mainland Puerto Rican adolescents, her report included results that describe how
these adolescents, via the use of gender-based social constructs for example "machos" and
"sluts," and how that justifies violence by connecting it to beliefs about gender roles, sexuality,
and biology, and consequently continuing the Latino gender-role traditional values, mainly
heterosexual male dominance. The discoveries say that if the public health community is going
to decrease gender-based violence among Puerto Rican youth, it is essential to admit that gender
and sexuality are important elements that maintain violence and avoid a shortened and
stereotypical model of a culture that disregards other social factors and changes in customary
Latino gender roles. 68
In this study, the females did not reveal that they were carrying weapons.
67
Santiago, Esmeralda. ""I don't care what American girls do"." In Almost A Women. New York, NY: Perseus
Books Group, 1998.
68

They said that weapons would not protect them that and that if they behaving right and were
always with a boyfriend, which that alone offered them more protection from inner-city crime.
Oddly, these same young women identified their boyfriends as a major source of violence. They
spoke about the "slight" arguments with their boyfriends that resulted in “slaps, bruises, and
occasional beatings in the study”.
The juveniles in the study well-structured their reasons for “macho-ism” by saying that
the women had gotten pregnant and that thus made the females more inclined to be nurturing,
monogamous, less sexually motivated, less violent, and in need of male protection.69
The male
figures were viewed as “biologically” incapable of controlling their desires (including sexual
desire, anger, and jealousy), and that leads to attraction to violence. The more '’macho" a male
was supposed to be, the further these characteristics were inflated. Moreover, teenagers related
greater non-positive consequences (e.g., un-planned pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases,
AIDS, bad reputation) with womanlike sexual behavior than with masculine sexual behavior.
Like with any culture, there was a double standard that had and has been in existence for males
and females. When a female's sexual behavior was similar to that of a male’s, she is/was branded
as a "slut," "whore," or putita ("a little whore").Punishment for putita’s ranges from verbal abuse
to physical abuse.
Ethnography
69

For my ethnography portion of the project, I chose to study the life in San Juan, Puerto
Rico from a female perspective; the hometown of my friend Ada Alvarez Conde. The main focus
of this ethnography is to observe the environment and atmosphere of gender in the city and how
it relates to this paper; to see how much masculinity plays a role in Latin American societies. The
“macho”ism is very real as i mention in this paper. My observations spanned about 5 days from
March 27-March 31 of this present year of the paper. I spent the majority of the time alongside
my friend Alvarez to see how all of this can be interpreted academically.
While I was in Puerto Rico, Alvarez was in the midst of production of a documentary that
she is apart of. The production was about the history of women in Puerto Rico. She endured a lot
of sexism in her dealings with the production because she is a woman, she claimed. This was
emblematic of everything that is contained in her book Lo Que No Dije. The sexism that she
endured was the result of simply having a difference of opinion in a production meeting that took
place while I was there. She had reported to me that she was practically yelled at in a pretty
condescending way. This can all tie back to the masculinity theories mentioned here.
I can certainly see that masculinity complex is ‘for real’ out in Puerto Rico. When you
look at women walking up and down the streets and they have at least kid with them and the fact
the female is probably a mother, it speaks to the existing culture that is prevalent in so many
Latino communities in the United States and the world. You see the paternalistic mentality in
many mainland communities, such as the Bronx, New York; Los Angeles, Ca, to name a couple
of places. When I was in effect ‘interviewing’ Alvarez, she tells me of how in many instances
she is the victim of sexism over and over again as the result of being a feminist activist.
Due to her activism, she receives a lot of praises and criticisms. One of the “perks” was
she gets free parking at a parking garage near the institution she attends as the owner is aware of

her work. On the other hand, she gets labeled “crazy liberal” or “radical feminist”. In a society,
such as Puerto Rico that has this patriarchal aura, one woman, like Alvarez, becomes the object
or subject of spite and ridicule.
Alvarez’s activism includes frequent travels to the Dominican Republican as well as
other international travels.
This all correlates with how the male macho masculinity mentality is prevalent as it relates
to Gender Violence and Dating Violence. Ada Alvarez had said that when she went to the police
when she tried to seek help from the police when she was seeking a protection order from her ex-
boyfriend, she was laughed at basically because they thought that it was just “boys” being boys”.
Other groups that combat GV in Puerto Rico
Coordinator Peace for Women, Inc. (CPM) is a nonprofit organization that was formed in
October 1989, and was officially incorporated in 199770
, for academics, activists, researchers,
government officials alike to wipe out domestic violence. It was created to tackle the problem of
domestic violence and gender discrimination in Puerto Rico. Presently, the CPM mixes an
association of 27 organizations against domestic violence and sexual assault that involves
liaisons from the rural mountain area of Puerto Rico to the metropolitan area of the island.
CPM's mission is to provide community education, and support to survivors of domestic and
sexual violence programs and service organizations for battered women; their children and
survivors of sexual assault, as I pieced together from the website and through additional research.
This is another example of how grassroots movements and governmental agencies, in particular:
La Oficina de la Procuradora de las Mujeres (Women’s Advocate Office (WAO)) work together
70
http://www.pazparalamujer.org/

and independently towards the goal of obliterating Gender violence and discrimination against
women on the island. The efforts and work are products of the WAO of Puerto Rico directed by
Maria D. Fernos and Marta Mercado Sierra.71 72
Paz Para de mujer73
Gender Violence on a global level(as it relates from a UN perspective)
The lobbying movement to make aware of gender-based violence as a human rights
violation is a fairly up to date global development.74
The General Assembly of the United
Nations, not until 1985, released the first resolution on domestic violence. Followed by, in 1989,
71
Montes, K. (2009). Level of knowledge of patterns of violent behavior and abusive relationships in dating teenage
females 14-18 years of high school (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation), Interamerican University, Metropolitan
Campus, Puerto Rico.
72
Morales, Diaz, M. and Rodriguez's Toro, V. Experiences of dating violence Puerto Journal of Psychology Vol 23,
2012.
73
Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer,Inc
74
See generally Dorothy Q. Thomas & Michele E. Beasley, Domestic Violence as a Human
Rights Issue, 58 alB. l. rEv. 1119 (1995). See also ECLAC Women and Development
Unit, Nieves Rico, Gender-Based Violence: A Human Rights Issue (June 1997), available
at http://www.eclac.cl/mujer/noticias/paginas/9/27409/genderbasedvioilence.pdf.

the United Nations put out a report on Violence Against Women in the Family, which led to a
swing in the international legal landscape.75
This story was essential for more than a few reasons.
First of all, it is imperative to look at and study the rate(s) of domestic violence or other
Gender-related crimes in Puerto Rico to better realize, comprehend, and ‘get’ the costs of
violence against females. In a 2003 analysis, Puerto Rico was discovered to contain the sixth
highest rate of ‘femicide’ per one million citizens among fourteen countries in North, Central
and South America, and was revealed to possess the seventh highest rate globally.76
Moreover,
when that same research looked at the rates of femicides done by partners or ex-partners, Puerto
Rico maintained the next to first highest percentage rate at 14.81% partner femicides per one
million women over a period of fourteen years.77
On the island of Puerto Rico, which is about the size of the state of Connecticut (if you
include the islands of Vieques and Culebra which are off the coast), the test is to fight a high
domestic violence rate, at the same time as too doing your best to rise above the vast economic,
social, and cultural barriers that obstruct the abolition of violence and discrimination against
women. The violence in Puerto Rico is accelerated when you have about 100,000 territory
citizens are living rough, destitute and on the streets and 45% live below or at the bread line
level, many of whom are women.78
So which comes or came first the chicken or the egg in this
situation? Nonetheless, there is a growing norm in international law to be liberated from
75
United Nations Office at Vienna, Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs,
Violence Against Women in the Family, u.n. doc. st/csdHa/2, u.n. salEs no. E.89.iv.5
(1989).
76
José San Martín, Centro Reina Sofía: Para El Estudio De la Violencia, 2nd international report,
Statistics and legislation: partner violence against women 30–31 (2003), available at http://
www.centroreinasofia.es/informes/11Informe.pdf.
77
Roure, Jodie G. "Gender Justice in Puerto Rico: Domestic Violence, Legal Reform, and the Use of International
Human Rights Principles." Human Rights Quarterly 33.3 (2011): 790-825. Print.
78
Teresa Zarcone-Pérez, Working to Address Poverty in Puerto Rico, EQUAL JUSTICE MAGAZINE , Spring
2005, at 20, available at http://ejm.lsc.gov/EJMIssue8/povertyinpuertorico.htm; see also Alice Colón Warren, The
Feminization of Poverty Among Women in Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican Women in the Middle Atlantic Region of
the United States

tremendous and universal forms of domestic violence and other Gender Violence types I
consider like Dating Violence.79
International laws and doctrines set forth by agencies like the
U.N and its subsidiary specialized agencies such as UNESCO (United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization)and CEPAL (Comisión Económica para América Latina)
have brought about awareness of violence against women and have also increased changes in
domestic violence reform. Nation states that are able to endorse and ratify principles and rule of
this type can gain from the procedures in place. Puerto Rico is also in awkward position due to
its political status, and therefore cannot really perform out international law. However, it could
form its own policies and ideologies after these types of laws and bring into play international
law as a reference point for existing or future legislation within the territory.80
Political Status
Puerto Rico is still looked at as unequal in regards to implementing international human
rights treaties and conventions.It must rely on the United States as a whole to represent its
interests and make the most of its voting abilities within United Nations. Due to this, Puerto
Rico’s state status has created barriers to incorporate international law.
Puerto Rico’s barrier to adopt international law is particularly noteworthy with regard to
Gender Violence. Puerto Rico’s colonial status has been and continues to be a matter of
79
See General Recommendation No. 19: Violence Against Women, U.N. GAOR, Comm. on Elim. of Discrim.
Against Women, 11th Sess., at 1, U.N. Doc. A/47/38 (1993) (interpreting CEDAW to denote the norm that gender-
based violence is a violation of women’s fundamental human rights). See also Bonita Meyersfeld, Domestic
Violence, Health, and International Law, 22 Emory Int’l L. Rev. 61, 63, 77–91 (2008); Katernine M. Culliton,
Finding a Mechanism to Enforce Women’s Right To State Protection from Domestic Violence in the Americas, 34
Harv. Int.’l L.J. 507, 526 (1993) (noting that “[a]lthough the Women’s Convention, the Optional Protocol, and
customary human rights law establish norms requiring each state to respect women’s rights as human rights, only
the Inter-American system provides a practical means for enforcement of such rights.”).
80
Statement of Act No. 20 of 11 Apr. 2001, available at http://www.gobierno.pr/NR/rdonlyres/2AD3788A- 6075-
44BA-8103 1B28E26E4882/0/LeydelaOficinadelaProcur adoradelasMujeres.pdf, which directly references
CEDAW. See also EFRÉNRIVERARAMOS, THE LEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY: THE JUDICIAL
AND SOCIAL LEGACY OF AMERICAN COLONIALISM IN PUERTO RICO(2001).

Global, national and, of course, local debate. “Puerto Rico has a serious issue on data because
of our political position. We are not always included in research because we are not part of the
United Nations, and sometimes people assume the US is doing research there, and we are lost
in trying to define what we are exactly, US, Caribbean, Latin America, which is I need to point
out the need of data of Puerto Rico from Puerto Rico and taking into consideration its people
and culture” as noted by Alvarez back in December at a UNESCO conference. She also adds:
“But I will address UNESCO one particular detail: CULTURE (and with that gender and
media). Our flag, our tradition, our language, our patrimony and our history has a cultural
independence and identity that is very different from the passport I carry on my purse. With this
I kindly suggest and ask, that we are included in future conferences on gender and media
regardless if I’m here, I want a sit for my people, and I kindly ask you, all officials and all
governments to request that Puerto Rico becomes an active member with its own voice in
UNESCO.”81
Women in Puerto Rico have also taken a preventive advance in incorporating pre-existing
human rights values to expand protections in the course of the legislative process. Although there
have been such setbacks that are there to hinder many human rights shields, including the right
for women to liberated from violence, women have indeed been on the island mobilizing.
Therefore, an assessment of the processes that women and grassroots organizations have gone
through, in spite of the Commonwealth’s failure to approve international law, is critical. The
passages of Law No. 54 and Law No. 20, 7982
,which produced domestic violence legal reform
and protection for women and men similarly, in addition to the creation of the Women’s
81
Ada Alvarez Conde at the UNESCO Conference on Gender back on December 2, 2013. These notes were
personally forwarded to me for review before she spoke on panel of Gender Violence in Puerto Rico in Taiwan.
82
P.R. laws ann. tit. 1, §§ 311–29 (2001), available at http://www.gobierno.pr/NR/
rdonlyres/2AD3788A-6 075-44BA -8103 1B28E26E4882/0/LeydelaOficinadelaProcuradoradelasMujeres.pdf.

Advocate Office, which provide examples of such progress of domestic violence legislation,
prevention efforts, and reform in Puerto Rico.83
Future Research
I would like to explore this issue more in the contexts of a legal, criminal theory, political
and business perspectives and not just from a historical, cultural, anthropological or sociological
one. Puerto Rico’s political status will continue to have impacts on laws that protect women and
girls on the island but an understanding of the criminal theory behind the aggressors, such as the
men folk will provide a greater explanation behind the culture of Puerto Rico. I would also like
to look at the legalities regarding the laws and statues on the books in Puerto Rico in regards to
violence against women, including Law 54. I also want to look more into the Puerto Rico Police
Department and see more about the cases and complaints against the agency such as the ACLU’s
investigation inside them and how that affects women in urban San Juan. Finally, I want to see
about promoting a worldwide marketing campaign to spread more awareness about dating
violence not just in Puerto Rico, but also in Latin America and throughout the world utilizing
‘Cause Marketing’ techniques. This study of Gender Violence is truly multidisciplinary as there
are so many angles to look at in this case.
Conclusion
83
Roure, Jodie G. "Gender Justice in Puerto Rico: Domestic Violence, Legal Reform, and the Use of International
Human Rights Principles." Human Rights Quarterly 33.3 (2011): 805. Print.

I am calling attention to this issue that affects not only so many in Puerto Rico but the
contiguous United States and the rest of the world. This should not be a political issue but a
social and moral issue. The Puerto Rican government needs to have a tougher set of amended
laws on the books to ensure there is ,at the very least, a reduction in violence against females and
that there are not anymore victims of gender violence in Puerto Rico. In conclusion, I am
convinced that legislation to prevent and protect against dating violence is necessary, but be
careful to do so via separate legislation and within it must see the differences when it comes to
courtship between minors and adults when that time comes. I find that this is not clear and
requires more weight.
I commend and appreciate the efforts made by Ada Álvarez Conde, who is truly an expert
on this topic and advised her voluntarily about this project for the purpose that we have a more
equitable society in the world.

References/Referencias
2004 National Directory of Domestic Violence Programs. National Coalition Against Domestic
Violence. For a copy of this directory, please contact the main office of the National Coalition
Against Domestic Violence at P.O. Box 18749, Denver, CO 80218, (303) 839-1852.
Albite-Vélez, L. & Valle-Ferrer, D. (2003). La ideología de la maternidad en la subjetividad
femenina: Mecanismo de opresión y violencia doméstica. En L. Martínez-Ramos & M. Tamargo
López (Eds.)
Albizu- García, C. E. (2007). Poblaciones olvidadas: La Invisibilidad de las personas en
instituciones penales. En R. Rosa Soberal (Ed.), La Diversidad cultural: Reflexión crítica desde
un acercamiento Interdisciplinario, (pp. 347-362). San Juan, PR: Publicaciones Puertorriqueñas

"American College Health Association National College Health Assessment Spring 2006
Reference Group Data Report (Abridged): The American College Health Association." Journal
of American College Health 55.4 (2007): 195-206. Abstract. (n.d.): n. pag. Print.
Andrade, A. R. (1992, 12). Machismo: A Universal Malady. The Journal of American
Culture, 15(4), 33-41. doi: 10.1111/j.1542-734X.1992.1504_33.x
Antoinette Davis, The Nat'l Council on Crime and Delinquency, Interpersonal and Physical
Dating Violence Among Teens 2 (Sept. 2008), available at
http:// www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/2008_focus_teen_dating_violence.pdf.
Bird HR, Canino G, Rubio-Stipec M, Gould MS, Ribera J, Sesman M, et al. Estimates of the
prevalence of childhood maladjustment in a community survey in Puerto Rico. The use of
combined measures. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1988 Dec;45(12):1120-6.
Bird, H., Gould, M. S., Yager, T., Staghezza, B., & Canino, G. (1989). Risk
factors of maladjustment in Puerto Rican children. American Academy
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 847-850.
Bonita Meyersfeld, Domestic Violence, Health, and International Law, 22 Emory Int’l L. Rev.
61, 63, 77–91 (2008)

Burgos, N. M. & Diaz Perez, Y. I. (1985). La sexualidad: Análisis exploratorio en la cultura
puertorriquena.[Sexuality: An exploratory analysis in the Puerto Rican culture] Río Piedras:
Centro de Investigaciones Sociales.
Colón Warren, A., Burgos Ortiz, N., & García Toro, V. (2006). La violencia en la relación de
pareja: Estudio de personas convictas por Ley 54. Puerto Rico: Departamento de Educación.
Conde, A. A. (2014, February 1). Inicio. loquenodije Retrieved February 1, 2014, from
http://www.loquenodije.com/
Conference program: 3rd National Sexual Violence Prevention conference: Building a
leadership and commitment to end sexual violence. (2004). S.l.: Department of Health and
Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer. Aquí no se tolera la violencia doméstica en el lugar del trabajo:
lo que todos/as debe- mos saber acerca de la violencia doméstica en el lugar del trabajo.
http://www.pazparalamujer.org/vd-lugartrabajo.htm.

Danice K. Eaton et al., Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior
Surveillance: United States, 2009, 59 Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Rep. 6 (June 4, 2010),
available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss5905.pdf [hereinafter CDC 2009].
Davis, Antoinette (2008). "Interpersonal and Physical Dating Violence among Teens". The
National Council on Crime and Delinquency Focus.
Deyoung, Y., & Zigler, E. F. (1994, 12). Machismo in two cultures: Relation to punitive child-
rearing practices. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 64(3), 386-395. doi:
10.1037/h0079532.
Domestic Violence against Women and Girls. Florence, Italy: Innocenti Research Center,
UNICEF, 2000. Print.
Dorothy Q. Thomas & Michele E. Beasley, Domestic Violence as a Human
Rights Issue, 58 alB. l. rEv. 1119 (1995).
Echeburúa, E., Fernández-Montalvo, J., y Corral, P. (2008). ¿Hay diferencias entre la violencia
grave y la violencia menos grave contra la pareja?: un análisis comparativo. International
Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 8 , 355-382.

ECLAC Women and Development Unit, Nieves Rico, Gender-Based Violence: A Human
Rights Issue (June 1997), available at
http://www.eclac.cl/mujer/noticias/paginas/9/27409/genderbasedvioilence.pdf
EFRÉNRIVERARAMOS, THE LEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY: THE JUDICIAL
AND SOCIAL LEGACY OF AMERICAN COLONIALISM IN PUERTO RICO(2001).
Figueroa, J. (2001, October 24). Deprimidos mas de un tercio de los jovenes Puertorriquenos
[More than a third of Puerto Rican adolescents are depressed]. Puerto Rico: El Nuevo Dia.
Frederick, A. & Alexy, E. (2005). "Dissed" by dating violence. Perspective in Pschiatric Care,
41(4), 162-171.
General Recommendation No. 19: Violence Against Women, U.N. GAOR, Comm. on Elim. of
Discrim. Against Women, 11th Sess., at 1, U.N. Doc. A/47/38 (1993) (interpreting CEDAW to
denote the norm that gender-based violence is a violation of women’s fundamental human rights)
Género, sociedad y cultura (págs. 110-134). San Juan, Puerto Rico: Publicaciones Gaviota.
Guenard, E. & Jiménez, M. (1998). Jóvenes victima de violencia en la relación de pareja:
percepción de la violencia, patrones de crianza, escolarización y expectativas de roles en la
relación de pareja en los jóvenes estudiantes de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río
Piedras, Humacao, Cayey y Utuado. Tesis inédita, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río

Piedras, San Juan.
Halpern, C. T., Young, M. L., Waller, M. W., Martin, S. L., & Kupper, L. L. (2004). Prevalence
of partner violence in same-sex romantic and sexual relationships in a national sample of
adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 35(2), 124-131. doi:
10.1016/j.jadohealth.2003.09.003
Hernández Pérez, M. (2011, September). Madre de tres niñas es asesinada por su expareja en
Aguadilla. Primera Hora. Accessed at
http://www.primerahora.com/madredetresninasesasesinadaporsuexparejaenaguadilla-
550194.html.
Jackson, S. M., Cram, F., & Seymour, F. (2000). Violence and sexual coercion in high school
students' dating relationships. Journal of Family Violence,15 (1), 23−36
Johnson, S. B., Frattaroli, S., Campbell, J., Wrght, J., Pearson-Fields, A. S., & Cheng, T. (2005).
"I know what love means." Gender-based violence in the lives of urban adolescents. Journal of
Women's Health, 14 (2), 172-179.
José San Martín, Centro Reina Sofía: Para El Estudio De la Violencia, 2nd international report,

Statistics and legislation: partner violence against women 30–31 (2003), available at http://
www.centroreinasofia.es/informes/11Informe.pdf.
Katernine M. Culliton, Finding a Mechanism to Enforce Women’s Right To State Protection
from Domestic Violence in the Americas, 34 Harv. Int.’l L.J. 507, 526 (1993) (noting that
“[a]lthough the Women’s Convention, the Optional Protocol, and customary human rights law
establish norms requiring each state to respect women’s rights as human rights, only
the Inter-American system provides a practical means for enforcement of such rights.”).
Kury, H., Obergfell-Fuchs, J., & Woessner, G. (2004). The Extent of Family Violence in Europe.
A Comparison of National Surveys Violence Against Women, 10 (7), 749-769.
Machos and Sluts: Gender, Sexuality, and Violence among a Cohort of Puerto Rican
Adolescents. Marysol W. Asencio .Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 13, No. 1
(Mar., 1999), pp. 107-126
Montes, K. (2009). Level of knowledge of patterns of violent behavior and abusive relationships
in dating teenage females 14-18 years of high school (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation),
Interamerican University, Metropolitan Campus, Puerto Rico.
Montes, K. (2009). Nivel de conocimiento de patrones de conductas violentas y relaciones de
maltrato en el noviazgo de féminas adolescentes de 14-18 años de escuela superior (Disertación

Doctoral inédita), Universidad Interamericana, Recinto Metropolitano, Puerto Rico.
Morales, Diaz, M. and Rodriguez's Toro, V. Experiences of dating violence Puerto Journal of
Psychology Vol 23, 2012.
Morales Diaz, Nayda E.; Rodríguez Del Toro, Vivian. 2012 reviews dating violence of women
in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican Journal of Psychology 23: 57-90.
Muñoz-Rivas, M.J. (2006). Violencia contra la mujer en las relaciones de noviazgo: causas,
naturaleza y consecuencias. Ministerio de Salud y Asuntos Sociales: Instituto de la Mujer
Murray, C.E. & Kardatzke, K.N. (2007). Dating violence among college students: Key issues for
college counselors. Journal of College Counseling, 10 (1), 79+.
Nevárez Muñiz, D. (2008). El Crimen en Puerto Rico (3rd Ed.). San Juan, Puerto Rico: Instituto
para el Desarrollo del Derecho, Inc.
Oficina de la Procuradora de Mujeres. Estadísticas.
http://www.gobierno.pr/OPM/estadisticasNUevo/.

Oficina de la Procuradora de Mujeres. Incidentes de Violencia Doméstica en Puerto Rico 1990-
2004 Resumen Estadístico. http://www.gobierno.pr/NR/rdonlyres/4996AAEA-FDA4-4162-
94AA-56FF4ADAAD65/0/ INCIDENTESVIOLENCIaDOMeSTICAPR19902004.pdf.
Oficina de la Procuradora de Mujeres. Situación de las Mujeres en Puerto Rico.
http://www.gobierno.pr/NR/ rdonlyres/8AD91B8F-8046-4D38-BDA5
C5BE0E639E93/3718/OficinadeprocurradoramujersituaciónmujeresPR.pdf.
Peña, M. (1991). Class, gender and machismo: The "treacherous-woman" folklore of
Mexican male workers. Gender and Society 5 (1), 30-46.
Pérez Arroyo, M. (2002, noviembre). Noviazgo que no son color de rosa. El Nuevo Día
Interactivo. Accedido en http://www.adendi.com/archivo.asp?
num=527944&year=2002&month=11&keyword=Noviazgo%20que%20no%20son%20color
%20de%20rosa
Peter Picard, Teen Research Unlimited, Tech Abuse in Teen Relationships Study (prepared for
Liz Claiborne,Inc.) (2007), available at
http://www.loveisnotabuse.com/c/document_library/get_file?
p_l_id=45693&folderId=72612&name=DLFE-204.pdf
P.R. laws ann. tit. 1, §§ 311–29 (2001), available at http://www.gobierno.pr/NR/
rdonlyres/2AD3788A-6 075-44BA
81031B28E26E4882/0/LeydelaOficinadelaProcuradoradelasMujeres.pdf.

Price, L., Byers, S., & the "Dating Violence Research Team". (1999). The attitudes towards
dating violence scales: Development and initial validation. Journal of Family Violence, 14 (4),
351-375.
Ramírez, Rafael L., and Rosa E. Casper. What It Means to Be a Man: Reflections on Puerto
Rican Masculinity. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1999. Print.
Rivera-Rivera L, Allen Rodríguez-Ortega G, Chávez-Ayala R, Lazcano-Ponce E. Violencia
durante el noviazgo,
Rivera, V. (2011, September). Women in Puerto Rico (discussion forum). Accessed
http://www.mujeresenpr.com
Rodríguez, A. (2007). Análisis de las acciones de control ejercidas por docentes de escuelas
publicas venezolanas ante manifestaciones de violencia escolar. En Gazquez, J.,Pérez, M.,
Cangas, A. y Yuste, N.(Comp) Situación actual y características de la violencia escolar. (pp.53-
57).Grupo Editorial Universitario: Almería
Rodriguez, M. A., & Brindis, C. D. (1995). Violence and Latino youth: Prevention and
methodological issues. Public Health Reports, 110(3), 260-267.
Roure, Jodie G. "Gender Justice in Puerto Rico: Domestic Violence, Legal Reform, and the Use
of International Human Rights Principles." Human Rights Quarterly 33.3 (2011): 790-825. Print.

Teresa Zarcone-Pérez, Working to Address Poverty in Puerto Rico, EQUAL JUSTICE
MAGAZINE , Spring 2005, at 20, available at
http://ejm.lsc.gov/EJMIssue8/povertyinpuertorico.htm; see also Alice Colón Warren, The
Feminization of Poverty Among Women in Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican Women in the Middle
Atlantic Region of the United States
Santiago, Esmeralda. ""I don't care what American girls do"." In Almost A Women. New York,
NY: Perseus Books Group, 1998.
Sarah Sorensen, ACT for Youth Center of Excellence, Adolescent Romantic Relationships Fact
Sheet 2 (July 2007), available at
http://www.actforyouth.net/documents/AdolescentRomanticRelationships_July07.pdf.
Statement of Act No. 20 of 11 Apr. 2001, available at
http://www.gobierno.pr/NR/rdonlyres/2AD3788A- 6075-44BA-8103
1B28E26E4882/0/LeydelaOficinadelaProcur adoradelasMujeres.pdf, which directly references
CEDAW.

Susan L. Pollet, Teen Dating Violence Is Not ‘Puppy Love,’ 32 Westchester B.J. 29, 29 (2005).
About one in three teens have been physically,verbally, or emotionally abused by a dating
partner. Antoinette Davis, The Nat'l Council on Crime and Delinquency, Interpersonal and
Physical Dating Violence Among Teens 2 (Sept. 2008), available at
http://www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/2008_focus_teen_dating_violence.pdf.
Tendenciaspr (2010) Compendio de estadísticas: Violencia en Puerto Rico, 2009, Proyecto
Tendenciaspr, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras. Available at
http://www.tendenciaspr.com.
The Associated Press & MTV, A Thin Line: 2009 AP-MTV Digital Abuse Study, Executive
Summary 2-3 (2009), available at http://www.athinline.org/MTV-AP_Digital_Abuse_Study_
Executive_Summary.pdf.
Theriot, M. T. (2008). Conceptual and methodological considerations for assessment and
prevention of adolescent dating violence and stalking at school. Children and Schools, 30 (4),
223-232.
Thompson, W.N. (1991). Machismo: Manifestations of a cultural value in the Latin American
casino. Journal of Gambling Studies, 7(2): 143–164.
United Nations Office at Vienna, Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs,

Violence Against Women in the Family, u.n. doc. st/csdHa/2, u.n. salEs no. E.89.iv.5
(1989).
Valle Ferrer, Diana, Lillian Albite Vélez, and Islia Rosado López. 1998. Violencia en la familia:
una perspectiva crítica. San Juan, PR: Ediciones de Familia y Comunidad.
Villanueva, Maria Isabel Isabel Martino. (1997). "Review of Literature." (Pages 85). In: The
Social Construction of Sexuality: Personal Meanings, Perceptions of Sexual Experience, and
Females' Sexuality in Puerto Rico. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University. URL: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-
13514459731541/unrestricted/DISSER1.PDF
WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women: Initial
Results on Prevalence, Health Outcomes and Women's Responses: Summary Report. Geneva:
World Health Organization, 2005. Print.
Zaitchik, M. C., & Mosher, D. L. (1993, 12). Criminal Justice Implications of the Macho
Personality Constellation. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 20(3), 227-239. doi:

GenderViolenceinPuertoRico-1 (1) (1)

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (13)

Similar to GenderViolenceinPuertoRico-1 (1) (1)

Similar to GenderViolenceinPuertoRico-1 (1) (1) (20)

GenderViolenceinPuertoRico-1 (1) (1)