Domestic Violence

Today I got the chance to chat a bit with one of the women who cleans the centro, A. She actually lives here in the building with her boyfriend (who's the security guard) and her two daughters. The girls are cute and always say hi to me every morning when I come through the gate into the school yard. This morning she was in the room where the sewing workshop is held sweeping out the dust and leaves that had blown in overnight (there is an insane amount of dust that blows around all the time here, getting into everything). I had heard that she might be moving, so I asked her about it. She said that for the past year, she's been having problems with Doña Esmeralda who says she doesn't want her to work here anymore. From what I see every day, A works harder than most of the staff. She wakes up early in the morning to fill up the barrels of water and sweep out the office and internet cafe. I don't even know everything she does, but she is responsible for cleaning everything, including the school yard, washing dishes, running little errands, keeping the dust under control, etc. She also helps take care of the building at night.

In any case, she told me how she was married to Doña Esmeralda's nephew for 9 years (the father of the girls). He treated her badly... coming home drunk, hitting her, threatening her, yelling at the girls. She used to run to Doña Esmeralda's house in the middle of the night for protection. Once, he followed her and cut her with a knife. Finally, she left him and Doña Esmeralda said she could live here at the centro. The dude apparently has threatened to kill her a number of times. I don't completely understand why D. Esmeralda wants her to leave and was seemingly angry with her, but A said she has nowhere to go if she can't live here... She doesn't even have the wood and metal to build herself a room to live in (people's homes here in the barrio generally start with whatever pieces of wood or other material that can be bought or found). I think I'm going to look into what DV services there are here, just to know what people's options are when they get into similar situations... I just don't have any idea...