Keeping Them Safe: Interview with Norma Cruz of Fundación Sobrevivientes (Survivors Foundation)

November 13, 2015
I first heard about the work of Fundacion Sobrevivientes (Survivors Foundation) from our translator of Equipo Forense Interdisciplinario's Cristian Silva's thesis on Gender-based Violence in Guatemala. The Organization was created by Norma Cruz and her daughter Claudia Maria Hernandez Cruz who were first hand victims of rape within the home. We were honoured to hear her story.

Arriving at Fundacion Sobrevivientes (Survivors Foundation), the door was answered by an armed security guard since their facilities and the women that seek help  have been under death threats from their abusers. We walk into the waiting room where there are men, women and children waiting to be assisted by reception. Norma personally greets us and we head upstairs. We sit down at a round table, Cristian introduces us and I am allowed to film, as we ask her questions and she shares her stories of how her organization came to be.

Norma pushed to created the organization after finding out her own daughter had been abused.  When asked if she could share her personal experience about her daughter, she hesitated but did begin to tell the story.

Guatemalan artist depicting the Civil War

At the age of 6, she had lost her parents, and at 6, you have to mature fast. She was born and grew up during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996). It was during the course of her studies that she learned and witnessed the corruption and impunity of not justice. She explains, that "education is quite important here or else you are not fully aware of how to effectively work to reducing corruption”. As a student at 19,  she witnessed the burning of the Spanish embassy and the loss of many of those she worked with at the Catholic Church. Then there was the Rios Mont military coup, which forced her to go in exile in Nicaragua. In 1985, Claudia was born. Then in 1988 she decided  it was safe enough to return to work with the church again to work on human rights issues. Her and her partner decide to part ways as he wanted to stay in Nicaragua. She started building her new life with a new partner, a well known political figure.

By  1999,  Claudia was 15. Here in Guatemalan culture, turning 15 is a big celebration for a girl. As Norma describes it as a parent, "It is something you live up to, prepare for", but she began to notice Claudia did not care about turning 15. Norma kept insisting that all her friends cannot wait to be part of it.But then on her special day, all she said was "All I want is to die." Claudia's step father had been sexually abusing Claudia while Norma was not around.

As Norma explains,  we all make up our minds in how we perceive or see things. When Claudia told her, Norma, at first, did not want to believe it but she knew she needed to confront both her daughter and the father.

Even today, people choose to blame Norma, for leaving her alone during her active work in stopping the injustice. She begins to tear up here, but only for a moment. She is so strong. She remembers that after her father died,  she promised herself  to never leave her children alone.

"Violence and abuse we knew was around us, army violence, abuse of governments,  but did not fully realize that I could  find violence in my own home. I  was totally new to the violence that comes inside your home." The most frightening thing was that before finding out, she had been seeking assistance and help for Claudia's depression. All the available psychologists would say or diagnose that what she needed was more discipline. No one could 'figure out what was wrong' with Claudia or at least open to the options of parental rape and abuse. Instead. they were blaming both of them.

Once again nobody knew what to do in this case, especially when the partner was a well known figure. There was no expert in the country who would or could deal with the case. Finally, a lawyer from Colorado specialized in PTSD came to her said she was going to solve this case. Norma barely scraped by but she managed in increments to pay. She had found out in that time that Claudia had been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Norma realized too, her son would feel the effects of this family trauma so she decided to work with him too. They did eventually get their case recognized and he was given 30 years in prison. Unfortunately, he only ended up serving 4 years of the 30, and still has power in politics.

The organization sprouted from these experiences. Norma knew that if this had happened in her family that there must be countless others in the similar situation. So alongside a media blitz  and teaching herself about these matters she was able to begin incorporating and training others in the similar situations on how to deal with therapy, and steps towards justice in prosecuting the perpetrator or abuser.

Before it was officially a foundation, it was an association of victims and survivors. But to create and sustain an association you need to make money, and the government had no interest providing funding. So for years she would work a separate job, at lunch she would knock on doors and talk with victims, and from 7-10 do workshops, seven days a week. On weekends she started doing workshops in rural areas where she received some extra money. By then Claudia had another boyfriend. In his little car, they would help move victims from place to place such as the Public Ministry. And not just women, came to her association. Norma had started talking to men who had lost their daughters to violence and murder. At the beginning, they asked how they could provide their service while many of them had other responsibilities, families , jobs that would limit them from coming. What about evenings  and weekends? They would need the facility to be always  open. They would need to ensure, comfortable, safe,  and flexible hours for whole families. For you "cannot just deal with one victim.” They would then need to start providing, legal support. “You are suddenly dealing with victims of a crime, so you need psychiatrists, lawyers. And that is when Canadians did a lot of work for us. You need enough witnesses or else you have lost your case. This is when we sought for techniques to prosecute.

One of the main questions we had was on the barriers of how do you then get the victims to come out and talk? How do you protect them when their abuser is always close by or their family refuses to accept? I remember outright from Human Sexuality and Forensic Psychology stats that the percentage of actual reported cases for rape victims is incredibly low  and the data is administered does not accurately match the actual cases. Well, her answer ended up in the form of little newspaper ads and daily words of advice. There is a well known newspaper El diario in which they would submit information on steps to take after rape: to not shower or clean one’s self, to save clothes and make sure to say something and submit themselves to a clinic.

From reading Cristian's thesis on the increasing gender-based violence since post-Peace Accord in Guatemala, I had been made aware the issues around societal views towards women but I wanted to hear more from her.

As she points out, during the conflict hundreds of women and children were raped and murdered. The stats of men murdered were just as high. However, the way women were and are being murdered is notably different as far more cases of mutilation and torture are involved. Prior to and after the '96 Peace Accord which formally ended the Civil War (but might I remind that the formality of a treaty does not end the systematic problems), there is little information and research on victims and family's trauma because there was little consideration of the human rights abuses of gender-based violence. "Suddenly we find ourselves in the Peace Accord era and nobody knows where the numbers of femicide are coming from. A lot of people believe this is something new but it is because no has paid attention. “At the end of the Peace Accord was when both parties signed , then in '97 there was an expected start fresh of no violence but yet finding 100 women murdered. Then in '98,  200 women murdered,  and in 2000 the numbers start increasing more. "We were asking  where this was coming from."

"When these doors were open, women were coming not for themselves but for their daughters, but asking how they wouldn't be raped and abused like themselves." They questioned why this may be. And this is where the acknowledgement of socio-cultural history on expected gender roles of machismo and marianismo of which I previously discussed in a previous blog post.  During the conflict as a woman you had to be silent. There were no rules on domestic violence. If your father was committing the crimes, your father would just kill you if you said anything. When talking about silence, Norma had been silenced, when standing up for political views, especially gender issues. Also during the conflict, there was little consideration of the effects experienced by both urban areas like Guatemala City and the rural areas. All women were affected, whether you were literate or not. Here, like in other parts of the world (just think India’s Daughter ), "women’s inequality and the lack of dignity and respect for the other sex is at every level, no matter what background you were from". In this case violence towards women is and was not discriminate to who you were or where you where from. “All women were and are at risk of being raped and abused”.

"Still people are afraid. During  the conflict,  society blamed women for  giving birth to guerrillas and communists, so it was giving the OK to kill women. To whatever happened to them was justified. You go to the police, you were told you better go home before I beat you up,  And they still remember those issues."

Then she notes the cultural violence, "Societies are at fault for this justification and continuation. They justified murder in paper.  Their death of abuse was their fault, It was deserved, It was their fault for being out at night too late, dressed too provocative. You have piercings, shorter skirt, nails painted or nailed painting; she was probably a worker. And that is justified for rape, violation and murder.” Unfortunately, this is not an isolated concern. Such justifications and the impunity of horrendous murder and violence we seen in Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women or the many unsolved cases of the Long Island women, meticulously documented in Rob Kolker's Lost Girls.

"During the Conflict, if you saw a body in the street, you though, 'He or she was probably doing something wrong, he or she was probably a Communist'. Now, after the conflict when we have cases of femicide, people say 'She was probably out too late, she was probably dressed to provocatively', and the police are saying the same thing."

To start with her personal case, Norma was up against a whole system against her from the process of organization and identification to the public ministry. When collecting the bodies, they were not respecting them. They'd strip the bodies naked on the street and then would sweep their privates using a comb right in the street. There was no appropriate training or respect. You have to treat the victims, dead or alive with dignity and respect, as probably the family is  watching. In the beginning of her research, 99 % of these cases were not  being investigated and that was 10 years ago.

In going back to the Peace Accord, both sides signed, but the judicial system still in place that had been  created to coerce people, police to torture people. How do we deal with this when it was created and perceived to coerce people. Ministries did not know how to operate in this time or how to properly investigate these crimes. Families instead, had reverted to leaving it to god justice when the system was not there to provide justice. So society has decided to  just to forget about it. If a body was found, it was just left , and not investigated. Before,  fireman, police, funeral homes, there was no investigations. In '98,  after she found out about Claudia, she organized this in her house. As victims,  you needed to make sure they collected all the evidence, so "we had to do it ourselves, at times." To put in perspective, how would we put denunciations on perpetrators when authorities still blame you. She pushed for more credibility in having a legal background, they needed a  lawyer, a forensic pathologist, start making authorities accountable, we were there. But people did start approaching her, wanting to help, volunteer,  so started educating herself. A student in law helped her on how to properly make forms to present these cases. She believes it was in 2004, it was the first time she was invited to do a lecture in LA. By 2005 they had an organization with name and their first donor from Oxfam of $5000. They were able to put enough pressure to sustain 200 legal cases, by 2005 they had 6000 denunciations, and today 5600 investigations.

Norma and her daughter have worked so hard together to hold these  abuses and crimes accountable in order for these victims to remain safe and respected. Norma has never stopped being active despite hundreds of death threats. She stresses that it is really important to note that this organization was not founded by an international community like most NGOs. Her goal was to make the Guatemalan judicial system and government accountable and responsible. She has gone on countless number of hunger strikes at National Palace. She has gone after 150 congressmen. It was her works that directly was impacted in pushing the Guatemalan congress to pass  the 2008 Law Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women, as officially recognizing femicide as a punishable crime. But most importantly, "when you talk about violence, we are seen as feminists. But when we talk about victims, we do not talk about genders.  We are all affected and we cannot separate genders here, We consider all victims as a whole and that is why our staffing is is equally balanced with the same opportunities. My first goal was to make sure people had place to go, safe place, a shelter. Now Fundacion Sobrevivientesis the best in Central America. Their legal team is now 1500 and the 20, 00 victims who ever came for help are still safe and alive.

Later in her office we saw a picture of her with Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama In 2009 she was awarded the International Women of Courage Award!

“From Guatemala, Norma Cruz. We are recognizing her
    for her unyielding efforts to end the culture of impunity
    surrounding the murder and other forms of violence against
    women in Guatemala. At great risk to her personal safety,
    Norma Cruz has been outspoken and extraordinarily brave, and
    we are honored to have her with us today.”

Norma Cruz & Claudia Hernandez Cruz

Claudia here is the executive director, and next year is going to be a criminologist. And that boyfriend, they are happily married with two daughters. "As you can see I have my granddaughters. My goal was to prove that these victims can be happy again. I do realize that I have to start take caring of self, as those hunger strikes did affect me. But I am not going to stop, still following up and continue to follow up.

See Also:

Norma Cruz: Pueblo de Guatemala
Fundación Sobrevivientes Facebook

To Fight Femicide in Guatemala, New Law, But Same Culture

Femicide: Can naming a deadly crime prevent it? 

Mujeres Iniciado in Las Americas
Femicide Information