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6 Conclusion
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163 l l 6 Conclusion The Violence Against Women Act and the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act represent major achievements in the struggle to end violence against immigrant women as long as these laws acknowledge intimate partner violence as a social problem and provide a diverse array of support to survivors according to their particular vulnerabilities. However, by looking into the experiences of Latina battered immigrants in their search for nonviolence, autonomy, and citizenship at a nonprofit organization in Texas that provided legal services free of charge for poor immigrants, I found that not all survivors have been protected in the same way. The disparate fates of battered immigrants Angela, Claudia, Julia, Luisa, Laura, Martha, Rosa, Manuela, Ana, Susana, Clara, Silvana, Rosario , Mónica, Samuel, Yolanda, Patricia, Ramona, and Leticia reveal significant biases in the laws and the provision of services. Despite the good intentions of VAWA, VTVPA, and community organizations like ORA, immigrant survivors of violence who are women of color, extremely poor, with few years of formal education, undocumented, in relationships with residents or undocumented immigrants, originally from Mexico, homosexual , and/or unable to fit within “normal” standards of civil behavior tend to be discriminated against in (or barred from) the process of becoming U.S. citizens, independently from their histories of abuse. This unfair outcome contradicts the all-inclusive spirit of VAWA and VTVPA and counters the struggle of battered immigrant women activists to end violence against all women. In joining efforts to eliminate such conditions , I hope this book will further the understanding of the complexities beneath the lives of Latina immigrants as they traverse gender violence, social inequalities, and citizenship matters, as well as motivate individual and collective action against unfair practices and systems both within and beyond immigrant communities. In chapter 2, I share the story of Angela, an undocumented Latina survivor of intimate partner violence, at length. Her story, together with 164 x Conclusion those of the other eighteen battered immigrants presented in subsequent chapters, reflects the particular vulnerabilities and intricacies of violence against Latina immigrants. Their undocumented immigration status intersects with gender, sexual, racial, ethnic, and class discriminatory practices and systems in shaping the kind of violence perpetrated as well as the means available for survivors to escape their abusive relationship . Angela’s migratory history adds an extra layer to the understanding of the reasons immigrants may endure the violence (both intimate and structural) that they encounter once they arrive in the United States (i.e., how much their poor background, needs of their family, and history of violence shape their expectations and tolerance). Moreover, Angela’s case locates intimate partner violence against Latina immigrants in the broader context of the exploitation of poor Mexican immigrants in the United States (from unwelcoming immigration laws and unfair labor conditions to covert racism, sexism, and classism, and internalized histories of oppression), that heightens battered immigrants’ dependency on their abusers, fear of deportation, mistrust, isolation, and ignorance of their rights as survivors of intimate partner violence. Angela’s story also exemplifies the struggles survivors endure in their repeated efforts to break free from their intimate partners and, thus, counters the commonly held perception that survivors who stay with or come back to abusers are passive or pathological (particularly by showing the multiple traps within and against which undocumented immigrant survivors tend to act). At the same time, her story illustrates similarities between undocumented immigrant and other survivors of intimate partner violence, such as their tendency to believe that their perpetrators’ aggressions are their fault; to internalize their abusers’ demoralizing comments, lose hope, and consequently adjust their expectations to a life of abuse; to keep their experiences secret because of shame and often with the intention of preserving the safety of family members and friends who may have been threatened; to endure abusers’ addictions, jealousy, and multiple and repeated expressions of violence (physical, sexual, economic, psychological); and to believe in their abusers’ promises of change and love. Angela’s story, despite being disheartening, ends encouragingly. With determination and the support of a network of family members, friends, and community organizations like ORA, she was able to break free from her violent relationship by achieving legal and economic independence as a U.S. citizen. Her case celebrates the achievements of the existing legislation to protect immigrant survivors of gender violence, that is, VAWA and [34.229.223.223] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 14:03 GMT) Conclusion x 165 VTVPA, as well as the good...