By Erick Galindo –

California Congresswoman Loretta Sánchez has made protecting families from domestic violence a priority for the entirety of her seven terms on Capitol Hill. Her commitment is one of personal as well as professional interest.

As one of only 74 females serving in the 435-member House of Reprehensive — and one of just seven Latinas — Sánchez has spearheaded the zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse in the military and established the Family Justice Center in her home district in Orange County. The center offers help in English and Spanish for victims of domestic abuse.

The 49-year-old Democrat serves as vice-chair of the House Homeland Security Committee and on the 10-member bicameral Economic Committee, which monitors such national vital signs as unemployment, foreclosures and interest rates.

Currently she is on a mission to educate the public on the correlation between domestic violence and poverty.

Here she responds to Hispanic Link News Service questions on this growing national concern:

Question: What is the most common trigger for domestic violence?

Answer: We know that when people have financial problems, that’s when domestic violence increases. Seventy percent of the reasons people fight within a marriage has to do with financial reasons.

Q: How do these factors play out in the Hispanic community?

A: When we look at the studies, the first ones to be let go at jobs are usually minorities and women. Hispanics tend to lose their jobs sooner, more widely and they begin with lower income anyway, so they are probably stretched even further at this point. Many of our Hispanics families, especially new immigrant families, face even bigger stress factors. For example, they might have a family member who does not have the right documentation and is forced to leave the country.

Q: Is there anything in the immigrant culture, maybe something in their home countries, that may make domestic violence more acceptable?

A: It’s not that it makes it more acceptable, but it is less talked about, so when it happens less help is available. Why would you go and say my husband is beating me if you don’t have the resources to get a restraining order against him or you don’t have the resources to move yourself and your children? What if you’re a woman and you’re getting beat up and you don’t have status in this country? The last thing you want to do is go to the government because you think you will be deported.

Q: What in particular do you believe can be done to address such issues as lack of communication or fear?

A: The biggest thing is educating the community. Violence, domestic violence, is allowed to happen because people don’t speak up and say “Stop it already!” Women are afraid to say something because it’s quote “part of the Hispanic culture.”

Q: You have been fighting this issue for a long time. Was there something in your personal life that connected you to it?

A: Certainly. I will say that my father beat my mother. When I was a child I saw it happen.

Q: How did it affect you psychologically?

A: It’s incredibly damaging to a person to see that happening. There were a couple of times when I was in the first grade that my mother left the house. Ultimately she was there, but my dad would wipe the walls with my mom once in a while.

Q: Did he ever seek help?

A: No. He never did. I think, you know, in later years it stopped.

Q: Is there something you learned from personal experience that has helped you carry out your mission?

A: Well, certainly, I know the effect it has on a family and I know the effect it has on a woman. I know the effect it has on children. We just need to work to stop it. We need to have the tools available to those women who are strong enough to move out of that situation and want to change.

Q: Do you think children who go through this, especially in the Hispanic community, grow up to find it more acceptable to be in those types of relationships?

A: Just from personal experience, when I see it in the neighborhoods among Hispanics, I think you learn from what you see. If your dad is beating up your mom, then probably you will beat up your girlfriend. That’s what we must change.

Erick Galindo, of Washington, D.C., is editor of the national newsweekly Hispanic Link News Service.