Frontera NorteSur October 2000

One woman, eight-months pregnant and traveling with her sick nine-month old baby and two-year old son, had come to Cd. Juárez from the southern state of Veracruz to look for her husband. She had received no news from him in over six or seven months since he had first headed north to cross into the US where he hoped to get a good-paying factory job in North Carolina. The woman had very little money and was hitchhiking across the borderlands with her children. She had exhausted her search through Cd. Juárez and was now asking people around Casa Peregrina what the major border cities in Sonora were. She was going to leave shortly to look for him in that state that she seemed to know very little about.

Women with other sorts of pasts also use Casa Peregrina. Casa Peregrina workers stated that a few elderly women come to the center a few times a year just to get out of their houses. Some of them need to rest, some of them need to get away from angry sons- or daughters-in-law. In many families back-to-school time is one of the most financially difficult periods of the year and this is reflected at Casa Peregrina as well. One woman left her children at home with her mother in southern Chihuahua state so that she could stay at Casa Peregrina and work for two weeks in the maquiladoras solely to save up enough money for her children's school uniforms.

A Casa Peregrina room with bunks

Women Join Together To Help Each Other

Casa Peregrina often suggests that two women join up their families and live together. Typically one woman works to provide money for both families and the other woman watches both families' children. Sometimes the women take turns working the maquiladora job. Rarely though can both women work opposite shifts. This is due to the large amount of time that women often spend commuting between job and home. Also, whoever works the night shift also has to watch over the kids during the day and gets little opportunity to rest.

Casa Peregrina and Casa Amiga: Complimentary Programs for Women

Casa Amiga, the counseling center for victims of violence established in Cd. Juárez in February of 1999, is one channel through which women learn of Casa Peregrina (others are referred by neighborhood residents or are brought directly to the shelter by helpful police officers). For Casa Amiga, a social organization that desires to promote public awareness and treat rape and abuse victims, a high public profile is consistent with its ends. In contrast, for Casa Peregrina being inconspicuous is more conducive to the safety of the women living there. Consequently, the two organizations have formed a cooperative relationship, in which the more easily accessible Casa Amiga refers women to the less publicized Casa Peregrina (Casa Peregrina has no sign in front so that angry or abusive husbands or partners have more difficulty finding the shelter). While the counseling and legal advice available at Casa Amiga is a luxury not available to all of the women at Casa Peregrina because of time conflicts with full-time employment, it has proven a crucial aid to many.

Chained and Horribly Abused for Eight Months

One example in which both organizations proved vital was when a young woman reached Casa Amiga after escaping her abuser, a man who had been holding her prisoner in his house for eight months. During these eight months her aggressor kept her chained, her head shaven and tortured her by burning her breasts and the interior of her vagina with cigarettes. He also took her to a psychologist several times, in which he would sit in on her therapy posing as her so-called caretaker. These premeditated measures were designed to discredit her if she were to escape. Indeed, when she did escape, in the two days that it took her to reach Casa Amiga (after being taken in and helped by a local family) the perpetrator had persuaded the police by means of her 'therapy' records that she had a history of mental instability, and that charges brought against him were false. He was subsequently released, despite the medical evidence in support of her story. The women was given shelter at Casa Peregrina and through legal help obtained at Casa Amiga her abuser was arrested approximately one month after his initial release. Strangely and horribly it was also learned that this man had previously done the same thing to his wife.

Casa Peregrina's Needs

Casa Peregrina's list of needs says much about its position near the much wealthier US. While the shelter's clothing dispensary has plenty of new-looking shirts, pants and skirts Casa Peregrina almost always does without basic necessities like adult and especially children's underwear. Likewise, the shelter rarely receives donations of beef and chicken but was recently given cartons of candy and huge boxes full of containers of Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookies. The shelter also needs more towels and sheets.

If anyone would like to make a contribution to Casa Peregrina please contact Marisa Silva at marisilv@nmsu.edu. Marisa and others in Las Cruces, New Mexico are currently trying to raise money, clothes, towels and sheets for the shelter.