Mujeres in Action to debut documentary on domestic violence in Latinx communities in Friday night gala at The Hive

El poder de contarlo. The power to tell.

This essential message is at the heart of a new documentary produced in Spokane that centers on the stories of three Latinas and their experiences with domestic violence and sexual assault.

Created by the domestic violence awareness group Mujeres in Action, the documentary, titled “El Poder de Contarlo,” will be screened Friday night at the Hive, 2904 E. Sprague Ave.

Mujeres in Action received a grant from the Empire Health Foundation to create the documentary with Fine Line Entertainment, which is based in Los Angeles. So far this year, MIA has supported 139 survivors through crisis intervention, information referrals and safety planning.

While brainstorming the documentary, safety was one of the main concerns. Mujeres in Action executive director Hanncel Sanchez did not want to put survivors in jeopardy as they told their stories.

“Even safety made it difficult to find these stories,” Sanchez said. “Finding people who would have the courage to come up and share their stories was hard, but we were able to find these amazing, incredible, empowered women to share their stories about how they overcame the odds and can be examples to the community.”

Sanchez said language barriers, citizenship status and cultural norms surrounding domestic violence are reasons domestic violence and sexual assault can go unreported in Hispanic communities. According to a study done by the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 1 out of 3 Hispanic women suffer some sort of physical violence in their lifetime.

Sanchez thinks first-person narratives around sexual assault and domestic violence break the ice and remove shame. The documentary aligns with Mujeres in Action’s mission of educating the community on the Hispanic communities perspective and supporting survivors on their journeys of healing.

“We must talk about it,” Sanchez said. “We must bring this issue into light in order to be able to reduce family violence and eliminate family violence. It’s one of the main things that I see in that documentary, that awareness and that platform to help Latinx survivors to share their experience and be empowered to tell their stories and bring hope for others going through the same thing.”

Three women are highlighted in the documentary. Ana Trusty, MIA’s program coordinator, is one of them. Trusty said she believes MIA’s documentary can create a safe space for other survivors to heal from their situations and “take their power back.”

As a single mother, Trusty searched for a partner to have another child with and complete the nuclear family household.

“Once we got married, it all kind of switched, so all those things he went out of his way to do, stopped,” Trusty said. “We’d go see a marriage counselor, but I didn’t realize it at the time, but he was using the tips of the marriage counselor against me.”

Gaslighting, a tactic in which someone is manipulated enough to not believe their own narratives, was an extreme detriment in Trusty receiving help. Her Puerto Rican heritage was used against her, citing the stereotype of Latinas being “crazy” as something that flipped the script when Trusty brought up her concerns about her safety and financial freedom in the marriage.

Her ex-partner would escalate situations, but Trusty was the one who spent a night in jail. Trusty said although she was never physically abused, the emotional abuse she endured is one of the things she wants to emphasize.

“I also want to highlight that it doesn’t have to be physical,” she said. “The more I do this work, the more I learn about it and the more I want to share, because it’s not talked about and people talk about domestic violence, they think about physically, but it is so much more than that.”

Victim-blaming is another aspect of Trusty’s experience with domestic violence. Trusty’s “strong and opinionated” personality kept many from supporting her removal from the marriage, prolonging the abuse and isolating her even further.

“People always asking, ‘Oh, how could this happen to you?’ – put so much shame and victim-blaming on me,” she said. “Knowing how to support someone, how to react and other ways to deal with hearing about domestic violence is a way we can stop being taboo and help survivors get out of these situations.”

“El Poder de Contarlo” centers the Hispanic experience with the entire documentary in Spanish with English subtitles. La Michoacana Mexican Restaurant will cater the event. After the 30-minute documentary, members of MIA will act as guest speakers, and there will also be a moment for survivors to share their own stories.

“(This documentary) represents many, many stories of those experiencing domestic violence and sexual assault, and they may feel alone in the world and there’s no hope for them, but there is,” Sanchez said.