RICHMOND, Va., March 12, 2007
Comic Book On Rape Aimed At Young Latinas
Virginia Health Department Uses Fotonovela To Educate Teens On Statutory Rape
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Robert Franklin of the Virginia Department of Health said educating Latino immigrants about statutory rape laws required a more narrowed approach. "I can't just translate 'Isn't she a little young?' into Spanish," he said. (AP Photo)
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A few pages later, Yaneth isn't smiling. She's in a car alone with David, who's actually a man in his late 20s. He's demanding sex and the 14-year-old is scared.
The Virginia Department of Health hopes readers will want to find out what happens next to Yaneth, and to many real life Latina teens like her.
They've spent two years developing the comic book to combat statutory rape among Hispanic girls — put at higher risk, some say, by limited understanding of American laws and cultural mores condoning May-December relationships.
"Gracias Papi: A fotonovela about a young woman, an older guy and a loving father" will be distributed across Virginia starting in April. Franklin already has received calls from interested health care workers in Illinois, Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Florida and Tennessee.
The effort stems from Virginia's "Isn't she a little young?" statutory rape campaign, a 2004 project employing everything from billboards to napkins bearing the provocative question.
Robert Franklin, a health department male outreach coordinator, immediately got requests to translate the materials into Spanish.
"Getting males to challenge their peers about having sex with teens is hard in any culture," said Franklin, who felt a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn't work. "I can't just translate 'Isn't she a little young?' into Spanish."
Franklin instead began targeting Latino men through Spanish-language radio ads. When he realized he was only addressing part of the problem, Franklin searched for ways to reach Latina teens.
He turned to fotonovelas.
Popularized in Latin America, fotonovelas use photographs of live actors instead of drawings, and illustrate soap opera-like stories. The books have caught on among health care agencies as a hip alternative to stiff brochures about diabetes risks and other medical issues.
Franklin's tackling a tougher topic. A white male who speaks no Spanish, he's boldly challenging the older man-younger woman relationships many Latino immigrants consider normal.
Asks Yaneth's mother in one panel, speaking to her own older husband: "How is this different than when we got married?"
Latinas led the nation in teen births in 2004, with 82.6 per 1,000 girls ages 15-19, according to September data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national birth rate per thousand girls that age was 41.1.
CDC data shows Mexican and Puerto Rican girls at an especially high risk.
Both groups have settled in Virginia. The state had double-digit drops in births among black and white girls ages 15-19 from 1990 to 2003, while births rose 50 percent among Latinas in that age group, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
Health officials say it's hard to figure out who's fathering their children.
In 2005, state police made 127 arrests for statutory rape, defined in state law as carnal knowledge of a minor under age 18.
But experts warn that statutory rape is often unreported. Many Latina teens, meanwhile, are reluctant to identify their children's fathers — often an indicator of an inappropriate sexual relationship, Franklin said.
"The younger the female, the less likely people were to give the father's age," said Franklin, who studied hospital delivery forms to estimate over half of Latina teen mothers in Virginia were sexually active with adult men.
Most Latinos don't condone "viejos verdes," Spanish slang for older men who prey on girls.
But in the rural Latin-American towns where many immigrants originate, it's not uncommon for a man to date a girl, especially if he's a family friend, said Carmina Oaks, executive director of the Latino Resource Center, in Jackson, Wyo. Police there have seen more than a dozen statutory rape cases in recent years, most involving Latina victims.
Oaks organized a community workshop on the topic, and is interested in Virginia's fotonovela.
"In a lot of places, it doesn't matter the age," said Oaks, who's Mexican. "If it's your best friend's son, he could be maybe 10 years difference, the family are OK with that."
In the fotonovela, David works for Yaneth's dad.
"Often immigrants come from countries with few or no statutory rape laws" and "don't know that a four-year difference or a six-year difference would (have) a legal implication for them," Oaks said.
Virginia officials have worked hard to make the fotonovela something Latinas will embrace.
They incorporated text messaging, "Spanglish" phrases and modern names like Yaneth (a Spanish take on Janet) to recreate the average Latina youth's environment, said Paz Ochs, a Richmond Hispanic liaison who helped create the 13-page, color booklet.
"We wanted something that would be appealing," said Ochs, who's part Dominican. "There's some people that might not realize that this is even against the law."
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Your post points to your ignorance of the situation.
Like it or not, bottom line bud--they are members of the Good old USA!! I suggest you look up territories of the USA and get yourself an education.
I repeat--when the United States Of America accepted Puerto Rico from Spain, we became a Spanish speaking nation. So when you want to deport someone because they speak Spanish make sure they are not your fellow Americans from Puerto Rico.
"I lift my lamp beside a golden door." Or, maybe not in the world you'd like.
I wonder...would your great-grandparents have liked to have the school teach them English when they got here from where ever it is they come from? Heaven forfend that they would have met someone like you.
So they are good enough to do the work whites don't want to, it's okay for them to be here to work and pick chiles and onions and what have you, just don't breed... Latinos are here to stay, deal with it. This country belonged to the Native Americans. What is wrong with educating Latin girls, if it needs to be done, then let it be. Who cares if it's done thru cartoons or whatever, just do it. Open your mind to the problem at hand... Don't be so ignorant to say " check if they are illegals before you inform them." God made us all equal. Remember that!!
Why do I have to learn another language?
I am not moving there, they are here. I am tired of tax dollars going for stupid programs like bi-lingual studies.
Allot of teens do not know the law, and it is a new country and laws for them to interpret.
Face it, we are American and used to having laws and freedom of choice. when anyone comes here they have to learn the American way and our laws, and how they protect you.
Maybe now we can get rid of the arranged marriages in the Indian/*** groups too, and the mutilation of female genitals in other groups!!!
If a comic style pamphlet will help then do it. As for learning another language, not all can do this, I have taken 3 other languages, it isn't easy to think in three different ways.
Our issue is with two things. One is law-breaking. We are a nation of diverse people brought together from all different heritages and families. Without respect for law, we have nothing. We have chaos. We will all die because we have no other bonds between us other than friendship and law. An attack on American law is an attack on the existence of America, its that serious. We have 300 million mouths to feed, and the only thing keeping order from the chaos is our respect for and obedience to the laws we make to govern ourselves.
Illegals violate the essence of America itself, that opportunity is given to all within the confines of our common rule of law. To be an illegal is to commit violence and war against America, against its foundations, against its future. You show no respect for law; that is like saying no respect for this nation itself.
The other thing is that we need to bond together to survive, and a common language is an important part of that. I don't love "English" per se, it is a language of the hated British, but I will die defending it as our common tongue.
Rape is defined as the Unwilling sexual assault of a female by a male. At least that was what the dictionary said when I looked it up as a teenager. I am sure that some parts of that definition has changed to cover same gender assaults, or so-called "reverse rape(women raping men) but, statuatory rape is defined as any sexual contact between an adult and a "minor". As it states, most of these cultures have no problem with a "MAY-DECEMBER" relationship, and in most of the cases the sexual activity is consensul.
Once again, I will state. If they are illegal, deport them! If they are legal, then they need to learn the language. If we moved to their homeland, we would be expected to learn to communicate in their native tongue. And, before someone starts crying about heritage, keeping our culture...etc; You can do that and still learn to communicate with the surrounding populace and the American populace.
I agree, why do we have to have our tax dollars used to cater to a percentage of a populace, who in themselves may be illegals or have illegals. Since we have to translate them, that adds fuel to the fire of them being illegals. Instead of writing them "comicbooks" investigate their citizenship and deport the illegals. Then tell the legal immigrants, that you MUST learn to speak, read, write English in order to become a citizen. Then the precious little latinas, can have the same literature that the white, blasck...etc girls have to rely on.
Sorry... this totally ticks me off! First of all, I think the idea of a comic book "combating" rape is REALLY stupid. And, let me guess, it'll be written in Spanish (what country do we live in?). MAYBE if these "hispanic girls" were forced to speak English (not blaming the girls so much as I am our government for letting our country become bilingual!) and weren't so apt to get into bad situations.
And lets face it, hispanic women are not known for practicing birth control (maybe this would be a good idea for comic book #2-- teaching the hispanic community how NOT to have 50 babies)
I'm not saying anyone is responsible for being raped... I know this personally. But, come on... a comic book??? How ridiculous is that?
- by olebd March 12, 2007 12:32 PM EDT
- Oh come on, just because they are from another country/culture doesn't mean they shouldn't take the time to learn the laws here in the U.S. We treat them as if they are stupid little lost sheep. I'll bet most of them know d*amn well it's illegal here but they play dumb when they get caught.
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