Comic Book On Rape Aimed At Young Latinas

Virginia Health Department Uses Fotonovela To Educate Teens On Statutory Rape

(AP)  It starts out like most fotonovelas, Latino comic books with themes often centered on love and betrayal: Teenage "Yaneth" is at a picnic when she spots handsome, raven-haired "David." She nabs his number and afterward, playfully sends him a text message.

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."

[txlatina15]

I think this comic book is a good idea becasue it can show some of the young girls about a situation that they might have had, but i don't think its going to help them to actualy report the crimes that have been commited. I have not been in that situation but since i am around that age, i can say my self that IF it had happened to me, i wouldn't report it just from plain fear. But it is still a good idea.

[ladymunchkin]

What this article doesn't point out is that Illegal's come from countries where the Legal age of consent is 12 YO. So when they come here Legally or Illegally, they think that having *** with our children should be the same. In the latest study I saw, 12 children a day are raped by Illegal's in this country. Not only Hispanic children but children of all Nationalities. These books should be made available to all our children and this should be taught in classes so all our children, whether Legal or not are warned of the dangers posed by these Immigrants.

[thgdriver]

cmp271

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.

[teeus]

"I am not moving there, they are here. I am tired of tax dollars going for stupid programs like bi-lingual studies. "

"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.

[jfb65]

I think this agreat idea to help cut down on the rapes, and early pregnancies of these young girls who don't really know how to raise a child by herself. Also, she has no real education to support herself, and her child.

[cmp271]

Someone from Puerto Rico is Puerto Rican, NOT American. Anyone who says they are Puerto rican-American is wrong. You are one or the other, none of this hyphenated stuff. We need to download that country, it went bankrupt, and who is bailing them out????

[thgdriver]

When the US took possession of Puerto Rico we became a Spanish speaking country. Puerto Rico is a territory of the US has been for over a hundred years, the people are as American as anybody living in the 50 states. We and they can travel as freely as we do from state to state, So watch who you want to deport just because they speak Spanish, they just may be fellow Americans.

[psolis4]

What is up with the comments on being illegal and make sure they are citizens... Why the negativity?
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!!

[klingon69]

Jairod;
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.

[jairod]

At last: People that think. As for illegals: go to Chicago and find the Polish that are here illegally; go to New York and find the Italians that are here illegally; go to any large city and find the Chinese that are here illegally; go to Cleveland and find the Hungarians that are here illegally; go to any mid-west state and find the Germans that are here illegally. Get after these illegals and I'll join you in getting out the Latino illegals. In the mean time, as more young girls are raped because they don't know their rights, we all suffer as human beings. We, as Americans, are less for letting those attrocities continue just because of some moronic prejudice.