Femicide Organization Spotlight: Casa Amiga Esther Chávez Cano

Casa Amiga Esther Chávez Cano was founded by my great-aunt, Esther Chávez Cano, in 1999 in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. It was the state of Chihuahua’s first comprehensive support and safe haven organization for women and children experiencing familial and domestic violence, as well as sexual violence.

Chávez Cano wrote in her book, Esther Chávez Cano: Construyendo Caminos y Esperanzas, that Casa Amiga “identifies as feminist because it is based on the ideological precepts of feminism as a political and social philosophy, which fights for women’s rights in contexts of economic, social, political, psychological, cultural, racial and religious inequality.” As a feminist agency, she continued, the center plays an active role in social and political activism.

I spoke with Casa Amiga’s director, Lidia Cordero Cabrera, about the services that Casa Amiga provides the women of Mexico. She walked me through each of the three programs that the organization offers. The following conversation has been translated from Spanish to English.

Lidia Cordero Cabrera, the director of Casa Amiga.

Cordero Cabrera explained to me the step by step process of what happens when a woman walks through the doors and asks for help. “Casa Amiga is a model that is already established,” she explains. After she walks through the door, the first person she speaks with is the receptionist. “The reception area at Casa Amiga is a place with glass doors in which it allows the users to have a private area and she can tell the person at the reception without others listening.” Cordero Cabrera notes that this gives the woman seeking help the confidence to ask for help in a more intimate and safe environment. 

After she speaks with the receptionist, the intervention process begins. “The way that we are organized is that intervention is the first part that comes into working with women,” Cordero Cabrera informs me. The intervention area is divided into multiple departments, with the first being social work. A social worker will conduct the first interview “in a sensitive way and where they ask the problem.” The social worker will also inform the victim of all the services that Casa Amiga offers so that the woman knows in which ways she will be supported. “Then we offer her all the services we have to stop the violence she is experiencing,” Cordero Cabrera states. From that interview, Casa Amiga is able to assess the different types of support that they can offer her, and she can choose how she would like to proceed. 

“The area that she, let’s say, can choose, is the legal area,” says Cordero Cabrera. Casa Amiga sits victims down with lawyers, and “if she wants to exercise one of her rights to stop the violence,” Casa Amiga’s lawyers list her options. For example, the lawyers can assist her in filing a complaint or a lawsuit “in which the lawyer accompanies her from the beginning until the end of the process of the lawsuit,” she highlights. Casa Amiga ensures that the women of Mexico are supported through every step of the process; they are not alone. 

Cordero Cabrera explains that a woman can also file for a restraining order, file for alimony for her children, or file a petition for a contentious divorce. A contentious divorce only requires that one of the parties wants a divorce. In these abusive cases, aggressors would never agree to a divorce, so a contentious divorce would be a victim’s only divorce option. “She can decide which exercise of her legal rights she wants to do to stop that violence.”

Esther Chávez Cano founded Casa Amiga as a place of refuge. After my grandmother’s death, she left my father his childhood home, which he lent to his aunt, Esther, to use for Casa Amiga. Casa Amiga started in my father’s childhood home, and Cordero Cabrera was proud to tell me that they still offer refuge. 

During the interview with the social worker, “The social worker does a risk analysis,” she explained. If she is at risk, she is given refuge for her safety, “which is already the model of shelter that Esther founded to keep women safe.” Casa Amiga has a safe house where they send women and children if Casa Amiga has reason to believe that their lives are at risk.

If a woman is in a situation where she needs refuge, Casa Amiga helps her begin the emotional process and assists her in  “recovering her kids if she left them at home, bringing her belongings, or if she needs documents, and then she enters the high security refuge.”

Another resource the organization offers is specialized psychological care. “If the violence is not putting her life at risk,” Cordero Cabrera explains, “but she has already been a victim of rape or familial violence, she can enter the therapy process with specialists who are with her for the entire emotional process, supporting her emotionally.” Psychological care is, of course, also offered to women who move into the safe house. 

To further support women and children in need, Casa Amiga has a children’s area. “It’s a room where the children can be, accompanied by a teacher, while their mom’s are being attended to, or are in therapy, or with their lawyer, or in social work,” Cordero Cabrera explains. The children’s area concludes Casa Amiga’s intervention area. “You notice it is a multidisciplinary area. It has diverse areas for what she needs at that moment.” 

If a woman is in need of medical care, Casa Amiga supports her through that process as well. Cordero Cabrera says that there is a women’s health facility, named 046, that is often utilized by victims of rape. The building, she describes, is structured so that women are in a confidential and safe area.

Social work, legal work, psychological work, and refuge, are all a part of Casa Amiga’s intervention program. They have a second program called Prevención (Prevention in English). Prevention is a community program, “Esther mentioned it in her book,” Cordero Cabrero tells me. “The program takes place outside and gives talks at schools, factories, community centers, and actually, right now, it focuses on themes of childhood sexual violence and sexual abuse of adolescents. We have a puppet theater and various things that we have with boys and girls, and that’s what we do in Prevention.”

It is important to highlight that all of Casa Amiga’s staff are women. This ensures that women who enter the organization feel safe and supported. Speaking with male lawyers, psychologists, and social workers can make the process of seeking help more daunting. It is crucial that women feel safe and supported and an all female staff helps achieve that. 

“What Esther didn’t get to know about the programs, is the third program that we have,” Cordero Cabrera adds. Although Chávez Cano did not live to see this program implemented, Cordero Cabrera tells me that “she already wanted to do it. She already had it as an idea” The program is named Casa Equidad, Equity House. Unlike Casa Amiga’s other programs that focus on supporting women, “This program attends to men that generate violence.” 

To ensure the safety of Casa Amiga’s clients, this program does not take place in Casa Amiga’s main facility. Similar to how Casa Amiga has women with work women, this program has men working men. “We rent a house where there are psychologists, male, who are attending to men that have generated violence and adolescents, in psychological therapy of masculinity and exercises against violence so that they, the men, can also change.” This program is crucial to fighting violence against women. There is so much focus on what to do after the fact, but not enough focus on preventing violent incidents entirely. 

I asked Cordero Cabrera if all the services at Casa Amiga are free, including lawyers, to which she responded, “That’s right. What we do to offer this attention is to look for funding, projects, international funding, funding from foundations, from diverse institutions to provide all of these services.” The only program that they require donations for is the prevention one. Cordero Cabrera specifically mentioned the factory visits. “We ask the factories for a donation. Above all, the donations are specific, we gather cleaning items, stationary for the office, toilet paper, chlorine, all of that. We seek that the factories have a responsibility to give specific donations for the operation of the organization.”

My parents remember hearing from my great-aunt how dangerous it was for her to work at Casa Amiga. My mother recalls countless stories of men banging on the doors demanding for their girlfriend, wife, or daughter to be returned to them. Cordero Cabrera says that this danger still exists. 

“We already know that it is part of the dynamics of violence, that the aggressors—usually husbands or partners—come looking for them here,” she reflects. “They bang [on the doors], they have broken the glass on the doors, they have wanted to throw the cars in front, and now we look for more security measures. We have security doors, we have cameras, we have panic buttons, we have a direct line to the police, the panic button activates a direct call to the police, alarms, so we have some mechanisms that do not allow them to enter.” Casa Amiga does everything it can to protect its staff and the women that they help. The threat of the abusers has never prohibited them from helping the women of Juárez.

“We always say in our analysis that those who are at most at risk are the women, the partners of the men. What the [men] come to look for is them, they want to get her out of here.”

A staff member at the safe house, however, had a horrific experience with one of the abusers.  “One of the psychologists was kidnapped,” Cordero Corbera recounts, “They took her beaten up, and they left her for dead. They threw her away. Fortunately, she lived. Esther was still alive when this occurred.”

The situation certainly opened the eyes of Casa Amiga workers. “It was one of the strongest situations that made us reinforce safety for the personnel, for those that work here,” Cordero Cabrera says. They have implemented safety codes, the staff leaves together, and their cars are parked inside the property. “All of those are safety mechanisms that have been enforced over the years to avoid this.” Unfortunately, Cordero Cabrera says that violence against staff is something that they know to emotionally and mentally prepare for. Every Casa Amiga employee exhibits amazing courage.

Casa Amiga sees seven new women every day. This number does not include returning women. Every day, seven new women walk through the doors seeking help.

Esther Chávez Cano outside Casa Amiga

The Mexican government and authorities are notorious for neglecting the large-scale issue of femicide. The Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has said before that he believes that 90% of phone calls reporting domestic violence are false. 

I asked Cordero Cabrera whether, over the past few years, the government and the authorities have been paying more attention to femicide and violence against women, and whether they have been helping organizations such as Casa Amiga. “That’s a very interesting question that we’ve been reflecting on these past few years,” she responds, “In my experience, a few years ago, when Esther started, you know that she documents it and she says it, that the government was against it. They hindered, threatened, discredited us, and were against what we were doing,” she recollects. 

In the past few years, Cordero Cabrera says that there has been an “interesting phenomena.” She refers to it being almost like a simulation. “They [the government] say that they do things. In speeches they can say ‘Bravo Casa Amiga for the work that you are doing! We recognize what you do!’ They recognize the fight, but when it’s time to do something, they don’t do it.” She acknowledges that the government no longer discredits Casa Amiga publicly, and that they no longer organize campaigns against them, but “they say that they are working, but in reality, they are not.” She is extremely frustrated over the government’s inaction.

Although the government is not taking action against violence against women, Cordero Cabrera says that the government and politicians use the topic to their political advantage. “They say ‘yes it’s true, yes femicides exist, we are working on them.’ Now they are utilizing the conversation as their political message.” She used the female governor of Chihuahua, María Eugenia Campos Galván, as an example. During election season, Cordero Cabrera remembers that Galván would promote standing in solidarity with women and putting an end to femicide. “She comes into government and she forgets all of that,” she remarks. Galván has not followed through on her campaign promise to fight for women.

“Now the conversation is just to pull people to their party,” Cordero Cabrera states.

“They translate effective policies for women,” she continues, “To give you an example, the coordinator of CONAVIM, [el Comisión Nacional para Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia Contra las Mujeres] says in a speech that ‘We’re going to work with organizations, we have to support them, we recognize their work, we must walk together,’ but then they take out campaigns or actions that hinder the work of the organizations.”

Publically, the government can be seen as supporting organizations such as Casa Amiga, but Cordero Cabrera reveals that their supposed support has only made them keep a closer eye on organizations. “More and more the organizations are audited. We are more under the magnifying glass.” Smaller organizations have had to shut down due to government interference. Cordero Cabrera takes the government’s and authorities’ support with a grain of salt, “In speeches they can say one thing, but their actions say otherwise.” 

According to Cordero Cabrera, the government lies not only about supporting organizations, but they also invent statistics to make it seem as though they are working to end violence against women. “They use statistics, and that is the perverse thing that is happening, because they use statistics where it says, ‘we create care centers, this many psychologists work in Ciudad Juárez,’ and it is not true. They inflate numbers.”

The government is not adding more laws to crack down on violence against women, but they are also not enforcing the laws that already exist: “The laws are there, but they are not properly enforced. So to answer your question, ‘what does the government do?’ they changed the conversation, but they still do nothing.”

When asked what she wishes the public knew about femicides and violence against women, Corder Cabrera answered, “We definitely have to make public that all of the institutions that have access to justice are overflowing [with cases], and that femicides and violence against women continue to exist.” Justice for the women of Mexico is simply not possible under these conditions. My great-aunt fought with the government and investigators to advance cases of femicide. 13 years after her death, Casa Amiga still faces the same problem. “The investigations still do not advance,” she says. “That is still the message to be said.”

Heartbreakingly, “Access to justice, in reality, does not exist for the women in Mexico and in Juárez.” Cordero Cabrera senses that the lack of action from authorities gives abusers a high sense of impunity. “It’s a public message that aggressors can kill women and girls and have no consequences.” Off the top of her head, Cordero Cabrera knows of ten public ministries that each have almost a thousand cases. The lack of manpower makes it impossible for justice to be served. Cordero Cabrera does not believe that the judicial and political systems have the capacity to stop the violence.

She stresses that Casa Amiga’s lawyers accompany victims to meetings with the authorities. If they go without a lawyer, she says, “they [the authorities] do not listen to them. [the authorities] minimize the situations they live. A woman who is alone in Juárez, who doesn’t go accompanied by an organization, suffers again.”

The main question is why do femicides happen at such alarming rates? Why are Mexican women abused so frequently? Cordero Cabrera believes that violence against women is a direct correlation of Mexican culture. “This machista, patriarchal culture predominates in México. It continues to be a culture that permeates the education of women and children.” Cordero Cabrera says that from as early as infancy, men learn to appropriate women’s bodies. “They believe that they are the owners of women’s bodies.” That belief, she continues, allows them to perpetrate unimaginable violence. “They do it because they can, because the system allows them to. It’s a patriarchal system.”

However indoctrinated the men of Mexico may be, Cordero Cabrera highlights impunity as the biggest problem. “There are no examples of punishment. The social message is that men can keep doing it, because nothing will happen.” Men will “continue threatening women, and tell them that they will dismember them, disappear them,” because they know that they will not be held accountable. Cordero Cabrera wonders why this does not happen in other countries, but she answers her own question. “Because in Mexico, we keep forming men that believe they are the owners of women’s bodies.” The violence and culture is passed from generation to generation.

Cordero Cabrera sees another fault in the system: prevention. “Prevention is completely absent,” she affirms, “We are not attacking the root of the problem in education, in the patriarchal system, in work with children, boys, and men from an early age.” Prevention is neglected, she believes, because it does not produce immediate results. For prevention to work, it needs to be invested in for a long period of time. It is a long term solution, but “the government doesn’t do it because, politically, it leaves no results.” They want visible solutions, she explains, solutions that will help them get elected. “We’re not going to stop the violence if we don’t invest in long term prevention.”  

Casa Amiga is crucial to saving the women of Mexico. Their work is revolutionary. I am honored to have spoken with Lidia Cordero Cabrera as she carries out my great-aunt’s legacy. This article is part of an Independent Study on Femicide in Mexico. Attached is Casa Amiga’s PayPal. Casa Amiga relies on donations to offer its services. Please consider donating to this amazing organization. Every donation goes towards saving the women of Mexico. No amount is too small. https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/casaamiga