What is the thin line that separates a criminal from
a model person? Do we call it destiny, fate, misfortune, or just
plain bad luck? Why does a good man become a murderer, a nice woman
transform into a killer or a diligent student turn homicidal from
one moment to the next?
La Nena, a nineteen year old girl killed her
step-father with a broken glass bottle. Yesterday afternoon, a
scholarship student of I.A.V.A (Antonio Vasquez Acevedo Institute)
slit someone’s throat. This lamentable bloody act happened in
Uruguay, in the state of Canelones, in Barros Blancos, and resulted
in the death of El Negro, who worked in construction. According to
the rumors, he had regularly abused his step-daughter.
A reporter from the daily paper “Brecha” interviewed
La Nena trying to understand the tragedy of her life. What would
drive such a seemingly normal young woman to commit a violent crime?
Her life was like thousands of others in this world. Stories like
this put an end to the dreams of our teenagers. La Nena’s dream had
been to become a psychologist. The following account gives an
insight into the suffering she had to endure since birth.
When La Nena was a baby, her father, a France Press
Agency news-announcer punished her in a very cruel and unforgettable
way. He worked all through the night and he wanted to sleep
mornings. La Nena saw the sunlight coming between the window slits
and wanted to get out of bed, eat breakfast and play with her
neighbor’s pets. “El Indio Ayala” (her father’s nickname) ordered
the girl to be quiet. She did not understand her father’s command
and started to cry. He covered his daughter’s face with wool
blankets virtually suffocating her. He repeated this procedure until
La Nena was exhausted. Sometimes he permitted Dona Angelita, his
landlord, to take care of the baby after the desperate woman
threatened, “Stop abusing this baby, or I’ll call the police!”
Dona Angelita always appeared in La Nena’s life as a
“Guardian Angel.” When La Nena’s mother returned home from work,
Dona Angelita told her what had happened, and said, that next time
she was going to call the police; La Nena’s mother answered, “You
have to have proof!”
La Nena was not only being abused by her father. Her
mother beat her too. The girl started to wet her dresses once her
brother (his nickname was Pecos) was born, and she was jealous that
he got all the attention. Once, La Nena could not stand on her legs
anymore after her mother had given her a dreadful beating. Dona
Angelita and her husband Gaston gave massages to the girl. After
helping her to walk around the block many times slowly the girl
recovered.
When La Nena was four years old she saw her father
taking all his belongings and leave home in a taxi while her mom was
working. He abandoned not only his wife (pregnant with twins), but
also, Pecos, three years old and Lilliam, eighteen months old.
The neighbor Dona Angelita, whose seventeen year old
daughter had died from tuberculosis and her husband had killed
himself by ingesting cyanide, lived alone. She asked La Nena’s
mother to let her raise the little girl. After the twin’s birth,
Nena’s mother went to live in another state with her new boyfriend
El Negro, leaving her with Dona Angelita. This compassionate and
very poor woman lived in a rooming house where each room housed
different families. Many single or married men, who lived there, had
bad morals and nobody stopped them. Returning from work, on a
freezing winter evening, Dona Angelita found the six year old girl
on the flat roof’s edge ready to jump. Countless times she had to
relive the terror of being rescued by ignorant neighbors, who put
her in bed with one of the old men from whom she had escaped
earlier. They had only wanted to warm her.
When La Nena was seven years old, her mom took her
to the country. She had not seen her siblings for more than two
years because the interstate bus tickets were very expensive and her
mom could not afford them. Nena remembers her brother Ruben’s (one
of the twins) reaction. He ran around the “rancho” (an inhospitable
housing) screaming, “Esa no es mi hermana!” (“She’s not my
sister!”).
Did anyone ask why a seven year old girl crossed the
frosted field before daybreak, without stockings or gloves? “No.” At
6:30 in the morning she had to walk to buy a little milk at the Dona
Maria’s tambo (a dairy). Some afternoons, when her mom had a little
money, she walked three miles to buy “un caserito” (homemade) bread.
It was the only bread that her stepfather liked. Also she went to
the farm to buy vegetables for the puchero (stew for poor people).
When she came back from elementary school, her mom padlocked the
outside door and went to another city to work. Nena remained inside
one room without food or electricity seeing through the wall’s metal
sheets, the neighbors’ children playing. No one realized this child
was always hungry. Her step-father spent almost all the child’s
State allowance on wine and “Puerto Rico” tobacco, rather than
feeding or dressing Nena.
All Nena’s mother’s relatives lived in Spain.
Because of that La Nena had to take care of her three terrible
brothers (Pecos, Ruben and Jorge) and her two sisters (Lilliam and
Elena). Pecos was smarter and beautiful, the only one with green
eyes, like his maternal Spaniard grandmother Teresa (already dead).
Lilliam was delicate, pretty and freckled; Ruben resembled his
father (El Indio); Jorge (the other twin) had fine features similar
to his mom. All of them called their oldest sister, Nena, “Mamita.”
Elena, nicknamed “La Negrita” was newborn, the only child of Nena’s
step-father.
As if this was not enough, her stepfather, El Negro,
an extremely abusive alcoholic came into Nena’s life. He hit her
with his leather belt, his “Alpargatas” (a typical Uruguayan “zapatillas”)
or knotty tree branches. She never forgot the pain when one of these
thick poles struck over her little shin and she lost consciousness.
In addition, being only seven years old, he abused her sexually
during her baths. Did anybody notice all the bruises on the girl’s
arms or legs? No. Why did the authorities refuse to investigate when
so many times they saw evidence of abuse? Because no one cared.
El Negro also abused Nena’s mom. Almost every
weekend she saw her bloody mom falling on the floor under a rain of
punches.
School became the shelter for Nena. She was nineteen
years old and despite the abuse, she never failed a test, never took
drugs, nor smoked, or drank alcohol. She was never absent or tardy
to school, or spent her nights out. Finally though, Nena rebelled.
Yesterday afternoon, her mom was frying eggs for dinner. Lilliam
behaved badly. The mother started to hit Lilliam with a frying pan.
Nena defended her sister and her mom attacked her with a spatula. As
usual, El Negro was drinking wine. Suddenly he jumped toward Nena
trying to hit her. She emptied and broke the wine bottle, and
confronting him, said, “Si usted me toca, lo mato” (“If you touch
me, I’ll kill you.”). All of her siblings stayed behind her. Her
mother tried to protect her lover. Both saw the determination in the
girl’s eyes. Neither anything nor anyone was going to stop Nena.
Fortunately, this article never appeared in the
newspapers’ title pages. El Negro retreated, and I dropped the piece
of glass. For a second, destiny, fate, fortune and chance smiled on
me. I had been lucky. This special moment changed all of my life.
For the first time, I had overcome the fear that had always
controlled me up to this point.
