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Carmen Villeda

Professor Batty

English 101

May 9, 2018

A Cry for Help

In Still Water Saints there is a character named Rodrigo Able Zamora. When Rodrigo is

introduced he is 15 years old and live in a small town in Mexico. He leaves his home with little

money he has to go to Tijuana. Along the way he finds his way to Agua Masa and meets Perla by

accident and ask her to teach him English. She slowly starts to care for and worry about Rodrigo

as he tells her a little about himself. She starts to realize that his behavior is odd and see his

injuries. The problem this character has faces are very harsh compare to the other characters that

are introduces in the book. He has to deal with physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. The

message I learned from Rodrigo was that you may love or trust someone so much you follow

them that they will abuse you in any way for their own gain; thought you may be scared from

what they done to you, we must try and reach out to someone, ask for help, no matter what it

takes.

Many people believe that sexual assault happens to women, but the fact is that 10% of

men can also be sexually assaulted. Men and women who are sexually assaulted suffer from

PTSD, and other emotional problems as a result. Boys are more likely to be assaulted by a

stranger or authoritative figure. Young men and male adolescent (average age of 17) are more

likely to be sexually assaulted compare to females. National Sexual Assault hotline say that
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every 8 minutes, child protective services substantiate, or find evidence for, a claim of child

sexual abuse. Between the ages of 11 to 17 years of age

Rodrigo suffered the effects of his abuser and became a victim of sexual assault. Due to

him being rape it cause him to have PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Young men are often

assaulted by someone they know and see as an adult figure are often scared to speak out due to

the norm of men being strong. Not only do the adult figure abuse them, but they find a way to

keep their victims quiet. Rodrigo trusted and looked up to the man who took him away from

Tijuana, as time went on he became stress with his own life and took it out on Rodrigo, not

knowing what was going on and not understanding what was happening. He looked up to him to

only be abuse and threaten causing Rodrigo to be unstable.

Abuse- physical, verbal, or emotional maltreatment- can leave a phycological wounds

that are harder to heal than bodily injuries. Survivors of abuse have a hard time trying to cope

with themselves due to the negative feeling that have harm them after the abuse has ended. All

types of abuse can cause a person pain and psychological distress. It causes the person to have

anxiety, anger, dissociation, mood issues, PTSD, guilt, shame, self-destructive behavior, and

trust issues. Rodrigo suffered a lot, to being a physically abuse to being rape by the person who

he trusted, he became scared. He was scared of running away, asking for help, scared of

churches, being killed by coyotes, scared of everything around him. Due to him being in a

different country he can't speak English and only knows slang words and profanity words. He

was verbally abuse believing the lies the words of the people who sold him and of his abusers. It

causes him to be paranoid and having trouble coping with himself. Espinoza mention in his book

"Why is everyone so afraid?" (Espinoza 75) Everyone is afraid of something they become aware
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of their surroundings. Rodrigo was not only afraid of everyone but also everything surrounding

him. He was so afraid he couldn't trust to the very people that were to protect him.

When we are in trouble or in an emergency we call for help and come to our aid.

Sometime we don’t wish to speak to the police or a doctor thinking they will judges us or won't

understand what has happen. There are hotlines, such as RAINN, open to help and clam the

person down. They are able to help you get through your abuse. The U.S. Citizenship and

Immigration Services say that regardless of immigration or citizenship status, all people are

guaranteed basic protection under bother civil and criminal law. If Rodrigo knew any of this

information he could've gotten help, but due to not understanding English he was scared to call

for help and not knowing the law. He did not seek for these people for help, instead he reached

out to Perla writing a letter to her saying "Senora I came to looking for you but you are gone I

come back soon. I am needing your help. I am afraid...Please be here." (Espinoza 113)

Regardless of anyone's background, we should help the persona who has been abused and

to get them back onto their feet for they can talk about it and try to stop it from happening to

someone else. Abuse is not in one place, it is everywhere. A Statistic from The National

Domestic Violence Hotline say children who are exposed to violence in the home are more likely

to be physically and/or sexually assaulted. It's hard to stop the abuse, but all it takes is one person

to speak out for it can stop.

When we are scared we want to run away and hide, not asking anyone for help. The

pressure builds up and become disconnect from others. We have all suffered a type of abuse we

may have realized it or we may have not. No one should be abuse for whatever the reason. We

should be brave and reach out to someone to someone even if we are scared to talk. Rodrigo

reach out and Perla went looking for him to help. Rodrigo reach out to Perla, but he didn’t wait
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for her to help him. He couldn’t take the abuse any longer and attack his abusers and protect

himself. Not knowing if someone comes to your aid, we have to protect ourselves. You may love

anyone or trust someone all you want but once you see and start to abuse you in anyway,

physically, sexually, or verbally, we need to reach out to someone and tell them what they are

doing for we don’t suffer the effect of what comes after and. All it takes is to reach out to

someone for help.


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Works Cited

Issues Treated in Therapy (2017), Abuse/Survivors of Abuse, Good Therapy

https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/abuse

Sexual Assault Hotline (2018), Sexual Assault and Rape Resources, Joyful Heart Foundation

http://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org/learn/sexual-assault-and-rape/resources/hotlines-and-
more-information

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (2011), Information on Legal Rights Available to
Immigrants Victims of Domestic Violence in the United States and Facts about Immigrating on a
Marriage-Based Visa Fact Sheet, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

https://www.uscis.gov/news/fact-sheets/information-legal-rights-available-immigrant-victims-
domestic-violence-united-states-and-facts-about-immigrating-marriage-based-visa-fact-sheet

Espinoza, Alex. Still Water Saints: A Novel. Picador, 2013

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