VivirLatino

The following article about abuse in Irish orphanages followed all too familiar patterns: colonized nation, defenseless kids with no family or little contact with family, Catholic church, sexual and physical violence. But even as we can make generalities about the patterns that inevitably present themselves in cases like this, there is no way to escape the horrible singularity of the pain and trauma survivors deal with on a daily basis:

Buckley, the daughter of an unwed mother, said the orphanage was closed to the outside world and the children inside lived a life of slave labor manufacturing rosaries. She said there was no way to escape the ritual humiliation, beatings and rape regardless of whether the children achieved their quota of producing 60 rosaries per day.

She didn’t track down her parents, an Irish mother and Nigerian father, until her 40s, when she became one of the first to demand justice for her stolen youth.

“I didn’t have a childhood,” said Buckley, who recalled being constantly cold, hungry and thirsty as the nuns denied children water to keep them from wetting their beds. She was severely beaten by a nun for trying to smuggle out a letter detailing the abuse.

The Catholic religious orders that ran 52 workhouse-style reform schools from the late 19th century until the mid-1990s apologized after the report’s release, speaking of their shame and regret. Abuses also took place at 216 other church-run institutions for children, which included orphanages, hostels, regular schools and schools for the disabled.

Over and over stories of abuse come out–every where in the world it seems–Canada, the U.S., Australia, Europe. The only area where investigations never seem to quite follow through is Latin America. Are we to believe that violence and sexual abuse ran rampant in church run facilities throughout the entire world, with the exception of Latin America?

How is Latin@ history intertwined with church sanctioned sexual abuse?