Domestic Violence as a Human Rights Issue: The Case of Immigrant Latinos

Using the writings of the late social psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró and other Latin American and Latino social scientists as a framework, this article examines the issue of domestic violence from a human rights perspective. As suggested by these writers, the antecedents, dynamics, and effects of domestic abuse are explored, bringing to bear the historical, philosophical, cultural, social, spiritual, and political realities of Latino immigrants in the United States. From this ecological perspective, universal and culture-specific elements of this phenomenon are considered. Finally, Freire’s idea of concientización (consciousness) is used to delineate levels of awareness and responsibility necessary to break the intergenerational transmission of domestic violence in this population.