TexasScholarWorks
    • Login
    • Submit
    View Item 
    •   Repository Home
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    • Repository Home
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Suelen callar : the institutional perceptions and treatments of the sexuality and sexual abuse of people with intellectual and psychological disabilities in Guatemala

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    SERRANO-THESIS.pdf (858.9Kb)
    Date
    2011-08
    Author
    Serrano, Samantha Lynn
    Share
     Facebook
     Twitter
     LinkedIn
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    The understandings and treatments of the sexual rights of people with intellectual and psychological disabilities vary in different societies. However, one issue that is common in most societies is that this group of people experiences the highest rates of sexual violence and is regularly a-sexualized. Much attention has been paid to the increasingly visible issues of sexual violence in Latin America in a gendered and racial context, however recent scholarship has neglected to look at sexual violence in the context of people with disabilities. In this text, I aim to uncover how the human rights, and more specifically, sexual rights, are understood and treated for this highly marginalized group of people in Guatemala, a country that has endured heavy amounts of violence and trauma both contemporarily and historically. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted at institutions for disability services in urban Guatemala, I paint a picture of how the contemporary social and political climate involving violence, nearly complete impunity for crimes, culturally engrained patriarchal norms and neoliberal policies affect this group of people who are often depoliticized through patronizing portrayals in media and the public arena. Using in depth investigations of Guatemalan law and observational work and interviews conducted in public government-funded institutions, NGOs and non-profit organizations and human rights organizations, I seek to reveal the paradigms within the disparate types of institutions for understanding and treating people with disabilities. By questioning the institutional perceptions and treatments of the sexuality and sexual abuse of people with intellectual and psychological disabilities, I seek to examine the different ways cognitive disability has been socially constructed in Guatemala and the different reasons behind this group's social abandonment and high rates of sexual violence towards them. This work problematizes medical and charity models utilized for understanding disability that have been implemented through law, institutional and public policies, and societal misconceptions. This research also challenges Western disability policies and conceptions that have been imposed in developing countries like Guatemala, and questions the possibility to create spaces of local disability rights activism in spite of high risk factors for violence and neoliberal policies that limit political protest.
    Department
    Latin American Studies
    Description
    text
    Subject
    Guatemala
    Sexuality
    Sexual violence
    Sexual abuse
    Down Syndrome
    Autism
    Intellectual disability
    Psychological disability
    Psychiatric disability
    International disability studies
    NGOs and non-profits
    Neoliberalism
    Latin America
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2011-08-4313
    Collections
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Intersections of disability, gender, and sexuality in higher education : exploring students’ social identities and campus experiences 

      Miller, Ryan Andrew; 0000-0002-1855-9887 (2015-05)
      Diversity of social identities among college students has received increasing attention in higher education research, with a particular focus on singular dimensions of identity. However, scholars have often neglected the ...
    • Thumbnail

      Digital news and people with disabilities : where are we headed? 

      Goebel, Christina Cowart (2012-12)
      Many people with disabilities have been traditionally excluded from receiving or interpreting the news. U.S. law has changed requirements for Internet content and will lead to drastic changes in how news is conveyed online. ...
    • Thumbnail

      Factors in admission of children to state-administered facilities for people with intellectual disabilities 

      Shelby, Elizabeth (2013-05)
      Texas houses the largest number of school-aged individuals with intellectual disabilities in state-administered institutions than any other state in the nation. Despite current conditions of legal and procedural constraints ...

    University of Texas at Austin Libraries
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • instagram
    • youtube
    • CONTACT US
    • MAPS & DIRECTIONS
    • JOB OPPORTUNITIES
    • UT Austin Home
    • Emergency Information
    • Site Policies
    • Web Accessibility Policy
    • Web Privacy Policy
    • Adobe Reader
    Subscribe to our NewsletterGive to the Libraries

    © The University of Texas at Austin

     

     

    Browse

    Entire RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsDate IssuedAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartmentsThis CollectionDate IssuedAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartments

    My Account

    Login

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Information

    About Contact Policies Getting Started Glossary Help FAQs

    University of Texas at Austin Libraries
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • instagram
    • youtube
    • CONTACT US
    • MAPS & DIRECTIONS
    • JOB OPPORTUNITIES
    • UT Austin Home
    • Emergency Information
    • Site Policies
    • Web Accessibility Policy
    • Web Privacy Policy
    • Adobe Reader
    Subscribe to our NewsletterGive to the Libraries

    © The University of Texas at Austin