When Catalina decided to work at a ski resort in Andorra, a small state near Spain, she never imagined that her life would become a torment. There, she met the man who would become her future assailant. They maintained a tight bond for four years until they were matched. Catalina soon after became pregnant, and they decided to get married. “I needed residency papers to get medical attention when my son was born, and that’s when the fights started. He exercised a lot of psychological violence on me. Still, I understood that later, when it was explained that there are many ways to violate a person,” Catalina says today. Little by little, she became isolated. She could not communicate with her friends and family in Chile, and her life was focused on him and the house.
“One night he came, he looked for me, and everything happened. I was about to die”.
When their son was born, the fights increased: he couldn’t stand the crying, and Catalina had to take care of everything alone. “We slept separately, were never together, and he would get angry about everything. He wouldn’t let me rest in the mornings, even if I hadn’t slept through the night.” When they moved to Chile in 2013, the relationship hit rock bottom. Catalina had close family and friends and was no longer the center of attention. She decided to leave home and move in with her mother. After five days sheltered there, he came looking for her. “One night, she came, and everything happened. I was about to die,” she recalls. He stabbed her repeatedly, with cuts to her neck that almost ended her life. Fortunately, she survived, and he was deported and banned from entering Chile. After passing through a women’s shelter, Catalina now lives with her son in Osorno.
