Breaking Silence

Breaking Silence is a short documentary report by Paula Rodriguez Sickert detailing femicide in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. The documentary opens with a synopsis of three killings – one in each country. In Bolivia, statistics show that there is a femicide every three days. In 2012, a woman named Juana Quispe lost her life to femicide. Her relatives and village are still grieving and fighting for justice. In Peru, at the age of nineteen, Ruth Thalia lost her life to femicide. Her boyfriend murdered her after seeing her appear on a reality TV show. In Ecuador, a woman named Katya Cabezas Quintero was attacked by her former partner. He attacked her with a machete, which is a common tool used in Ecuador to cut back heavy undergrowth. Luckily, she survived the attack, losing only her right hand. After the attack, Katya moved with her three children to avoid her attacker and also to move closer to her mother.

“Your husband is your husband, even if he beats you, even if he kills you” is a common expression in Ecuador. This should not be as commonplace as it is. We should not tolerate this. However, this prompts a discussion about machismo, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as “strong or aggressive masculine pride”. Machismo is deeply enthrentched in the culture of many Latin American countries, which is why violence against women is so common. It’s a toxic mindset, and one that sets these countries back. Until machismo is eradicated, it’s unlikely that violence against women will decrease significantly. 

In the case of Ruth Thalia, she was on Peru’s version of “Nothing But The Truth”, a game show in which the contestant must answer questions, sometimes personal, and will win more money if a lie detector test proves their answer to be true. The question that doomed Ruth Thalia was “Have you ever had sexual relations for money?” to which she answered “Yes”, and was confirmed by the lie detector. (This is so invasive, I genuinely cannot believe that the producers of this show thought that that was an okay question to ask a teenage girl on live television.) After the show, Ruth went missing for twelve days. Her body was then found, and her boyfriend confessed to wanting to steal the money she had won on the show. He claims his pride had been wounded by her answer on the show. Her boyfriend and his uncle strangled her to death. 

Breaking Silence does a phenomenal job at exploring femicide and its many causes, and the three cases it examines all made national news in their respective countries. It goes into the depths of machismo and how toxic of a mindset it is, and in the cases of all three women, it’s the root cause. Presented without bias, this documentary accomplishes a lot in its short runtime. I believe that Breaking Silence is one of the most powerful documentaries surrounding femicide outside of Ciudad Juárez, as Juárez seems to be the epicenter of femicode. The world knows what goes on in Juárez, but do they know that it is as common, if not more common, in other countries? Overall, Breaking Silence is well presented and if you have 42 minutes to spare, I think it’s well worth the watch. I have linked the documentary here.