Kate Palmisano, executive director of CALM Inc., a grant-funded mediation and conflict resolution center for Frederick County residents, said cyclical domestic violence is difficult to mediate in general.

Add to that financial, language and cultural barriers, as well as a dearth of translation resources, and the veil of silence over domestic violence issues in local Hispanic and other immigrant communities can be difficult to lift.

Barbara Martin, CEO of Heartly House, said disapproval of breaking up a marriage is strong in some foreign cultures.

Also, an abusive spouse can hold immigration status over his family as a way to coerce them not to report abuse. Some batterers even threaten to harm family members of a spouse in their home country, Martin said.

Many immigrants hail from cultures with rampant corruption, and hold little trust in authority figures, she said.

When they arrive in the U.S., that mistrust can be compounded, especially if there seems to be a perceived discrimination against immigrants, she said.

"To not believe you have any system in place to protect your family must be horrific," Martin said.

That's why it is so important to have Spanish-speaking advocates and counselors in the area, she said.

But within the field, Martin said competition for bilingual services is high, and if Spanish speakers with the requisite skills are motivated by profit, they are quickly swept up by other agencies.

Heartly House has one Spanish-speaking counselor on staff, and one victim's advocate. It also has access to interpreters who speak up as many as 160 languages, which does allow counselors to work with just about anyone who calls, Martin said.

CALM has a language coordinator, and three or four mediators who also speak Spanish, Palmisano said.

In February, after several months of going without, CALM hired a new Spanish coordinator, and the number of cases requesting language services jumped from five to about 15, Palmisano said.

Often, there is a general confusion in the Hispanic community over where to go to resolve conflicts, including those that involve housing, school and family issues.

CALM ensures all mediation services are confidential, excepting cases of child or elder abuse, incest or threats of violence, which may be reported to police, she said.

If family members in conflict mention that violence has occurred, accusations made in anger must first be vetted, she said.

If the threat is viable, mediators will then contact the Heartly House, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office or other authorities, Palmisano said.

Maria Shuck, a translator with Frederick Memorial Hospital, wrote in an e-mail that the problem of domestic violence is pervasive in Hispanic culture.

Many Hispanic women will not speak out, especially if they have an emotional or economic dependence on their partners, unless the violence at home trickles down to their children, Shuck wrote.

She knows of one local case in which a husband received permanent residency, but then held back his wife and four children from applying by hiding their papers as a means of leveraging control over his family.

The story had a happy ending though, when the woman found their papers and was able to proceed with the immigration of her family, Shuck wrote.

Jeanie Cronin, director of a Hispanic community center in Frederick called Centro Hispano, wrote in an e-mail that when someone comes in to her office complaining of problems with a spouse or child, she will copy their information and send it to CALM or Heartly House.

"We use Heartly House and (CALM) because they have more bilingual people," Cronin wrote.

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