SANFORD, N.C. — After midnight one Saturday, Teresa Rivera and her mother, Juana Capcha, had just fallen asleep on the overstuffed couch in their living room in Huancayo, Peru. Suddenly, they were jolted awake by the sound of a door slamming shut as Rivera’s father stormed into the house — reeking of beer. He staggered over to Rivera’s mother and began an angry tirade.
“He said she’d been out seeing other men,” Rivera said. Then he pulled Capcha’s hair and slapped her across the face.
This was one of many times Rivera saw her father abusing her mother. After years of domestic abuse, Capcha and her three children fled Peru for Edison, N.J. They eventually ended up resettling in Raleigh, N.C., and then Holly Springs, N.C., where the cost of living was lower.
In North Carolina, Rivera received the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals designation, or DACA, when she was 18, which allowed her to get her driver’s license and a Social Security number.
She enrolled in North Carolina’s Wake Tech Community College, where she studied for two years before transferring to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Though she was far from Peru, it was her experiences there, witnessing domestic abuse, that shaped the classes she chose to take and the career she ultimately wanted to pursue.
“When I experienced domestic violence, I didn’t have help or anyone to talk to. I wish I had someone who’d been there for me,” she said.
Today, Rivera, now 22, is a part-time child facilitator at a nonprofit called Interact, which helps support women and children who have experienced or witnessed domestic violence. She’s also finishing her senior year as a psychology major at UNC and plans to pursue graduate studies in social work.
