Domestic Violence Victims Remembered in L.A. Exhibit

When Carlos Canales shot his wife with the .38 he kept under his pillow, Pauline Canales became one of 63 Los Angeles County women killed as a result of domestic violence in 1995.

And 1 of 136 in California.

And 1 of 1,300 in the country.

Starting Monday, Canales’ death will be presented as more than a statistic. A City Hall exhibit will briefly describe the tragedy of the 70-year-old woman’s slaying at the hands of a jealous and unstable husband.

Her story will be one of 19 recounted at the “Silent Witness” exhibit, each victim represented by a life-size, blood-red wood silhouette. A final silhouette will represent “uncounted” women whose deaths were ruled accidents or of natural causes but who were, say exhibit organizers, victims of domestic violence.

Focusing on women like Canales confronts the public with the brutality of domestic violence, said Lucia Nordstrom, a volunteer for the Junior League of Los Angeles, which organized the exhibit.

“It snaps us out of our doldrums of, ‘Oh, it’s just a number,’ ” Nordstrom said. “It’s about the fact that these are real people. They are part of real families.”

The City Hall Bridge Gallery exhibit is part of a national Junior League campaign in preparation for a procession of 1,500 silhouettes through Washington, D.C., in mid-October.

“We’re talking about slowly changing belief systems,” Nordstrom said. “The belief system is that [domestic abuse] isn’t really prevalent . . . and that it doesn’t happen in my neighborhood. But it’s not true. It does happen.”

Looking at the silhouettes and reading about battered women who are sisters, mothers and colleagues, Nordstrom said, will force people to notice signs of abuse in their neighborhoods, at their workplaces, in their families.

“You can find people [who are domestic abuse victims] at church. You can find people at the supermarket,” she said. “You never know where they are. The battered woman is all around.”

Canales’ daughter, Lupe Garcia, knows too that age is no protection. Her septuagenarian mother was already a great-grandmother. The exhibit’s youngest victim, Tamioca Jones, was killed at 18. Charges were filed against her ex-boyfriend.

As the exhibit illustrates, men are also victims of domestic violence, recounting the slaying of Glen Goldstein, 32, who was shot by his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend.

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One purpose of the exhibit is to give couples in violent relationships the courage to seek help.

Canales was married to her second husband--Garcia’s stepfather--for more than 25 years. During her last 10, Canales’ jealous husband kept her a virtual prisoner, preventing her from even using a telephone. But, despite Garcia’s worried pleas, Canales refused to leave home.

Had she seen the “Silent Witness” exhibit, Canales might still be alive, Garcia said.

“I think that if my mother had heard about this before, she would have had the courage to move out.”

The ultimate goal of the national campaign is to end all domestic killings in the United States by 2010.

That might prove unrealistic, said Marita Sturken, a professor at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication, who has studied the effects of social campaigns that use public art to grab attention.

Sturken said she doubts whether the success of such crusades “necessarily translates into political action.” But they can change public perceptions on sensitive issues, she added.

“This could be powerful,” Sturken said of the planned march.

As for the relatives of victims, public art campaigns can prove cathartic, Sturken said.

Garcia agrees.

The silhouette representing Canales bears little resemblance to the woman she recalls teaching grandchildren to make home-made tortillas or the woman who would laugh as the youngsters covered themselves in flour.

But the exhibit is still a comfort.

“I know she’s gone, but her memory still lives on,” Garcia said. “People are getting to know her through the silhouettes.”