La Casa board member survived domestic abuse

For nearly five years of his childhood, Marco Olvera used toilet paper rolls as toy soldiers and watched television lying on the floor so he could see under a closed door.

From the ages of 8 and 4, Olvera and his younger brother were kept almost continuously in a small room with the door closed in the family’s Deming home. The boys were fed and had a toilet, but the windows in their room were sealed shut, they could only take showers once a week and they weren’t allowed to attend school or celebrate birthdays or Christmas.

The long-term abuse came at the hands of their mother’s companion, who owned the house and was the family’s breadwinner. He regularly told both boys – the only males in what would become a family of seven children – that they were “a waste of space,” and he was physically abusive to both.

“He was the puppeteer,” said Olvera, now 26. “There wasn’t anything we could do.”

After five years of isolation and abuse, Olvera, his brother, their mother and five sisters fled one night in 2007, escaping through a window as their abuser slept on a couch near the door. Their vehicle broke down on Interstate 10 east of Deming, but with the help of a sheriff’s deputy and a passing motorist, the entire family found its way to La Casa, Inc.’s domestic-violence program in Las Cruces.

“La Casa is what really helped put my family back together,” said Olvera, who is today a successful Las Cruces entrepreneur and a member of the La Casa board of directors. Olvera is writing a book about his personal experience with domestic abuse, with proceeds going to La Casa, which he said “did an amazing job” for his family.

“I’m in a good place, where I can give back,” Olvera said.

“I met Marco at the 2018 (domestic violence) vigil through a mutual source,” said La Casa Executive Director Henry Brutus. “He is so selfless and talented. I asked him to join the board of directors, because the voice of a survivor was missing. He agreed and has been not only a voice for survivors but also a voice of reason. I truly believe Marco's journey has only just begun.”

After the escape and during a year living in La Casa-sponsored housing, Olvera started school as an eighth grader. He later graduated from Las Cruces High School and from Doña Ana Community College with business and media certifications. One of the most important contacts Olvera made at LCHS was his close friend and business partner, Isaac Palafox. Together, they own a videography business in Las Cruces called Palamora (www.palamora.com and on Facebook).

“I found my way,” Olvera said. A native of Mexico, he became a U.S. citizen at age 21.

During the years of abuse, Olvera would picture himself five years in the future and fantasize about going to McDonald’s and owning a car. “I didn’t think I’d live to see 25,” he said.

“We didn’t have much in the room,” he said. “We’d use our imaginations. Olvera became a storyteller, often relating entire episodes of “Spongebob Squarepants” to his younger brother.

Olvera and his family, which then included five children, had come to the United States in the summer of 2001 to escape another abusive situation in Mexico. His mother was a U.S. citizen, but she had been orphaned as a child and had no family or friends in the U.S. She met the man who would become her companion in El Paso and, with her children, moved into his house in Deming.

Olvera’s family received threatening phone calls from him after leaving and learned in 2015 that he had died several years earlier as a result of his addiction to alcohol.

Today, Olvera and his entire family are closer than ever, and Olvera remains especially close to his brother. Two of their sisters live in Phoenix, but everyone else is in Las Cruces, and they get together regularly. Everyone talks openly about their experiences during the long period of abuse, but there is no blame or judgement, Olvera said. His mother “feels a lot of guilt,” he said, but added, “we were all victims.”

Olvera’s self-published book, “In the Land of Opportunity,” will be available in May on Amazon.

For more information or to donate to La Casa, visit www.lacasainc.org.