Dominick Torres

Aguante is a documentary about the Puerto Rican battle against gender-based violence. It is a story about the impact that machismo culture and a complex history of colonialism in Puerto Rico has had on generations of women. Economic, political, and natural crises of the recent past highlight women’s vulnerability to violence. Aguante shows that while gender-based violence is seen in intimate partner relationships it is enabled by social conditions. But Aguante also tells another story: the island of Puerto Rico has a long history of women's liberation movements. And feminist movements have persisted in the past and today to change legislation and topple governments as they combat gender-based violence but also the central issues of the island’s governance.