She left her 2 young children behind?!?! What kind of mother is that? I guess the relationship is estranged....she abandoned her children. Not sure what is happy about this story. It's sad. Very sad.

Perhaps she is the kind of mother who knew she had to leave or die. I worked with victims of domestic violence. Abusive husbands are often only abusive to the wives. I imagine it took tremendous courage for her to leave.

I think it's terrific news from an immigration. Domestic violence is a horrible problem and it's particularly rampant in Guatemala.

of course it's sad. it's very sad when any mother has to decide between her children and her life.
would it have been better for her children to watch her being beaten or killed by her husband?
what is happy is that she survived and that her case has paved the way for other women, in impossible circumstances, to escape for their lives and get asylum here in the US.

A mother who is dead, forced into hiding or beaten into physical or mental incapacity cannot parent her children,and cannot work with them to heal wounds to their relationship. By "leaving" her two children behind, Ms. Alvarado preserved the possibility for that healing and some kind of future relationship with her children. Let's remember that it was the abuser, and lack of legal protection that forced Ms. Alvarado to leave--she should not be blamed for trying to survive.

I think this is a wonderful story. She did leave her children, but who knows at the time what she had left to give them after being so abused. She had to end the cycle. I think it is the root of many problems in Guatemala and gets so little coverage. The only problem is that we can not give asylum here for every woman that abused in Guatemala because the number of these woman are tremendous. Unfortunately,this attitude towards woman will not go away soon. Not soon enough for our adopted daughters.( who In Guatemala are seen as woman as young as 12. As a Roman Catholic I have been writing letters urging the church to get more involved in this situation. (I know they have made some attempts,but not good enough ones in my book.)Americans need to know how much this is happening.