Tragedy Inspires Latino to Help Women Fight Violence

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Did you know, 1 in 3 women experience physical or sexual violence?

Maurice Gomez of Los Angeles knows this personally. In 1996, Gomez received news that his girlfriend had been raped and killed by a stranger.

The tragedy eventually led him to dedicate his life teaching women to protect themselves.

Gomez, an L.A. Police Department tactical self-defense instructor, has offered free self-defense classes for women since 2010, according to a fantastic profile of Gomez by Monica Luhar of NBC News.

“It was a real point in my journey where I knew this was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Gomez told Luhar.

Most women who participate in Gomez’s classes are Latina.

Luhar’s profile of Gomez indicates that there has been a national surge in enrollment in self-defense classes by women and minorities in recent months “before President-Elect Donald Trump takes office.”

In cases of rape and sexual assault, “anecdotal evidence show the difference between rapists who have completed rape and those who have attempted it is their victims’ reaction,” according to a WebMD article.

“In the completed rape, the victim usually froze and submitted,” a clinical and forensic psychologist told WebMD. “In the attempted rape, the victim fought, resisted, and escaped.”

Gomez teaches use of confidence, voice, body positioning, and “throwing the most devastating blow to your attacker because your life is dependent on it,” he said.

“If they remember one thing and learn something that day that they didn’t know before, then I succeeded because it’s one step closer to the empowerment that I’m trying to instill in each and every single guest who steps on that mat,” Gomez told Luhar.

Read the full profile of Gomez here.