Rising early in the day, Josie Ashton took care in donning the white wedding dress. Cloaked in her formal attire, she traveled to Fort Washington Presbyterian Church in Washington Heights, where she was greeted by others who had gathered together to mark the special day.
But there was no groom at the altar, or limousine to ferry her to a reception afterwards.
Instead, Ashton was met at the church by a sea of other women, hundreds of them, also dressed in white formal silk and satin white gowns, who turned heads as they marched the seven miles to Saint Cecilia’s Church in The Bronx.
There were also some men who walked beside them, but it was the small army of white-clad women that dominated.
Ashton and the others made the trek from one church in northern Manhattan to another in The Bronx to honor the memory of Gladys Ricart, as well as many of their own loved ones – or themselves – who have suffered with domestic violence.
“Gladys Ricart was an amazing woman,” said Ashton, founder of the annual Gladys Ricart and Victims of Domestic Violence Memorial Walk, also known as the Brides March. Ricart was shot and killed on her wedding day, on September 26th in 1999 by her former boyfriend Agustin Garcia.
Ashton explains she was disturbed at the time by news reports that portrayed Garcia as the victim. Her disquiet led her to create the Brides March, now in its 11th year, to bring attention to domestic violence, which often goes undetected until it is too late.
“It’s become an international movement,” Ashton said. “We have thousands of women walking in different parts of the world and in different states of America.”
Speaking at the invocation before the march, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the numbers of people who die from domestic violence each year do not tell the whole story.
“There are countless people who have been beaten, permanently and physically injured, and permanently and emotionally scarred; there are children who have watched this happen and will have to live with that for the rest of their lives,” she said.
The sight of the women marching in wedding dresses would raise awareness about domestic violence, and affirm for those who suffer silently that their lives and their children’s lives matter, Quinn said. She added that the march could also serve as a reminder to call the police when domestic violence occurs.
“[Of the] over 70 percent of the family-related homicides in 2010, those families never called the police,” Quinn said.
The story of Gladys Ricart echoed this tragic pattern.
After Ricart had ended the relationship with Garcia, she declined to press charges against him after he broke into her home. Nor did she get an order of protection after he called her repeatedly, stalked her and left roses on her lawn and a bible on her doorstep.
Ricart came to the U.S. from Tamboril, in the Dominican Republic, with her son. She found work at a travel agency. After getting an accounting degree, she was promoted to accounts payable manager.
She dated Agustin Garcia, a New Jersey resident with businesses in Washington Heights, but their romance was soon marked by his stalking and harassment. Ricart broke off their seven-year relationship, to later meet and became engaged to James Preston, Jr.
On Sept. 26th, 1999, Ricart, dressed in her wedding gown, was handing out bouquets to her bridesmaids when Garcia entered her home at 4 pm, shortly before the wedding.
Her fiancée, James Preston, awaited her at the church in Flushing, Queens.
Garcia walked into Ricart's living room wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, telling guests he was invited.
He pulled out a .38 caliber handgun and shot five times. Three bullets hit Ricart, killing her instantly.
The murder was captured on videotape and the image of Ricart being gunned down in her wedding gown just before the ceremony was broadcast internationally. Ricart’s body was escorted back to Tamboril by her fiancé and family, where she was buried.
“He doesn't remember the gun going off," said attorney Fernando Oliver in 2001, during the trial of Agustin Garcia, who pleaded innocent to the murder charges. At the time, Oliver argued that Garcia had acted in self-defense. Garcia claimed he couldn’t remember much of the “incident” and that he had been jumped at Ricart’s home by wedding guests.
Garcia was ultimately convicted of Ricart’s murder, and is serving life in prison.
Ricart was waked and buried in the same dress and tiara she intended to be wed in.
“She will be buried in the same gown, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen will be dressed in the clothes they would have worn to the wedding," explained Eva Ricart, a cousin, during the wake, days afterwards in October 1999.
There have been many more victims since then, as was noted by those marching.
As did many of the other “Brides” this past Monday, Emily Quinn had attached laminated news stories about domestic violence to her wedding dress.
"Every year at the beginning of the year, I start to cut out all of these articles. And every year, I have a new group of articles of women who have been killed,” she said. “We have a face out there so…that these women can be remembered.”
Quinn believes that the harm caused by domestic violence transcends the people immediately affected.
"I think it's personally important to every human being on the planet,” she said. “I don't have a personal stake. I think anything that hurts other people hurts us all.”
At the end of the seven mile march, Ashton, Quinn and the other “Brides” were greeted by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.
Diaz, who addressed the women in white in both English and Spanish, said that their march was a powerful reminder to the city of New York of what happened on Ricart‘s wedding day and to break the silence of domestic violence.
“It plagues us in our most sacred places—in our homes, and with our most sacred people—our families,” Diaz said.
Ashton said that ten years in, the work of the Brides March is only just beginning. She said that children growing up in violent homes often become victims or abusers.
“We have a lot of men who are being abused, We have same-sex relationships where there’s tons of abuse,” she said, “and we’re just pretending it’s not there because there’s so much shame around it—because we’re still blaming the victim.”
To see the Brides March through northern Manhattan and The Bronx, and to listen to Josie Ashton speak about Gladys Ricart and the fight against domestic violence, please visit http://bit.ly/MTV004.
No comments:
Post a Comment