A few days after becoming a teacher, Ivana Puel Catriel -a 35-year-old native of Neuquén- managed to modify his identity document such as the birth certificate, and in this way prevented his university degree from bearing his father’s surname, the man who sexually abused when she was a child.
“It is something that makes you remember all the time you went through that, beyond the fact that there are other manifestations, the surname is something very important for people, it is what the rest of society recognizes you with”assured Ivana, a young woman from Cutral Co, who is about to get a Chemistry teacher’s diploma at the National University of Comahue (UNC).
This fact was crucial so that in 2021, Ivana made a judicial presentation and ask for a new birth certificate and document, because carrying the surname of her father, Víctor Nicolás Pino, deeply damaged her. “It was hard to accept it, to take charge of the fact that it was something I did not want, obviously like any professional career, it costs a lot and in the end resigning myself to having that surname the title was quite a heavy burden”, expressed the young woman in an interview with the portal Black river.
The Family judge, Silvina Arancibia Narambuena, understood it in the same way and authorized the change. The procedure was virtual due to the pandemic and that was an unexpected relief. “I did not have to expose myself so much, at least physically, before the judge or lawyers,” Ivana said.
She also acknowledged that she doubted whether she would achieve rectification, because she was never able to file a criminal complaint, and although it is not a requirement to make this request, it could be serious.
“I wanted to do it, but well I put it aside to take care of myself. I thought about it a lot, I thought about it a lot, As a teenager I wish I had the tools to be able to do it, I wanted to talk, I wanted to say it, and I couldn’t even tell my family, I had a hard time breaking the silence. I did it in environments of trust, with my friends, and from the first time I said it, I already heard the answer: “report it” or “do something” and it is very difficult to act when you are in this place”, he affirmed.
When defining what surname she would have, Ivana chose her maternal name, and that of her grandmother Luisa Anita Puel “a figure of care in my life, who was in my childhood, in part of my adolescence, who represented enjoyment. In the search for my identity I also knew and assumed my mapuche origins”, he assured.
just reasons
The Civil Code provides for the possibility of changing the first or last name provided there are “just reasons”. In this case, the Family Judge of Cutral Co, Silvina Arancibia Narambuena, stated that in the report of the professionals treating the young woman it is mentioned that To date, she presents “symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder that coincide with the psychological conditions of someone who has suffered sexual abuse during her childhood.”.
Also, he stated that the surname Pino is for Ivana “a seal that drags and carries marks in her subjectivity and in her body, making it necessary to disaffiliate” in order to “work through the generated trauma”.
For this reason, the magistrate granted the request and in the sentence he offered Ivana the possibility of explaining the grounds for her decision in a virtual private hearing “in order to guarantee access to justice and effective judicial protection that must be adjusted to each specific person”, with the clarification that if he didn’t want to connect he could do so, without being penalized.
Ivana attended the meeting by Zoom and felt that act as “An apology from justice for not having been at other times in my lifeIt was a pleasant surprise and it left me alone”, he concluded.