Anggy Diaz's Story Shines a Light on Immigrants Facing Domestic Abuse

memorial for Anggy Diaz in Waller County, TX
Twitter: Deysy Rios @deysyreportera

With the meteoric rise in popularity of “true crime” in recent years, we often see media coverage and content creators going through every gruesome detail of the crime. While learning about the murder of Anggy Diaz of Magnolia, Texas, the media coverage that disclosed the grisly details of the crime centered mainly around the alleged murderer, Diaz’s 21-year-old husband. When it came to the victim, headlines often described Diaz as his nameless “decapitated newlywed wife.


She was not nameless; however, her friends and family endearingly called Diaz “Anggy,” she was a loved one who had just married her boyfriend. The two had met at work; from an outsider’s perspective, they seemed to be a happy couple. Diaz, a Nicaraguan immigrant, worked at a local meat market and taquería for more than three years and had recently become a fitness coach, something she had worked hard to achieve and was incredibly proud of.

Described by those who knew her as fun, bright, optimistic, and with a big sense of humor, Diaz was the eldest of four siblings and was studying to become an accountant before deciding to leave her home country of Nicaragua so she could better support her mom back home, who was undergoing cancer treatment. She was described as a hard-working young woman with a big heart, juggling two jobs with the sole purpose of supporting her family, but only three months after her wedding, Diaz’s life was cut tragically and viciously short.

@anggydiaz21

Yo sé que me aman 😂😂😂😂 #happy #fyp #foryoupage


On January 11, Angela Diaz was found deceased by her in-laws inside the small home she shared with her 21-year-old husband, Jared Dicus, in Waller County, TX. Her newlywed husband, seen smiling by her side in so many photos, had allegedly stabbed, dismembered, and decapitated her the night before.

Domestic Violence Flags Ignored

According to an interview by KHOU 11, Waller County Sheriff Troy Guidry stated that police had previously been called to the residence on several occasions due to disturbances. Their small home was located in the backyard of Dicus’ parents’ residence.

It was Dicus’ parents who noticed something seemed off, confronted their son about it, found Diaz, and immediately alerted the authorities. Despite the alleged confession by Dicus, a motive for the murder is yet to be disclosed. Dicus is being held on a $500,000 bond pending court proceedings, an amount District Attorney Sean G. Whittmore has argued is not high enough, considering the heinous nature of the crime.

Hindsight is 20/20, and some of Diaz’s acquaintances are now wondering if they might have missed the signs that something was wrong in her marriage. According to various reports, her friends could tell something wasn’t right after the wedding but never imagined it would end this way. Her boss, Veronica Jimenez, told Univision 45, “She was happy, very happy with her husband. But there were days when she was different. She was tired, but I wasn’t sure if she was tired because of her job or because of her relationship.”

According to research by Esperanza United, reasons domestic abuse victims don’t report their abuse may include self-blame, shame, guilt, loyalty or fear of their partner, fear of deportation, lack of confidence in the police, and previous experience with abuse as a child. This is often closely related to their childhood and several cultural factors, such as toxic gender role expectations fueled by patriarchal social structures such as machismo and marianismo.

Based on this same research, about 1 in 3 Latinas in the U.S. (34.4 %) will experience intimate partner violence during their lifetime, and 1 in 12 Latinas (8.6%) have experienced intimate partner violence in the previous 12 months. Having an undocumented immigration status compounds the situation with fear of deportation from the United States, with many undocumented immigrants saying they are reluctant to report domestic violence or any other type of crime victimization because of this fear.

Abusers often try to use a person’s immigration status as a method to control, making them particularly vulnerable. Many immigrants with undocumented immigration status aren’t aware that the law gives them a number of protections. Victims of domestic violence and human trafficking have special safeguards in place to protect them.

A candlelight vigil was held on January 15, 2023, to remember and honor Diaz’s life. In between their grief and pain, her family expressed their gratefulness for the community’s support and outpouring of love. A GoFundMe page was set up to help raise money for her burial and other services. On January 24, Diaz’s remains were taken back to Nicaragua, where the rest of her family gave their final goodbyes, and she will be laid to rest.

Domestic violence continues to devastate lives. If you or anyone you know is a victim of intimate partner violence, there are various resources available to help.

National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
Available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
All calls are toll-free and confidential.

Family Time Crisis Center
281-446-2615

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
1-510-465-1984

Crisis Text Line
Text START to 88788

Immigration Options for Victims of Crimes

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Have you ever met someone who seems overly confident, self-centered, or even downright rude? Maybe they constantly talk about themselves, disregard your feelings, or even manipulate situations to their advantage. And, if you're anything like us and countless other Latinas, you might've thought, is this person just a purebred a**hole, or are they a narcissist?

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woman surrounded by colorful illustrations
Image by Sayuri Jimenez.

Nathalie Molina Niño has never been one to shy away from breaking barriers, and now, she’s focusing her attention on a new mission: demystifying corporate boardrooms for women, especially Latinas. Molina Niño is the President of Known, an asset management and financial services firm, a veteran tech entrepreneur and builder capitalist, and a board member at the iconic lingerie Brand, Hanky Panky, and others.

Like many corporate boards, Hanky Panky hadn’t publicly disclosed its board composition until recently. After the brand survived the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Molina Niño decided it was time for more women, specifically more Latinas, to know what it means to be on corporate boards.

Coincidentally, the decision to finally be more vocal about this topic aligned with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, which served as the perfect kick-off to the work.

"Something that rarely gets talked about and I think almost gets kept opaque by design is boards,” she explains in a recent Instagram announcement. “[This Latinx Heritage Month], that’s what I’ll be talking about.” Her goal? To equip more Latinas with the knowledge they need to navigate onto for-profit boards, where they can thrive and build multi-generational wealth.

For-profit corporate boards often feel like an exclusive club. And in many ways, they are, especially for Latinas, who hold the smallest percentage of board seats in Fortune 500 companies compared to other racial groups. According to the latest report from Latino Board Monitor, while Latinos hold 4.1% of these board seats (compared to 82.5% held by white people), only 1% go to Latinas. Molina Niño, a first-generation American of Ecuadorian and Colombian descent, is part of this boardroom minority.

When asked about her experience as a Latina board member during a recent Zoom interview, she said, “It’s been lonely. There’s not a lot of Latinas on boards.” She went on to explain that even serving on boards of Latina-founded businesses gets lonely because, “A lot of the times, people who serve on their boards represent their investors and, as a result, [...] you still don’t see a lot of Latinas on those boards.”

This lack of representation drives Molina Niño’s determination to increase Latina presence in corporate boardrooms. By sharing her insights, she hopes to give Latinas a roadmap to claim their seats at the table. “If you don’t know where to go, it’s impossible to figure out how to get there,” she says.

The Road to the Boardroom

Getting onto a for-profit corporate board isn’t an overnight achievement, but it’s not an unattainable dream either. People often think you need to be a CEO or have a certain type of background, but that’s one of the biggest myths about boards in Molina Niño’s experience. What they’re really looking for is expertise — whether that’s in finance, marketing, sustainability, or even technology. If you have that expertise, you’re already an asset. It’s simply a matter of which road you should take.

Understanding what boards are and how they operate is key to unlocking opportunities. For-profit boards serve as the governing body for companies, overseeing direction and financial stability, and guiding CEOs and executives in decision-making. But Molina Niño emphasizes that not all for-profit boards are created equal.

“There are two kinds [of for-profit boards] [...]. There’s the publicly traded business board and then, on the privately held side, there are, I would argue, two types of boards [...] the traditional business board and the venture-backed business board,” explains Molina Niño. Traditional businesses are often family-owned or long-established and may only form boards to meet requirements, like securing financing or transitioning through an ESOP. Venture-backed boards, on the other hand, are typically filled by investors who hold major stakes in the company.

According to Molina Niño, understanding the difference between them is how you can create a successful strategy. With publicly traded business boards, the whole world is privy to them, so, “The way that you get in there is a little bit more transparent. Sometimes those publicly traded companies will hire a recruiter to help them find new board members,” explains Molina Niño. For private companies, on the other hand, there’s no legal requirement to make announcements. As a result, most people don’t know anything about them or their inner workings.

“Usually what happens in traditional businesses that don’t have venture-capital investments is that the Founders, Executives, or the board members, if one existed already, they usually go to their friends,” and people they deem experienced to fill board seats. In other words, it’s the founder’s decision, and that’s an entirely different approach than hiring recruiters. When it comes to venture-backed business boards, the seats on the board are filled by whichever investor writes the biggest check.

This is why an understanding of the different types of boards and acknowledgment of their own strengths is what will help Latinas define a sound strategy. Whether that’s working with a recruiter, networking and connecting with founders to build trust, or making the biggest investment.

The Path for Latinas

For Molina Niño, the key to getting more Latinas into corporate boardrooms is education. Knowing what a board looks like and how it functions is how you can position yourself to get on it. In openly talking about this, without the mystique it’s usually shrouded in, Molina Niño is providing women, especially Latinas, with invaluable insights. “If we had Latinas understanding what are the three types of for-profit boards I think that, on their own, they would be able to figure out what their best chance is and adjust their careers to make themselves more competitive,” states Molina Niño.

When asked about the impact of increased Latina representation in boardrooms, Molina Niño flips the narrative. “Boards don’t help Latinas by offering them seats; Latinas help businesses thrive by being on their boards,” she says. “The whole point of sitting on a board is that you have experience and expertise, and as Latinas, you also have some cultural experience that everyone wants. [...] At the end of the day, we [Latinas] have to realize that we have a ton to offer and we have to be selective about where we put that expertise,” she explains.

As demand for access to the Latina consumer rises, Molina Niño predicts that more Latinas will find themselves recruited into boardrooms. But she’s not content to sit back and wait for that moment. By openly sharing her journey and insights, she’s making sure other Latinas know their worth and have the tools to claim their place at the table. “I realized that quietly being on boards that helped me personally is not helping other Latinas. [...] I was lucky enough to have friends who could advise me and share their experiences, so that’s why I’m doing this,” she stated.

With Hispanic Heritage Month as the backdrop, Nathalie Molina Niño’s mission is clear: “My goal is just to give Latinas enough information so they can make a plan for how to eventually get on a board that they’re paid to be on and that will eventually help them build generational wealth.”

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Ever noticed how September in Latin America is just one big celebration? As we wave goodbye to summer and avoid winter as long as we can, the streets come alive with parades, music, and festivities. Many Latin American countries celebrate their freedom this month, commemorating their hard-fought battles for independence from colonial domination. Let’s dive into these significant days and understand what makes each unique.

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