Intimate Terrorism: Violence against Women in La casa de la laguna by Rosario Ferré.

This article analyzes gender violence, specifically intimate terrorism, in Rosario Ferré’s 1997 novel *La casa de la laguna*, focusing on how patriarchal power dynamics affect women across social classes and races in Puerto Rico. Through the alternating narratives of Isabel Monfort and Quintín Mendizábal, the novel exposes cycles of physical, psychological, and financial abuse within the Mendizábal Monfort family, illustrating how intimate terrorism operates as a form of control that transcends socioeconomic status. The study highlights the experiences of Isabel and her mother-in-law Rebeca Arrigoitia, both elite white women subjected to violence by their husbands, alongside the marginalized Black servant Carmelina Avilés, whose sexual exploitation receives less narrative attention, underscoring racial disparities in the recognition of abuse. Ultimately, the work situates gender violence as a systemic and structural social crisis embedded in heteropatriarchal culture, emphasizing the importance of naming and confronting intimate terrorism at all societal levels.