“These people aren’t my family”: How Maria Esguerra escaped a cult to save her children
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Maria Esguerra was born into and grew up in the Children of God cult.
She was abused from the age of four and regularly denied medical attention.
At the age of 22, Maria found the courage to escape with her husband, Jesse.
They left to protect their two children, but life outside the cult was hard at first.
Today she is thriving and works with an organisation that supports survivors of high-control religious groups.
Instead of racing her to the hospital, the adults around Maria took her back to the bunk room she shared with dozens of other children.
“I had to write an open-heart report about what sins I had committed that meant I got hurt,” Maria, now 45, tells New Idea.
“It was deemed my fault because I’d done something naughty – been prideful or disobedient.”
Maria, who went on to become a Children of God cult survivor, says medical treatment was often discouraged because members believed God would provide healing.
Even glasses were deemed unnecessary, and legally blind without them, Maria remembers a hazy childhood filled with fear.
“It was a hard way to grow up. We were always in trouble and constantly fearing the end of the world,” she says.
“Even when I was punished for something I didn’t do, I’d be told it was punishment for the things I’d got away with.”
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Content retrieved from: https://www.newidea.com.au/news/children-of-god-cult-survivor/.
