Vanessa Guillen’s Family Pushed Hard To Get A Big Law Passed In Her Memory

Korin Miller
·6 min read
i am vanessa guillen act mayra lupe guillen
Where Are Vanessa Guillen's Mom And Sisters Now?Tom Williams - Getty Images


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Netflix’s newest documentary, I Am Vanessa Guillen, tells the disturbing story of a 20-year-old Army specialist named Vanessa Guillen. She was bludgeoned to death by a fellow soldier, Aaron Robinson, at Texas' Fort Hood, and her family’s heroic response in the aftermath of her murder.

The documentary features interviews with Vanessa’s sisters and mother, who explain that Vanessa told them she was being sexually harassed by a superior just before she went missing. They also talk about how hard it was to get answers from the Army after Vanessa’s April 2020 disappearance from her Texas military base, and how they rallied their own army of supporters to uncover the truth—and change the way the military handled accusations of sexual abuse and assault in the future.

But who are Vanessa Guillen’s mom and sister, and where are they now? Here’s what you need to know.

Who is Vanessa Guillen’s mom?

Gloria Guillen, who shares Vanessa and her two sisters with her husband Rogelio, is featured in the documentary. In the doc, she explains that Vanessa told her “things aren’t as they seem” at Fort Hood, and says that her concerns about her daughter were brushed aside by the Army.

Gloria talked about her daughter’s death in an interview with the American Statesman in 2021. "My heart will always be sad. I will never be the same ever again because I'm missing one of my children,” she said. "My life changed, and not just for me but for my children. It's going to be a year, and I haven't found justice."

Who are Vanessa Guillen’s sisters?

Vanessa Guillen’s sisters Mayra and Lupe, both of whom grew up with Vanessa in Houston, have been very outspoken about the need for change after seeing how their sister's case was handled.

“She was taken away from me in the most horrible way, yet they take it as if it was a joke,” Vanessa's younger sister, Lupe, told ABC 30 Houston in reference to the Army. “My sister is no joke. My sister's a human being just like me, her, all of us.”

Lupe continued, “Speak about it, because we cannot let this happen again. My sister was taken away. She could have been your sister, your friend.”

Vanessa’s older sister Mayra also told ABC 30 that she “still can’t accept” what happened to her little sister, Vanessa. “It’s been really like I'm dreaming, and I just don't accept it. It's been really hard.”

They pushed for a new laws.

Vanessa’s family rallied supporters and asked legislators to create new laws that would better address sexual misconduct in the military—and they were successful in their advocacy efforts.

In July of 2020, right after Vanessa's body was found, Gloria, Mayra, Lupe, and Vanessa’s father, Rogelio, met with then-president Donald Trump to talk about her death and the need for change.

"As you know, the FBI and the DOJ are now involved. We got them involved,” Trump told Gloria, per CNN. “And people at Fort Hood, where it took place, are very much involved. We didn't want to have this swept under the rug.”

The family eventually helped shape the "I Am Vanessa Guillen Act," which attempted to address “the response of the Department of Defense to sex-related offenses committed against members of the Armed Forces, including allowing a member to confidentially allege a complaint of sexual harassment to an individual outside the immediate chain of command of that member,” per the act. The overall goal was to revamp the way sexual assault allegations are handled in the military.

Did the new law pass?

A quick update on that: In January of 2022, some parts of the bill took effect under the National Defense Authorization Act, the Texas Tribune reported. Among other things, the new law says that commanders can’t be involved in military sexual harassment or sexual assault investigations, per the Tribune.

Vanessa's family also filed a lawsuit for her wrongful death.

The Guillen's filed a $35 million wrongful death and assault lawsuit against the Army in August of 2022, about two years after her disappearance and death, the Texas Tribune reports.

The family’s attorney, Natalie Khawam, said in the claim that Vanessa was sexually harassed and assaulted during her time in the military, and that she was murdered as a result. “Why would anyone think, ‘Let me go sign up and serve our country, fight for our country, take bullets, be maimed, die for our country,’ yet when it comes to something as a horrible as sexual assault or something, they don’t have any recourse?” Khawam told the Tribune.

If the Army denies the claim, Khawam said she plans to file a federal lawsuit in California since Vanessa told her mom she was sexually harassed in 2019 at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, the Tribune says—which the Army wrote about in their investigation.

Where are her mom and sisters now?

The family continues to try to shape military reform in the wake of Vanessa's murder. Mayra has taken on a full-time activism role, and recently posed for a photo with Khawam from the White House, where Khawam wrote that they had a “strong meeting” with officials. “We AREN’T finished, we are still fighting! Victims need & deserve more rights. We need legislation that will allow victims compensation!” she wrote.

Mayra told ABC News last year that the new law honors her sister "in the best way possible."

"This has been a very hard time for us," she said. "These almost two years of fighting for justice and fighting for what's right has been very exhausting. There's a trauma to all of this, but thank God that we're here today."

On LinkedIn, Mayra writes that she is "President of the I am Vanessa Guillen Foundation" and she has been posting lots of TikToks lately.

Lupe, on the other hand, recently graduated from high school and is reported to be pursuing journalism in college, per Bustle.

I Am Vanessa Guillen is now streaming on Netflix.

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