Her 23-year-old son pu:n:c:hed her in the face. The next day she prepared a banquet for him, but the young man never imagined who was waiting for him at the table.

At 54, she had carried the burden of a fractured family for far too long. Her son Diego, now 23, was no longer the loving boy she once knew—he had become angry, bitter, and unpredictable. After dropping out of college and …