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.As Mendoza notes, “Though Salinas is renowned in certain literary and political circles, he is not so exceptional [my emphasis] a figure that he is known by all.Rather, what we have here is a portrait of someone who is exceptional in his ability to be representative of a good portion of the more than two million people currently caught upveconnect.com - licensed toin the criminal justice machinery of this nation” (2006, 4).palgraExceptional and representative: in these journalistic writings, poetry, and editorials, and in correspondence between Salinas and representatives of the Chicano,om wwwPuerto Rican, black, and American Indian social movements of the time, Salinas consistently shares with us the stories of struggle that he was involved in without necessarily focusing on his own role.Indio Trails: A Xicano Odyssey through Indian Country is a long overdue chap-yright material frbook or chronicle that includes poems written between 1974 and 1999.As SalinasCopwrites in the preface, “Now it is done—the circle is complete; and so is this collection of writings, both of which were so difficult and painful to finalize.” As in previous publications, in these poems, the journey and the writing overlap in Salinas’s immediate post-prison experiences in the Pacific Northwest, where Salinas went, in self-imposed exile, “to try out my wings so-to-speak, my political wings; or to see if I was real, to see if it had worked, to see if I wasn’t jivin’.They were tests on to myself.” These medicine poems narrate his experience during the 1970s: the struggles of the American Indian movement, the Centro de la Raza communitycenter in Seattle, prison organizing and political prisoners, solidarity with Central 10.1057/9780230101470 - Behind Bars, Edited by Suzanne Obolerpal-oboler-13.indd 213pal-oboler-13.indd 2139/9/09 10:26 AM9/9/09 10:26 AM214 ALAN ELADIO GÓMEZAmerican revolutionary movements, and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee.They also give voice to the intimate relationship between individual and collective transformation and struggle.Born in San Antonio in 1934, Salinas grew up on the East Side of Austin.From 1957 to 1972, he spent approximately twelve years in four of the nation’s most brutal prisons—Soledad State Prison (California), Huntsville State Prison (Texas), Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary (Kansas), and Marion Federal Penitentiary (Illinois).Inspired by the writings and actions of revolutionary theorist George Jackson, the Puerto Rican Independentista fighters, and radical Chicanos with whom he organized inside the walls, the prison years marked Salinas’s remarkable transformation from individual alienation to political resistance, reflecting the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, circulating across the globe.Since the 1980s, and after five years of teaching at St.Edward’s University in Austin, Salinas has run a bookstore, Resistencia Books, a small press, Red Salmon, in Austin, and hasveConnect - 2011-05-06lectured and taught at universities throughout the country.algraAs poet Joy Harjo has written, raúlsalinas is “a troubadour of justice” who “makes his way through our generation’s history with his songs of truth.Some songs are ele-tium - Pgies, some love songs, some are howling at the moon, some pure witness.”The following interview was conducted on June 21, 2006, in Austin, Texas.AG: In a letter to Michael Deutsch, human rights lawyer with the People’s Law Office, you explained that the “prison was a backyard for of colonialism.” Raúl, can you talk about “backyard colonialism” and the prison rebellion years and howaiwan eBook ConsorTpolitical education was related to engaging with movements outside of the walls, emerging from experiences you had with other inmates inside the walls?RS: Well, the prison rebellion years.Though its not an original term, I am not sure who else used it during that period, other than the people who were in Leavenworth federal penitentiary and, later, those of us that went to the Control Unit in Marion [federal penitentiary].Maybe five years earlier, the end of the sixties, were some very exciting times socially and politically, everything justveconnect.com - licensed toexploded, and those were some incredible times that many professors and college.palgrapeople don’t like to deal with.In like manner, the prison rebellion years were very exciting times.Even though they were very physically brutal and mentally devas-om wwwtating, they were some very critical highlight moments in history, I would think, in social movements.Because we weren’t just challenging the state in an irrational, inane way, but we were very clearly outlining our arena of struggle and what we had to deal with.The fact that people were becoming educated, helping each otheryright material frto go into higher learning, to read books critically, to become writers and paint-Copers and prison barristers or, more commonly known, jail-house lawyers.So, those times were very exciting, very frightening, because there was a transformation taking place.And this was happening throughout the country, no doubt about that.But we were focused on our arena of struggle, which happened to be the federal joint at the time—Leavenworth federal penitentiary, and later, Marion.It was a time of organizing and turning each other on to new materials that we never had the opportunity to hold in our hands, much less read; new languages that we were learning, new concepts, new paradigms, that began to make it clear to us that it was part of a colonial mindset.This is the captives, this is the renegades, these are 10.1057/9780230101470 - Behind Bars, Edited by Suzanne Obolerpal-oboler-13.indd 214pal-oboler-13.indd 2149/9/09 10:26 AM9/9/09 10:26 AM“TROUBADOUR OF JUSTICE” 215the ones who will not conform to the reservation or the plantation, and we must deal with them.So, how did the state deal with us, the feds in this case, but the state overall?The way the state deals with any captive, military or otherwise.It’s about brutal, physical assaults to mental pressures, that go into the clinical, which go into the mind-altering drugs, which go into the attempts to deprive one of one’s senses and shake-up one’s sense of equilibrium, and confusion setting in.These were all tactics that were brought in very calculated by the administration at Marion, which became some of the first models, under the director, Dr.Martin Groder, there at Marion.1 They tried to domesticate us, to pacify us, to control us, to render us helpless, powerless, but they didn’t succeed.And so, those were very rewarding stories that we have to guide us today, that we can share still with the young people, about what the hell struggle is about, what the hell transformation is about.I mean as painful.you know, you cry, you hurt, you question, you are confused,veConnect - 2011-05-06you move on, you consult, you sit in communion with your comrades.algraAG: You talk about a “we” and an “us [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]