"Letras hechas a mano": New Writing Workshop and a Painting Class Behind Bars
This past summer I returned to Mérida to launch a new writing workshop in the new U.S.-funded women’s prison (CERESOFE), along with the...
Observing the Elections in the Pueblos
[I interrupt my regular coverage on prison writing to present a photo journal of a day and night spent outside Mérida observing this...
Spelling Bee in the CERESOFE
Tuesday, June 19, 2018 Yesterday was my first visit to the medium-security federal prison (CERESOFE) since I arrived in Mérida on...
Entre sueños y sombras: Zindy Abreu on Prison Writing
Zindy Abreu Barón is the talented writer, singer, poet, chess player, and mother whose friendship inspired me to teach writing at the...
Lope Avila on Prison Writing Workshops
Hello readers! I have returned to UCLA for the academic year. However, memories of Mérida are still fresh in my mind and I hope to...
Nos contamos a través de los muros (We Tell our Stories Through these Walls)
Last week, we held two book presentation events in Mérida. The first was at the Cereso de Mérida, during the closure of the writing...
Special Session: Book Planning!
In a context such as a prison in which the right to make many decisions has been denied to people, it is especially important in the...
Day Four: Mayhem in the Medical Wing, and Yelena tells the story of Juan Pistolas
Yesterday we returned to the topic of ghosts and monsters in local and Mayan mythology. Upon our arrival, we were told to wait. A...
Day three: Of ghosts and monsters: Other voices from the CERESO de Mérida
“What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself again and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still alive, a...
Day Two: The Center of Our Universe
Monday was the second workshop in the CERESO. The women were slow to arrive to class, and for a while I thought they might not come. It...