Full Description
RaÚl R. Salinas is regarded as one of today's most important Chicano poets and human rights activists, but his passage to this place of distinction took him through four of the most brutal prisons in the country. His singular journey from individual alienation to rage to political resistance reflected the social movements occurring inside and outside of prison, making his story both personal and universal.
This groundbreaking collection of Salinas' journalism and personal correspondence from his years of incarceration and following his release provides a unique perspective into his spiritual, intellectual, and political metamorphosis. The book also offers an insider's view of the prison rebellion movement and its relation to the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The numerous letters between Salinas and his family, friends, and potential allies illustrate his burgeoning political awareness of the cause and conditions of his and his comrades' incarceration and their link to the larger political and historical web of social relations between dominant and subaltern groups. These collected pieces, as well as two interviews with Salinas-one conducted upon his release from prison in 1972, the second more than two decades later-reveal to readers the transformation of Salinas from a street hipster to a man seeking to be a part of something larger than himself. Louis Mendoza has painstakingly compiled a body of work that is autobiographical, politically insurgent, and representative.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: RaÚl Salinas and the Poetics of Human Transformation
Section I: Salinas' Journalism
Articles from The Echo, Texas State Prison, Huntsville
Quartered Notes (January 1964-May 1965, Monthly Columns)
"So Much Mystery, So Much Misunderstanding," Thanksgiving Day, 1964
Articles from AztlÁn de Leavenworth, Kansas Federal Penitentiary
"On the Hitory of C.O.R.A. and AztlÁn"
AztlÁn's Statement of Philosophy (Numero 1, AÑo 1, 5 de Mayo de 1970
"Music for the Masses" (NÚmero 1, AÑo 2, 2 de Febrero de 1972)
"Editor's Notes" (NÚmero 1, AÑo 2, 2 de Febrero de 1972)
"Repaso" (NÚmero Uno, AÑo Dos, 2 de Febrero de 1972)
Articles from New Era, Kansas Federal Penitentiary, Leavenworth
"New Era, Now Era: Note from the Editor" (Fall 1970, 4-5)
"Sometimes, Champs Turn Up in the Strangest Places" (Fall 1970, 42-45)
"An Essay on Semantics in the Joint" (Spring 1971, 25)
Article from EntrelÍneas, Penn Valley Community College, Kansas City, Missouri
"Portrait of an Artist" (Vol. 1, no. 5-6, pp. 3-5)
Section II: Flying Kites to the World: Letters, 1968-1974
Section III: The Marion Strike: Journals from "el pozo"
"Seeking Justice and Liberation" (August 5, 1972)
"Call to Action" (July 17, 1972)
Section IV: Post-Prison Interviews
"Resisting Mindfuck," from Sunfighter (1974)
Una PlÁtica con RaÚl Salinas: An Interview by Ben OlguÍn and Louis Mendoza (1994)
Bibliography
