Lessons from the Chicano (Prison) Movement: Political and Artistic Resistance

Within our contemporary context of “escalating violence, the rise of white nationalism, authoritarian regimes, genocide and state-led violence around the world” marginalized communites and the arts/humanities have been harshly targeted. We have witnessed direct and indirect violence exemplified by the executions of protesters and funding cuts to educational institutions, just to give two examples. As a response to today’s systems of oppression, we can take lessons from our past, specifically revolutionaries that mobilized both in political and artistic spaces. Raúl R. Salinas (1934-2008), was a renowned poet, community organizer, prisoner and youth advocate, and intellectual of the Chicano Movement. In November 1972, Salinas was finally released after more than a decade in various prisons. His years of incarceration produced the spark for his poetry which has been celebrated worldwide. Prison also radicalized him and spurred his concientización as a working class, Indigenous Chicano from Texas. After his release, Salinas joined various radical movements, taught at universities, kept writing and publishing, and eventually returned to his hometown of Austin, Texas. Here, he founded Resistencia Bookstore, Red Salmon Arts, and Save Our Youth. These community and cultural spaces are still open and providing resources to local communities. As part of his post-prison work, Salinas dedicated himself to local, national, and international movements through his work at Seattle-based Centro de La Raza, a member of the International Indian Treaty Council, an organizer of the 1976 Trail of Tears march to Washington, a leader of the Free Leonard Peltier Committee, an active spokesperson for for prison abolition. We have already seen, here in Western Mass, the formation and rise of alternative institutions. Namely, community structures to transform solidarity coalitions into lasting institutions that can hold war profiteers accountable, ensure mutual aid, build self-defense resilience, and provide first aid and street medic training. In my presentation, I seek to connect Salinas’ activism, specifically his prison organizing (which was both educational and approved by the prison and subversive against the prison) with the kind of alternative institutions that are being built locally to create political education, community protection, and collective power to fight against repression and violence. Salinas’ work and life provide inspiration and practical guidance for today’s struggles and movements. My doctoral research and dissertation were on Salinas so I will be able to bring archival material, poetry, and multimedia content to provide historical, political, and artistic context.