JULIA ARROYO ASKED the crowd to rise to their feet and face the four directions — north, south, east and west. The people stood up and raised their hands to the sky, kneeled, and touched the ground, while Arroyo blew trumpet-like sounds through a large seashell.
Arroyo, the executive director of the San Francisco-based Young Women’s Freedom Center, is a descendant of the Aztec nation. She performed this ancient ritual to kick off the first Hispanic Heritage Month event in the chapel at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.
“This shows respect for the ancestors,” she said. “We’re asking our higher power to allow us to have a happy event.”
Arroyo, whose organization is a nonprofit that provides services to young women in the community and prison, said, “It’s important to know your roots. It’s time to connect and get back to our roots.”
Twenty-two flags representing different Latin nations hung from a mantel, and some flags decorated dining tables. A diverse crowd of about 200 incarcerated people and guests were seated. Flags from the United States, Spain, El Salvador, Mexico, and many other nations united the room in community.
San Quentin is normally a place where different ethnic groups separate themselves from each other. But this event brought people together who were Latin, white, Black, Asian and Polynesian. After an opening prayer and a blessing, the smoke of sage was spread around the room over the people.
Ryan Pagan, the incarcerated host of the event, opened with a brief history.
“Hispanic Heritage Week began in 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson,” he said. “It didn’t extend to a month-long event until 1988.”
Pagan helped plan the event.
“I learned about my roots while in prison,” he said. “I am Puerto Rican. There is this pull toward finding out where you come from and knowing what purpose you serve in this life.
“As a Puerto Rican, I know I have to know how to dance,” Pagan said smiling.
Out of the shadows
Alfonzo Landa, another incarcerated individual, helped plan the event with Pagan.
“Having this event is important because Hispanic people are the largest and most underrepresented group in the community,” Landa said. “We often live in the shadows.”
Landa is also a founder of a leisure group called Wallbusters, which uses games to bridge the gap between a diverse community of incarcerated people.
“For me this event is about breaking down social barriers between cultures,” he said. “We have to come together as a community among ourselves, before we can do it with officers.”
“For me this event is about breaking down social barriers between cultures,” he said. “We have to come together as a community among ourselves, before we can do it with officers.”
Alfonzo Landa, Hispanic Heritage Month event co-organizer
The festivities began with 12 incarcerated men with tattooed arms, chests, and shoulders who entered the chapel, dancing to the sound of a drum. The Cuauhtemoc dancers, as they call themselves, wore thin white tank tops, gray shorts, and black bandanas on their heads. They moved in sequence, dancing to the four elements: water, air, fire, and earth. The men kept tempo with the drum, which represented the heartbeat of the ancient Aztec culture.
“When we dance, we are giving thanks to the ancestors and each element represents a certain dance,” said Aristeo Sampablo, a dancer. “We have to keep up with the drum; if it goes fast, we go fast,” he said.
This event was sponsored by the Ella Baker Center For Human Rights, a nonprofit organization that works to provide services to people in communities, jails, and prisons.
The organization paid for all the food served to about 200 participants. Incarcerated waiters delivered tortilla chips, salsa and guacamole, to each table, along with sodas. They then delivered plates of cheese and chicken enchiladas, black beans and rice. Marlene Sanchez, executive director at the center, helped cook the food brought into the prison.
“When I heard about this event, I was like, ‘I’m in,’” she said. “There were so many people from the community who wanted to help support and donate things.”
‘This is about all of us’
Sanchez’s father served 25 years in prison. She visited him often while growing up. She also served short stints in jail, but she has been working to help rebuild her community for more than a decade.
“Learning about your culture is healing,” said Sanchez. “Without a connection to your cultural roots, there is so much opportunity to go down the wrong path.”
Sanchez said her goal is always about bringing the entire community together.
“We are all connected, African, Asian, Latin. The drum goes across cultures, even our dancing, so this is about all of us,” she said.
Throughout the event, Latin bands played different styles of music. When an incarcerated band called Bori-Cuba began to play, one by one, people got up and started Cumbia dancing.
Gabriella Licata, a volunteer professor at Mount Tamalpais College, an independent college inside the prison, danced with the crowd.
“This event is convivial,” she said. “Full of food, fun, and good company. When I dance, I am happy. I feel like I’m with my family,” she said.
At the closing of the dancing and the music, everyone received small bags of Spanish candies. The microphone was passed around the room where different ethnic groups showed gratitude for being invited to the event.
“We really want to make this a two-day event next year,” said Pagan. “We want to have a larger event on the yard and a smaller one like this in the evening. We hope to be able to invite many more guests into the prison and have different ethnic groups be in community with us to celebrate our cultures together again.”
Steve Brooks is a California Local News Fellow with Bay City News Foundation, reporting from inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. His perspective gives readers insight into issues and news from inside the prison. See more of his work at Inside/Out on Local News Matters.
The post Hispanic Heritage Month celebration bridges cultural divide for San Quentin incarcerated appeared first on Local News Matters.