Portrait of a killer: art class in one of Mexico’s most notorious prisons

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2016, artist César Aréchiga talked one of Mexico’s most dangerous maximum security prisons into letting him run art classes for its inmates, many of them violent gang members. Could he really change their lives?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:10.4	This episode contains strong language.
0:13.2	Welcome to The Guardian Long Read, showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture,
0:18.6	politics and new thinking.
0:20.2	For the text version of this and all our long reads, go to TheGuardian.com forward slash
0:24.4	long read.
0:29.9	Portrait of a Killer.
0:31.9	Art class in one of Mexico's most notorious prisons.
0:36.5	By some Edwards.
0:39.3	Some names have been changed.
0:46.7	After two decades working in some of Mexico's toughest prisons, Warden Ankele Savalla thought
0:53.5	she had seen it all.
0:56.2	One morning in 2016, she arrived for work at Puente Grande Prism to find a local artist
1:03.0	waiting for her.
1:06.0	The man had recently completed a few workshops with inmates in another part of the prison
1:10.9	and had a proposal.
1:16.4	Speaking in rapid fire bursts, the artist told Ankele Savalla wanted to move into the maximum
1:22.1	security prison and leave there for six weeks.
1:25.8	In order to teach some of the country's most dangerous inmates how to paint.
1:31.9	Through art therapy, he would help them change their lives.
1:36.9	And he wanted to start with the veteran narcos of Mexico's violent drug war.
1:44.6	I was thinking, what is wrong with him?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Guardian, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Guardian and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.