Funturo.

Dear listener, just a little warning, there's some explicit language in this episode.

These methodologies and these perspectives of carcerality and punishment have been exported

from the United States to El Salvador.

And I think what we're seeing now is a moment that is American carceral ideology in hands

with a president who has dictator leanings.

From Funturo Media and PRX, it's Latino USA, I'm Maria Inohosa.

Today, prison abolitionist and poet Christopher Soto takes us to El Salvador during a state

of exception.

Christopher Soto started writing poetry when he was in first grade.

He remembers his very first poem.

Miss Vice is nice and she likes rice.

So it was my first grade attempt at monosyllabic and dream, valiant effort by Little Me.

Christopher was born in California but he remained tied to his parents' home country of El Salvador.

As he got older, Christopher started writing about difficult experiences that he was going

through.

At that time, I was experiencing domestic violence and that's when I really saw how

survivors are criminalized and how survivors are punished.

For example, one time police were called on me for taking my father's car and fleeing my home.

I was seeking safety but the police were called as if I were committing grand theft.

And then in graduate school, Christopher's poems started focusing more on policing and prison abolition.

This was just before the start of the Black Lives Matter movement and many of those people

...