Reclaiming Indigeneity Amongst Chicano Prison Inmates

• In Event: Latin@ Criminology Panel 4: Strategies of Resistance Among Immigrants, Students, and Prisoners

Abstract

The Chicano population is fast growing within the prison industrial complex as well as the forms in which Chicano prisoners practice their culture, including indigenous rituals. This qualitative study is guided by the following questions: (1) How do Chicano prison inmates practice their culture while incarcerated in the United States? (2) What elements of indigeneity are manifested by Chicanos while incarcerated, how and why? Through the frameworks of Chicana/Chicano Studies and Criminology, the lives of Chicano prison inmates and their artwork will be analyzed to see how they use indigeneity to reclaim their identity and history as well as resist oppression and colonialism through tattoo art, drawn artwork, and written work.

Author

• Anna Diaz Villela, University of California, Irvine