Recently, an author of Voces Sin Fronteras had the opportunity to do an author talk at the District’s Central Detention Center (“DC Jail”) through our partners at Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop. Free Minds provides books, creative writing workshops, and peer support to DC youth who have been incarcerated as adults to help them achieve their education and career goals — and become powerful voices for change in the community. They host a book club in the DC Jail that meets once a week to read and discuss contemporary literature. The members choose what books to read democratically. In September, the Spanish book club Mentes Libres decided to read Voces Sin Fronteras, our collection of comic memoirs by young Latinx immigrants, and our partners at Free Minds invited an author to come speak! In this blog post, Erminia reflects on her experience talking to the book club:

“I never thought that it was going to be such a great experience. When I entered the building, I was nervous because it was my first time going to visit jail and I didn’t know how people were there. But in the end, I was impressed because through our activities I was able to meet men that were nice, respectful, and grateful, but they were pained to think of how society sees them because they are in jail. I realized that sometimes we, as a society, judge people in prison without knowing who they are. They’ve made mistakes in the past but now they are different, and they want to be a different person.

During the visit we talked about Voces Sin Fronteras. I told them why we wrote the book and what it was like to draw my story in the comic form. They told me about their experience reading the book as well. One man told us that he read the entire book in one night, because he couldn’t stop. He said he was reading and he wanted to know more and more and more until he finished. When he finished reading, our stories made him think about his life and his past, as well as reflect on what he’s doing now and what he wants to do in the future. I was grateful to hear the impact our stories had on him, even though I am younger than him, and what he was able to learn from me.

This is why I share my story, even though it is painful. Even though it is painful in the moment, it is healing. When you see someone telling their story and they’re crying, you think it’s making them feel bad, but it’s not really that. When I tell my story, it heals what is in my past. I might cry while I tell it, like I was during our visit at the jail. The men in the audience were crying too because they also have that pain inside. But I told them, if you never share it, that pain will never leave, it will always be there and you will never be able to share your story. The first time somebody tells their story, they probably won’t do it with the same confidence that I had during our visit. In the beginning it’s all tears and you think that this is bad for the person telling it, but it’s not. It will help you to heal inside, to be who you are, to speak out about your story.

I could tell that our book and our visit inspired the men to share their stories. They took time at the end of the visit to write, and they were focused and excited to do so. Our mission when we wrote Voces Sin Fronteras was to motivate those people that felt alone, and felt that they don’t have opportunities or don’t have voices. This visit was an opportunity to see that mission in action. I was happy to experience that and to see that my book could give some hope to people, but I was sad when it was time to leave and they had to stay there.”

Erminia’s visit inspired the men in the book club as much as they inspired her. “We love author visits,” a Free Mind’s representative told us, “because you can really see the inspiration and excitement...so [the book club members think] if she can do that, maybe I can do it too.” We saw this to be true during Erminia’s visit: the men shared that they were inspired to read more books after meeting Erminia and to write more and share their own stories. They gave each other hope that despite all of the obstacles and challenges in their pasts, they can go on to make a positive change in the future.