This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Learning Mexican folk guitar inside Avenal State Prison. Photo by Peter Merts, courtesy of the California Arts Council.
ACTA’s Arts in Corrections Program Featured on Radio Bilingüe
Reporters Tena Rubio and Rubén Tapia from the national Latino public radio network Radio Bilingüe went inside several California state prisons ACTA serves through our Arts in Corrections program. They documented the sounds of communal music workshops and intense spoken word poetry sessions, and spoke to participants, artists, and correctional officers about how traditional arts practices can change the outlook of incarcerated individuals.
“I feel like this is going to be my redemption in a way, when I get out. Not to prove anybody wrong, but just to show myself there was more to my life than the gang lifestyle. It gives you a tremendous sense of hope.”—Jose Salazar, Mexican folk guitar student, Avenal State Prison
Click below to listen to the stories in both Spanish and English.