6:30pm Tuesday October 27, 2009, UT Austin Community Engagement Center, 1009 E. 11th St.

Red Salmon Arts presents: Chicana Lives and Criminal Justice: Voices from El Barrio: Lecture, Book Signing, & Performance with scholar/activist Juanita Díaz-Cotto (Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Area Studies Program at SUNY-Binghamton)

This first comprehensive study of Chicanas encountering the U.S. criminal justice system is set within the context of the international war on drugs as witnessed at street level in Chicana/o barrios. Chicana Lives and Criminal Justice uses oral history to chronicle the lives of twenty-four Chicana pintas (prisoners/former prisoners) repeatedly arrested and incarcerated for non-violent, low-level economic and drug-related crimes.

It also provides the first documentation of the thirty-four-year history of Sybil Brand Institute, Los Angeles’ former women’s jail. Through her oral histories, Dr. Díaz-Cotto has given women who rarely have a voice—either in their own communities or in academic literature—an opportunity to tell their stories on their own terms. Their reflections are haunting and deeply affecting. Dr. Díaz-Cotto specializes in grounding the experiences of Chicanas and female prisoners in the everyday, lived experiences of women across America.