Join the Rutgers Center for Latin American Studies for their "Violences in Latin America" Talk Series featuring Illinois Anthropology alumna Dr. Grazzia Grimaldi (Princeton University) for her talk "LAS REJAS NO CALLARÁN LA VERDAD" (BARS WILL NOT SILENCE THE TRUTH): FAMILY ORGANIZING, SOCIAL REPRODUCTION OF LIFE, AND JUSTICE REIMAGINING UNDER EL SALVADOR'S CARCERAL STATE on April 17, 2025 at 7 PM EST via ZOOM.
Abstract: El Salvador’s carceral politics have intensified in recent years, with mass arrests leading to the detention of over 81,000 people without access to due process under a state of exception targeting gangs and fueled by authoritarian politics. Often erased in this global narrative is the rise of movements of families of the incarcerated, who are organizing to demand a space where “Las Rejas No Callarán la Verdad” (Bars Will Not Silence the Truth). Drawing inspiration from Susana Draper’s move to articulate two feminist traditions for the abolition of the prison-industrial complex in the U.S. and against the crisis of social reproduction in Latin America, this talk considers one of these movements at the intersection of these two feminist traditions. Through a framework of “carceral intimacies,” I consider how families of incarcerated people have become unevenly instrumentalized by El Salvador’s carceral state in sustaining the lives of inmates and how they reimagine forms of justice in defending life in prisons under El Salvador’s carceral state.