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MEXICAN
RASHES -
PART 1
Contraband, Commerce, and Art in One of Mexico’s Most Overcrowded Prisons
BY ANTONIO VEGA MACOTELA, AS TOLD TO GABRIELLA GÓMEZ-MONT
In exchange for my being the witness of his son’s first steps, Superaton spent the three hours that I was with his son cataloguing the cigarette butts in his cell. |
I have been going to jail once a week for the past two years now. I stay for about seven hours each time, which means that as of now I have spent more than 500 hours in prison. The first time I went I was truly scared. There are more than 2,500 men in this jail and when they saw this outsider coming into their world, let’s just say that they were not happy at first. They would constantly jostle me as I walked through the grounds. They would yell from afar, and a few times right up in my face, about how they were going to kick my ass. Many times they tried to steal my bags of materials. It was horrible, and I often wondered if I was an idiot, putting myself at risk for an art project. I had a knot in my stomach every time I arrived at the gate. Fortunately, since then I have made some friends among the inmates, and now they make sure that everyone behaves around me. It’s only the prisoners themselves who can guarantee your safety in there, not the guards or anybody else. Whether it’s comfortable to admit it or not, it is the prisoners who rule this prison—especially since there is a ratio of 1 guard to every 100 inmates. It’s only their weird power structure made up of dominant guards and dominant prisoners that keeps it all relatively calm. I started going to the prison because I have been working on art that deals with the concept of time for more than six years now. Time has been appropriated by institutions. They’ve taken it away from us. In this somewhat Marxist mind-frame, I clearly saw that time has been transformed into production and then production into distribution. Our work time is converted into salary, and our leisure time into consumption. So we can actually represent and measure time with bills and coins. In the instant that time is transformed into hours, minutes, and seconds instead of experiences, well, then time has been taken from us. It has become objective instead of subjective. But time is not a representation. The only way one can feel time is through the free acts and personal moments that we create within it. And following this train of thought, I came to the conclusion that a prison is a kind of physical representation of this idea of appropriated time. Doing time—doing time for others, abiding other people’s instructions. So I started visiting a jail to get a better understanding of this concept. The jail I picked is in Santa Martha Acatitla. It started out as a “model” prison 12 years ago. They would only admit people who were first offenders and given less than ten years of jail time, and they supposedly had all sorts of progressive social programs. But things have changed a lot since then. Jails all over Mexico are overflowing. Most Mexican prisons are 35 percent over their intended capacity, and it is getting worse day by day, in large part because of this whole government campaign going on right now to crack down on the drug mafia. There is nowhere to hold all of them. They send all the leftovers from other jails to Santa Martha Acatitla. You can find people inside that will be there for 20, 30, even 50 years. There is a women’s jail and a men’s jail, side by side. The women’s has about 1,500 inmates and the men’s has about 2,500. Both are overpopulated. They often cram 12 or more prisoners into a cell that was designed for 8. 
In exchange for my giving Fernando’s mother a birthday celebration, Fernando spent the exact hours that I was with her finding every scar on his body and writing down the story of how he got it.
TO BE CONTINUED
MEXICAN RASHES | 1 | 2 | 3 |
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Jul 9, 2009 wrote:
Time is truly the essence. The closer you look at it, the harder it is to see. The only thing I would like to see added to this wonderful project is something about the non-visual sense of time. How does smell measure time? What does your skin feel like after a day in a cell? Does taste have a daily cycle, an annual rhythm? Where can I go to see your work exhibited? Where can I buy it? | | Anonymous, on Nov 18, 2008 wrote:
pinche putos | | Anonymous, on Jul 18, 2008 wrote:
I found this article really interesting. At the very least it certainly beings our attention to issues of overcrowding in prisons. I love the way it’s written and the way it sort of re-humanizes the inmates. The comment made by one of the inmates about the art of simply existing in the prison made me see the homemade implements in a different way- they almost look like artifacts from a primitive time when people were just trying to survive. | | Anonymous, on Jul 6, 2008 wrote:
ummm not only does Mexico suck but this article found a way to be even more retarded than a country full of half twits in sombreros. Not only is this vaguely homo erotic, cliche Marxist nonsense, but it is of absolutely no social value. You know how I know time has passed, because I regret reading this horse crap. | | Anonymous, on Jun 30, 2008 wrote:
it seems like the last four comments were all written by the same person... same style of typing and same general idea in the posts.... but whatever.
really cool article though. particularly the final page, and seeing the inventiveness of prisoners. | | Anonymous, on Jun 27, 2008 wrote:
Yeah I second third fourth the motion that this is the best "avant gardish" art project I have ever read about in Vice or any other publication. Full on smart, and has such a value to society. These days I think Mexico needs more brave souls like this dude. Congrats for bringing a great country that has gone down the tubes back somewhat closer to a civilized society. | | Anonymous, on Jun 26, 2008 wrote:
Aw I want to marry him. | | Anonymous, on Jun 26, 2008 wrote:
Wow! What an interesting discourse on time and relativity. This art project was well thought out and the article was beautifully written, challenging my intellect and speaking directly to my soul. There is a wealth of revelation knowledge to be found here and the author’s work borderlines genius. I look forward to reading more from him in the future. | | Anonymous, on Jun 26, 2008 wrote:
I absolutely loved the article.
Everything about it was just awesome.
The stories, the art, the experiences, the honesty about it, just captures it.
Congratulations,
viva mexico! | | Anonymous, on Jun 25, 2008 wrote:
This has got to be one of the better articles I’ve seen in Vice for a while... vice has been lacking in this kind of stuff a little bit. Bring more :) | | Anonymous, on Jun 24, 2008 wrote:
who gives a fuck if you cant see them you douche bags. Try staying in jail for 7 hours and keepin’ them cheeks tight ladies. you CANT cover that scar with a sharpie now can you?
TYPO!!!! Dont kick my ass | | Anonymous, on Jun 24, 2008 wrote:
who gives a fuck if you cant see them you douche bags. Try staying in jail for 7 hours and keepin’ them cheeks tight ladies. you can cover that scar with a sharpie now can you? | |
| bonerdreamz69, on Jun 24, 2008 wrote:
I think the scars may be difficult to see because he has written all over them. | | Anonymous, on Jun 24, 2008 wrote:
what scars?
pssssh, fell off the swings? | | |
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