This is Jorge Morales, he is a prisoner who arrived at Prison Unit 15 of Batán about 5 years ago, he is working in the space, specifically in the organic garden and is one of the benchmarks in the sector. In a brief dialogue, he details how he spent his time since he was admitted to prison, his time in the pavilions and his work in the garden in different spaces.
The afternoon had already put aside noon in the Liberté territory, in the organic garden sector he was still, although already finishing his daily work, Jorge, we propose to establish a dialogue and tell him that it is to be published, he tells us smiling , and what a problem there is!, so he invites us to sit on an improvised cement bench, which is used to mate in the moments of rest in the garden, while he smokes a cigarette that when he takes out the puff of smoke he squeezes it by the filter with his fingers, we tell him that we want him to answer us, again he gives us the authorization to do it with a very folksy exit, “just put it in”, so we look for the recording application on the cell phone and we begin to record the dialogue.
He tells us that he arrived in prison five years ago and was placed in pavilion six where in the patio of that place in a sector of it, he started a garden. He also recounts that they lived there two to a cell, the characteristic of that place is that they practice spiritual matters of Christianity there, and although he felt fine almost a year later along with other companions from that pavilion by order of the Prison Headquarters he was removed to pavilion 3, which was settling for a population of older people.
There he lives from then to date, a place where he also says he feels satisfied, detailing that he lives one by one per cell, being a very quiet place and considering that there is so much communion between those who live there that for him it is like a big family. .
Returning to the labor issue, he indicates that upon his arrival at pavilion three he meets Carlos Tótaro, who was the benchmark for that place along with his brother Matías and, knowing that Carlos was running a vegetable garden which he called "The Winners", he asks him to go out to work in that orchard, other colleagues do the same and together they begin a new stage.
The work is carried out for almost two years under the training of INTA, who provided knowledge, a guide that adhered to the work that was done there.
After some time, an invitation is received from Liberté so that this group of vegetable gardeners belonging to Los Vencedores merges with the first mentioned, a situation that is accepted and they all move to the sector where a laundry used to work.
There they have to work to prepare the place both inside and outside, and thus the land of the place begins to be worked, among other things, to leave it in conditions for sowing and cultivation.
He tells us about his good relationship with colleagues who come from different pavilions and are of different ages, in addition to the excellent relationship with the co-coordinators of the space, who have entrusted him with the orchard sector as one of the referents, along with another partner, and also since Liberté decided to take the step of faith to officially become a cooperative, he is a founding member of the place.
He adds that there, as in the pavilion where he lives, there is respect between people and that this is very good since they work in peace, they share a plate of food every noon, emphasizing that these are situations that give him well-being.
Lastly, he mentions that he would never have imagined that when he entered prison he would be so calm and would do the work he has done for years outside the walls and that he would receive technical knowledge as INTA continues to do today.
He tells us in the end that he feels happy despite everything, referring to the confinement, and that now he hopes for a soon exit benefit to reunite with his family.
We say goodbye, we thank him for the opportunity to have interviewed him and we leave thinking that despite having to go through bad circumstances, a person can still get up and show that he is a useful person, erasing that of the one who is imprisoned is irretrievable, this man's will for a change is one of many examples observed in Liberté that is very good for everyone.
Source: Liberte