Volume 4, Number 2 - Spring 2006
In Gente
y Cuentos NJ Inmates Learn from Each Other
by Anndee Hochman
A poster on the door declares, in bright print, “doing what is right isn’t always easy, but it’s always right.”
But inside the classroom at Garden State Correctional Center, where seven men gather to read a story by Gabriel García Márquez, life and truth and “doing the right thing” become more complicated.
In today’s story, “La Prodigiosa Tarde de Baltazar” (“Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon”), a poor carpenter fashions an elaborate birdcage. His wife urges him to sell it for a high price, but instead he gives it to the son of a rich man. Was that a good decision? Will Balthazar make more birdcages? What is Márquez saying about the rich?
Marcy Schwartz, who has led Gente y Cuentos at the prison since 1998, poses the questions; the men jump to answer. “Es una buena decision,” says Emilio. It was a good decision. But Balthazar’s wife won’t agree. When Balthazar gets home, he can tell her he gave the birdcage as a gift: “El dinero, no es todo,” Emilio says. Money isn’t everything.
The men talk about gifts they have received—“mi bicicleta,” says Juan—and gifts they’ve given. At one point, Mario jumps up to mime Balthazar, in a surge of generosity, buying beer for a crowd of villagers.
“Los ricos quieren más y más y más,” he says. Rich people want more and more. But when you give a gift from your heart, “la gente se siente bien.” People feel good. The men agree that the birdcage was such a gift.
After the discussion, the men linger to talk about Gente y Cuentos. Mario says he goes to al the education programs the prison offers, even if some inmates tease him about his seriousness. Moises doesn’t usually attend prison programs, but Gente y Cuentos appealed to him. “I love stories. I like hearing about what’s happening to other people.”
This is Marvin’s third Gente y Cuentos series. “I really love it because we read the stories and relate them to our lives. We see connections between the stories and things that happen to us out in the street. I appreciate everybody’s experiences as they share them in the group. A lot of the stories are about love between people—fathers, mothers, families. It’s important to be reminded that people caring for each other is what matters.”
Luis was nervous in his first Gente y Cuentos session. He hadn’t learned much in school. “Learning from other people’s experience is a way to make adjustments in yourself,” he says.
“Me gustan mucho las historias, las opinions que nos damos.” I like the stories very much, the opinions we give, says Emilio. “Seeing how much we discover in each story.”
Juan says the program has taught him to read better—both the stories and himself. “It’s been very helpful to be reminded of who we really are inside,” he says. “We’ve done some bad things; we’ve done some good things. It’s a way to get inside and appreciate parts of ourselves.”