Last semester, Spanish instructor Izaskun Kortazar took her students on an unlikely field trip: to prison. This semester, Kortazar is preparing to do it again.
In 303 Advanced Spanish Conversation and Composition, a class with a strong service-learning component, students spend the semester not only practicing their speaking and reading skills, they take lessons on translation from a professional translator and then are tasked with translating letters written by Spanish-speaking prisoners for publication.
The class will culminate in a trip to the Idaho State Correctional Institution (ISCI), a men’s prison in Kuna that houses up to 1,688 medium-custody offenders. There, past the double fence patrolled by sentry dogs, Kortazar’s students will finally meet the inmates whose letters they’ve translated.
“When we were there in the spring, someone said ‘this is the first time in six years that I feel human and normal, that someone is not talking down to me,’” relayed Kortazar.
Kortazar got the idea for the translation project from Doran Larson, a professor from New York’s Hamilton College who also teaches creative writing in his local prison. Through the prison classes, Larson started the American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) to shed light on the experiences of the 2.4 million people incarcerated in America’s prison system. Prisoners from across the nation are invited to write about whatever they want – from being transsexual in prison to lessons they’ve learned to family they dearly miss – and send their letters to Larson, care of Hamilton College. Their letters are scanned and published, virtually unedited (names are redacted), on the APWA website.
Kortazar, who taught Basque to prisoners in her home country of Spain, attended Larson’s presentation when he came to the Boise State campus in 2014.
“I asked him if he had students or people in the prison who didn’t really write in English,” she explained. “I thought translating their words would be a great service-learning project for my students.” Larson had begun expanding his letter-publishing campaign state by state, through word of mouth and a network of dedicated volunteers. However, no one had started the project in Idaho. What’s more, there were few, if any, volunteers who could offer translation services for inmates who weren’t native English speakers.
Kortazar set up meetings with Boise State’s Service-Learning program and the director of programs for the Idaho State Correctional Center. The prison was receptive to her idea – so much so that they invited the students to take a tour of the prison when their project was finished. During the spring 2015 semester, Kortazar’s class received its first 50 letters in need of translation. The letters’ authors were primarily Hispanic. Many had committed a crime related to drugs that had landed them in prison in Idaho. The letters were more like personal essays, Kortazar said.
“The idea is that the prisoners get a voice — what life is like in prison, how they ended up there, what their goals are in the future,” Kortazar said. “After they finish their time in prison, they will be deported to Mexico. Those are our writers.”
A professional translator came into the classroom and taught Kortazar’s students how to translate, “how to not change the meanings in letters, how to uphold the spirit of the letters,” she explained. One man’s letter stated that he hadn’t seen his family or received any visitors in 60 years. Others wrote about how inhumane their prison experience was and how damaging it had been to their families. As the students finished the last of their translations, they were also preparing to make the half-hour commute to the ISCI for an afternoon speaking with the prisoners who had opened their lives and thoughts up to them.
“It was an eye opener,” Kortazar said. “The prisoners had lots of questions about life at Boise State, someone had hand-painted the “B” logo on the wall.” The students were given a VIP tour of the prison, seeing first-hand where inmates learn electrical and carpentry skills, and where they train dogs in partnership with the Humane Society to make the pets more adoptable. After the tour, students and inmates sat in a visiting room and talked about life. Some prisoners practiced their English; some students practiced their Spanish.
Kortazar asked her students to write about their experiences. She says the depth and level of their reflections were stunning.
“At the beginning of the semester, some of my students thought, ‘if these people are in prison they deserve it.’ Now they’re less judgmental, according to them. I think they built a lot of empathy for people, and critical thinking. They have a new perspective on prisons, on their education, on their freedom.”
In April, Kortazar was presented with a Boise State University Outstanding Service-Learning Faculty Award for her class.
BY: CIENNA MADRID PUBLISHED 2:43 PM / SEPTEMBER 2, 2015