JORGE ANTONIO RENAUD
2021 Writer-in-Residence
Jorge writes:
“My life is marked by institutional boundaries – school, the military, and incarceration. I’ve struggle to transcend those boundaries through my writing, to make sense of my place in this world and my path through it.
My father was mixed Creole and Spanish, and my indigenous mother crossed the Rio Bravo to escape an abusive husband at 15. I grew up in the Texas Panhandle until my father lost his job as a farm foreman, and we pursued the crops for three years, along with waves of other displaced families. Restless, I left school at 17, enrolled in the Army and found myself in a 52-ton tank in Germany, trying desperately to fit in with the Vietnam vets rotating over to Europe. Fitting in with them meant adopting a cynical, seen-it-all attitude and ingesting copious amounts of illicit drugs. Lucky to get out with an honorable discharge, I drifted back to South Texas, found myself in jail for DWI, and was tossed out of a 12-man tank with my pants around my ankles in 1977, blood leaking from my body after being sexually abused. Two weeks later I walked into a Beeville fast food joint with my father’s 30.06 and began my descent into self-destructiveness and predation.
I paroled from prison for the last time in 2008, having spent 27 of 32 years in Texas cages. I wrote my way sane while incarcerated, publishing poetry and essays in dozens of journals, opinion pieces for newspapers across the country, and a book where I tried to explain to Texas families seeking answers about prison and spurned by prison officials. I decided after my release that I would do all I could to ensure other human beings didn’t face the same dehumanization as I and others had, and I’ve tried – as an organizer, a policy analyst, a writer, and as a human. I’ve not always succeeded, but I listen well and I chronicle the stories and pain I see, and it is my honor to share those with TAVP and those who support its mission.
For those who seek more details, I am the SW Region Director for Policy and Advocacy at LatinoJustice PRLDEF. I’ve worked at the Prison Policy Initiative, the Center for Community Change, Grassroots Leadership, and at the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. I hope I have not left too negative a legacy at any of those places, as I learned from them all.
