The Hermanas en la Sombra Editorial Collective is made up of approximately twenty inmate women from CERESO Femenil de Atlacholoaya, Morelos, and a group of women working from the exterior of the prison. The Collective originated from the writing workshop: Woman, Writing Changes Your Life coordinated by Elena de Hoyos, the Life Stories workshops coordinated by Rosalva Aída Hernández and the Craft Books workshops coordinated by Marina Ruíz. By uniting these three initiatives and with the drive and determination of the inmate writers, this editorial project was created. The aim is to dignify women in seclusion through their writings. The project has developed over the years, and today, the participants write their own books, as well as have taken over the editorial process by designing and binding their publications. Seven books have been published, and the project has diversified medias and expanded into radio programs. With the support of IMRYT (Instituto Morelense de Radio y Televisión) we produced a radio series in Bitácora del Exierro, which in 2014 was awarded the International Radio Biennial. The documentary Bajo la Sombra del Guamúchil was also produced (watch at the end of this page). Several of the participants have continued to write freely and continue to be part of the Collective.

Penitentiary Resistance

Penitentiary Resistances brings together the reflections of researchers-activists and / or artists-activists who develop their work in prison spaces in Mexico. It is an effort to systematize their experiences and share them with academics concerned about work strategies in prison spaces, with activists who want to contribute to the construction of a dignified life for everyone, and with a broad public that is interested to learn more about the challenges of life in prison.

Based on experiences in different prisons in the country, this book documents how the Mexican prison system has become one more space of structural violence that marks the bodies and minds of poor and racialized men and women.

Bajo la Sombra del Guamúchil: Life Stories of Indigenous and Peasant Inmate Women

This book-video aims to approach the experiences of inequity in the Mexican justice system. Through the voices and writings of ten inmates who, within the framework of the Life Stories Workshop, coordinated by R. Aída Hernández in the women’s area from CERESO-Morelos (known as Atlacholoaya female), undertook the task of documenting and writing the history of other fellow indigenous and peasant prisoners who did not have the privileged knowledge of writing. This collective process allowed creating new ties of solidarity between indigenous and non-indigenous women, and opened a space to reflect on machismo and racism that mark Mexican society, and that influenced the chain of injustices and exclusions that resulted in the deprivation of their freedom. It also includes poetry and reflections that were written in the framework of the Woman Writing Change Your Life Workshop, taught by Elena de Hoyos during 2007 and 2008.

Mareas Cautivas: Navigating the Lyrics of Women in Prison

Through this book, a group of surviving women from this Mexico convulsed by violence and injustice, opens a window for us to get closer to the inequalities and exclusions that characterize our society. Written by inmates at CERESO Femenil de Atlacholoaya, Morelos, within the framework of the workshops of the Hermanas en la Sombra Editorial Collective, these texts of poetry and narrative show us the darkest and brightest side of contemporary Mexico. Their essays, prayers, poems, are a reminder of the justice system that cut their lives short, that separated them from their families, and that left their children alone, many times at the mercy of organized crime. It is the same justice system that we have to trust, the one that will “protect” us if we have a problem.

Colección, Revelación Intramuros: poetry, narrative and essay of women in prison

Divine Absent. Poetic Anthology of Women in Reclusion

This poetry anthology is the first volume of the Intramuros Revelation collection, published under the auspices of Conaculta and INBA. It is a sample of the production carried out by a group of women writers in the CERESO of Atlacholoaya, Morelos, who together with other women from the exterior constitute the Collective Editorial Hermanas en la Sombra. This Collective works with the writing and publication of prison culture. This volume offers readers a window into the lyrical sensitivity and wisdom of these poets in seclusion. Each chapter of this anthology belongs to the work of an author of the Collective.

Exile Log. Narrative of Women in Prison

Second volume of the Intramural Revelation collection. The book brings together the writings of eleven inmates who decided to confront and share their experiences in prison. The authors participated from the conception of the themes that make up this book of collective creation, to the illustrations, all the way through the final stages of the editing process. They chose the themes and with the members of the Hermanas en la Sombra Editorial Collective, they collectively worked on the texts. Writings from the first days of the project are gathered together with some texts produced in the Life Stories workshop coordinated by R. Aída Hernández, which appear in the artisan book Fragmentos de mujer, edited by Marina Ruiz, also in the collection of plaquettes Women inhabiting a dream of freedom, and in the most recent book Mareas Cautivas.

Early Freedom. Feminist Writing Intervention in Penitentiary Spaces

In the third volume of the Intramuros Revelation Collection, the methodological reflections of the coordinators of the Hermanas en la Sombra Editorial Collective are presented: R. Aída Hernández Castillo, Elena de Hoyos and Marina Ruíz, who for seven years have accompanied the process of creative writing and elaboration of artisan books to the inmate women in the Cereso feminil de Atlacholoaya, Morelos. More than a book with predefined recipes on how to develop writing workshops, this volume aims to share their searches and insights on how writing can become a tool for collective reflection and the construction of new female identities that break with the continuum of violence that has marked the lives of women in prison.