Notorious for its notorious crimes, the San Lucas Prison, a prisoner’s bar, was founded in 1873 by dictator Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez until its final closure; terrorism has become synonymous with torture and death.
Since it was closed in 1991, only the remains of prisoners’ drawings have been scribbled on the prison walls and even drawn in human blood. Let’s take a look at the details of the prison before we take a closer look at the grisly images that have emerged.
The pictures on the wall were the expression of an environment full of cruelty.
Of course, prison life was something to be feared, and sadistic guards were constantly finding more creative ways to torture, punish, and even kill inmates. It is hard not to guess how such an oppressive environment can lead to expressions.
Besides the content of the paintings, many visitors who came here for sightseeing were also impressed by the “ink” used by the prisoners and found the blood-soaked sketches terrifying. These bloodstains on the prison walls bore memories of the atrocities that had taken place inside the walls and in the minds of the prisoners.
Models of Christ, naked women, symbols of freedom and rebellion shared the same wall.
Prison sexuality for men has been the subject of psychological and sociological research since the 1930s. This sexuality was expressed in every inch of the walls of San Lucas Prison.
Although the vast majority of the prison’s drawings depict nude women, these lewd paintings; It shares prison walls with halo depictions of Christ and other religious symbols, symbols of rebellion and aspirations for freedom.
Religious symbols on the walls support the findings of psychology and sociology.
Criminals who can find support and guidance in their beliefs show an increasing ability to adapt, according to research from the National Crime and Delinquency Council. A certain percentage of inmates are converts. All these beliefs must have projected onto the walls the inner thoughts of the criminals in San Lucas.
Let’s take a look at some of the pictures:
Left to right in the image above: “Ask permission to enter.” “Are you serious?” was the line added later by another prisoner under the caption. text appears. In the upper right image, the poem in which the author introduces himself reads the following words: “In this cursed place where sadness reigns, they do not punish crime, they punish poverty.”
Scrolling down is a version of Memin Pinguin, a Mexican comic published from 1943 to 2016, with a guard on its right side with the word “sapo” meaning “snitch.”
Some criminals in the prison were exhibited as touristic objects.
It seems normal for tourism that the island is a cultural site today, but there was a brief period when the prison, which was still functioning, was then a kind of tourist attraction.
Beltrán Cortés was one of the island’s most famous prisoners. He was convicted of first-degree murder after shooting and killing two doctors he accused of failing his surgery. He spent some of his 32 years in detention on display in a two-square-metre cage for visitors to see.
The people within the four walls had revealed their feelings through painting.
To summarize; the inmates used whatever they could find to mark the walls of the prison. Words and pictures expressed their feelings, along with feelings for something outside the prison or within themselves.
As humanity, we start making drawings before we are taught, and it turns out that; producing a painting is an impulse that even such a bad prison cannot crush. Art is inevitable even when torture is done, when fear is declared and humanity is ignored.
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