Monroe Correctional Complex

Join Our “Mixer” for Incarcerated Latinos on FaceBook June 28, 2020

Hello everyone,

I am inviting you to join me and my fellow LDO Volunteers who support Latino prisoners in the Monroe Correctional Center (MCC) in Monroe WA. We are doing a “Mixer” on Facebook, June 28th at 3 p.m., via Zoom. Please join us.

The Mixer will offer some informational and cultural activities. I will give a brief overview of our organization (LDO) at the start and two or three formerly incarcerated Latino community members will speak of their experiences. We’re hoping for some music too. So sorry we can’t offer you something to eat and drink!

If you are interested in the general topic of U.S. prisons and/or Latinx issues (culture, history, the Latino experience in the U.S., etc.) you may find our LDO Mixer hour interesting if not beneficial (if you’re interested in the subject of prisons, see my book review of American Prison, in this same blog). The purpose of our Facebook event is to help our communities understand prison realities, attract local volunteers to help with our prison work at the MCC, compile a list of followers and invite donor contributions.

The Monroe Correctional Complex, Monroe WA

LDO refers to the Latino Development Organization of Washington Serving Latinos in the Monroe Correctional Complex. This is the name of our nonprofit organization (501c3), and I am the president. LDO includes a Board of Directors, a small corps of community volunteers, and detainee leaders representing about 40 inmates in the MCC who affiliate with LDO. We appreciate both our community volunteers and the guys inside because without their help LDO would not exist. The photo at the top of this article, taken in 2019, shows some of our LDO detainees and some of our volunteers standing in front of artwork created by MCC prisoners.

The word “development” in the title of our organization was chosen by the LDO affiliated detainees a couple of years ago in one of our meetings. They chose it because they insisted and continue to insist on developing and improving themselves to achieve the fullest rehabilitation possible.

Before the pandemic struck, our LDO organization was building, at their request, a curriculum of educational and self-improvement activities, including guest presentations, short-term classes on psychology, history, art and culture (I gave some) and so on. They had already organized themselves into mentoring groups in art, Spanish, math, etc., as testimony of their own inclination toward self-improvement. Does that impress you? Our LDO guys impress me quite a lot. In any case, we’re preparing to resume our work as soon as possible.

Hope to see you on June 28^th at 3 p.m.!

Visit and like us at our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/latinodevelopmentorganization/

And our web page is here: https://www.latinodevelopmentorganization.org/

RECENT TALKS GIVEN BY CARLOS B. GIL

November 15, 2012 Radio Interview on KUOW (Seattle) with Steve Scher re Mexican Immigration (after Mark Bowden’s talk about The Hunt For Bin Laden ) http://www.kuow.org/post/mark-bowden-hunt-bin-laden?sc=emaf

Nov 28, 2012 Talk about We Became Mexican American at the San Fernando Public Library, San Fernando, California.

January 12, 2013 Talk about We Became Mexican American at Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Washington.

April 18, 2013 Talk about We Became Mexican American for Professor Jorge Garcia’s Chicano Studies class at the California State University Northridge (CSUN), Northridge, California.

April 27, 2013 Carlos Gil takes part in a press conference of Latino Authors for the Latino Book & Family Festival, California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), San Bernardino, California.

April 30, 2013 Talk about We Became Mexican American at the Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M62OiJXa6QY

May 1, 2013. Second talk about We Became Mexican American at the San Fernando Library, San Fernando, California.

September 27, 2013 Talk about We Became Mexican American for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, Tumwater, WA.

November 15, 2013 Talk about We Became Mexican American at the University of California, Berkeley, Chicano Latino Student Development, Staff Diversity Initiatives.

October 23, 2014 Public lecture titled “A Strong But Difficult Relationship: An Historic Overview of U.S.-Mexican Relations,” Juneau World Affairs Forum. Juneau, Alaska.

April 30, 2015 Talk about We Became Mexican American at the Chicano Studies Research Center of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California.

October 4, 2015 Talk about We Became Mexican American at the University Methodist Temple, Seattle, Washington.

May 20, 2016 Talk about We Became Mexican American at the Minimum Security Unit Monroe Correctional Complex, Monroe, Washington.

September 21, 2016 Radio interview on the Warriors for Peace Donna Seebo Internet Radio Show.

January 9, 2017 Talk about Latin American Studies and Its History at the Minimum Security Unit, Monroe, Washington.

April 13, 2017 Talk about We Became Mexican American at the City of Palmdale Library, Palmdale, California.