The San Quentin media community is headed into a new year with a commitment to forge new relationships between the print and broadcast communication entities in the prison.
The new communications era was launched informally Dec. 18 in the media building at San Quentin State Prison where print and broadcast practitioners held a joint banquet. The purpose was to celebrate a successful 2014 and welcome to a new year with hope and expectations for growth and success.
The San Quentin News staff and the members of the TV/Audio/Video department combined forces to provide food for 34 persons. All were inmates, except for this writer, who attended at the invitation of Arnulfo Garcia, San Quentin News editor-in-chief.
Garcia said he hoped the shared meal would be the beginning of many more collaborations ahead in 2015 for the newspaper and the men in the electronic media department.
The two programs operate in the same building and share a common entryway. But until now they have gone their separate ways, divided by a wall and a glass partition window.
The sharing of talent, content and expertise between the print side and the electronic media side would enhance the training experience for all the participants.
The informational products that result would do a better job of telling the San Quentin story to inmates and the public at large, he said. Projects being discussed include radio programming and video.
The word “banquet” does not do the Dec. 18 event justice.
It was a feast of mackerel stew, meat logs, pork sausages, nacho chips, tortillas, refried beans, chili beans, cheese, jalapeños and much rice.
The drinks were sodas, both sugared and sugar-free.
Before the food was served, the prisoners blessed the food, in a Christian invocation, even though the guests included Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and assorted others.
The meal offered several dietary options: no meat, no pork, no shell fish, fish only. As befits San Quentin’s diverse population, the men were black, Mexican, white and Asian. They sat shoulder-to-shoulder around a big table in the lounge area behind the work space and talked congenially.
The media building has no kitchen. The food was prepared in that very room, beginning early in the morning. The cooks filled plastic pails with hot water as a low-budget, but effective crock pot.
This was the medium by which all the food was cooked. If you opted for fish only, the server used a plastic cup to pile you a heap of rice, then you moved down the line and another server used a plastic cup to lay a mound of mackerel stew atop your rice.
“Never has spicy mackerel stew, Vera Cruz-style, been served so simply, nor enjoyed so humbly. It was delicious. And the participants agreed that the service was excellent,” said Juan Haines.
