ON THE RISE

I have been incarcerated 11 and ½ long and difficult years (9 of those years on Texas’ Death Row). I am a Latino, and father of 3 children I love more than life itself...I am also a self-taught writer, poet and prison activist.

Over the years it has been extremely hard to live in a world where death and torture consumes almost everyone here in some fashion or form,

and as much as I try to separate myself from this chaotic world,

I must feel it so completely that it becomes a part of me in order to express what Texas’ Death Row is like.

Through this column, “On The Rise” I intend to do just that.

The reason I chose to name it “On The Rise” is because it fits my spiritual attitude.

Although the human spirit can temporarily be buried under oppression,

repression and other negative things, it can never ultimately be removed.

The physical powers of the body cannot be separated from the rational mind and the emotions of the heart. They are one and the same, a compilation of a sincere being. It is in the harmony of these three–mind, body and soul–that we find spirit.

Many tyrants have tried. Many Texas Death Row tyrants have sought to reduce their subjects to simple, unthinking, programmed participators of their mind, body and soul murder. They steal love, the religion of people here; they seek to steal the spirit.

Ultimately and inevitably, they fail. This I believe: The flame from the infinite candle of the spirit can never be extinguished. It is a resilient thing, this Flame of the Spirit–indomitable and everlasting. In some, at least it will survive, to the tyrants’s demise.

Spirit. In every time and every place. The word has a ring of strength and determination. It is the Father’s strength, the Mother’s resilience. The poor and oppressed man’s armor. It cannot be broken–it cannot be taken away.

Through spirit, under the gun and oppression of Texas Death Row–I will continue to resist and stay “ON THE RISE!”

On The Rise,

Gabriel

D.R.I.V.E.

DEATH Row INNER-COMMUNALIST VANGUARD ENGAGEMENT