⇒ Download Free Blackbirds in the Pomegranate Tree Stories from Ixcotel State Prison Mary Ellen Sanger 9781492957072 Books

Blackbirds in the Pomegranate Tree Stories from Ixcotel State Prison Mary Ellen Sanger 9781492957072 Books

Download As PDF : Blackbirds in the Pomegranate Tree Stories from Ixcotel State Prison Mary Ellen Sanger 9781492957072 Books

Blackbirds in the Pomegranate Tree Stories from Ixcotel State Prison Mary Ellen Sanger 9781492957072 Books

Ms. Sanger's descriptive prose is engaging and sets the tone for the book. Passages such as: "The sky changed from onyx to pearl and the hum of the morning turned melodic as insects stowed themselves away and birds awakened," are replete in the pages of this engaging but sobering story.

The central plot is how Ms. Sanger is arrested on trumped up charges so that land from her friend can be taken by the government however throughout the pages much of the book concentrates on the women of Ixcotel Prison, from the very young to the older women. This is from the book's description:

"The largest and brawniest woman in the prison, doing time for armed robbery, kills a rat with her foot, then turns to the author for help with a very special letter. Another young woman, only nineteen years old, has already been in for three years, guilty of kidnapping her own child. And Ana, a political prisoner, teaches the author about creative ways to turn the tide, one including frog-eating snakes."

In a compelling manner, Ms. Sanger immerses the reader in every room of the overcrowded and draconian prison. These 'facilities' are different from those in the USA, one being that children are within the prison walls with their mothers until the age of two years. What is not different is the isolation of prison life. The 'not knowing,' about their families and the lack of contact often cause deep depression.

This book is one that celebrates the support women often give to others when they have seemingly nothing to give. The forward is written by famed Mexican journalist Elena Poniatowska who for decades has worked with the disenfranchised and poor of Mexico. This book is well worth a read. It is on Kindle Unlimited.


Tags : Blackbirds in the Pomegranate Tree: Stories from Ixcotel State Prison [Mary Ellen Sanger] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Mary Ellen Sanger had made her life in Mexico for 17 years when she suddenly found herself in prison in Oaxaca, Mexico,Mary Ellen Sanger,Blackbirds in the Pomegranate Tree: Stories from Ixcotel State Prison,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1492957070,Female offenders - Mexico,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs,Biography & Autobiography,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Criminology,Memoirs,Personal Memoirs,Social Science : Criminology,Social ScienceCriminology

Blackbirds in the Pomegranate Tree Stories from Ixcotel State Prison Mary Ellen Sanger 9781492957072 Books Reviews

This is the story of the author's time in the Oaxaca State Penitentiary in southern Mexico, where she was incarcerated for over 30 days on false charges made by crooked politicians. Imprisonment, by its very nature, is a transformational experience, and this was no exception. In this case, Ms.Sanger turned a horrific episode into a beautifully written book. What could have turned into bitterness took shape as a revealing glimpse into prison life and a startling look at what passes for justice in Mexico. The author's recollections of her own experience and coping mechanisms are interspersed with the stories of her fellow prisoners, mostly victims of poverty, who are portrayed with empathy rather than pity. This is a worthwhile book on many levels for the story of an American in a foreign jail, for the heart wrenching tales of the women in prison, and for prose that at times reads like poetry.
Having an outsider's view of the events that led up to the events outlined in this book I found that I was immersed in the story as it unfolded. I felt that I was there; looking over the shoulder of Mary Ellen and her friends and experiencing everything she was going through, being with her every step of this amazing journey. I felt that the women she wrote about were known personally to me. I longed to read about more of her fellow inmates.
Whether or not we wish to accept it, we have all learned to "do the dance" to be accepted in our environment.
Of particular interest was the difficulty of Mary Ellen making the transition back to society as we see it, in the U.S. As to her trials and tribulations in trying to assimilate, I can relate to, as I too have had my world turned upside down. The transition she was trying to make in NYC was hard reading to me. Many thanks go to Bill who turned out to be her grounding. Her moving to Colorado is a bright spot in my life, knowing Joesph and her would be the right mix of personalities to make life truly enjoyable. They should be very happy together.
I look forward to more stories of her life in Mexico as her writing draws me in as if I was there.
Critiquing her method of writing - I enjoyed it, as it drew me in, not too flowery, but with sufficient detail to make me feel as if I was there.
Berta is in Ixcotel State Prison because her husband, a poor farmer, grew a patch of marijuana hidden in the owner’s sorghum field. Berta didn’t know about the marijuana. Her husband had promised to stay out of trouble. “Ay, what a stupid woman!” he tells her, “Where do you think I got money for the refrigerator with the light inside?”

Natalia was twelve when her parents were killed in a fire that destroyed her home and left her adrift. She survived by hiding out for four years in an abandoned boxcar. She was discovered by an older man, who made her his lover but never took her home. When she got pregnant, he made sure there was a midwife to deliver the baby. Then he had her arrested and stole the baby for his barren wife. Natalia has been in Ixcotel for three years. Her case has been forgotten. The social worker says that she’s better off inside. “Out there she was a kid living on her own. Who would take care of her now?”

Concha took over her brother’s gang when he moved away to New York. She pulled off seven jobs in Mexico City before she got caught for armed robbery of a large bank. She has a reputation as “the roughest, surliest, most volatile woman” in Ixcotel and stomps a rat to death with her sneakered foot in the prison courtyard. She tells Sanger she has “absolutely, positively NO soft parts.” Then she asks for Sanger's help in writing a love letter.

Flor was a secondary schoolteacher. Her boyfriend was a drug runner and taught her how to use a gun. They were picnicking in the mountains one day when they were attacked. Flor took a bullet in the back of the head, whirled around and shot the man. She never knew who he was, but he died. She’s a flamboyant woman, despite four years in Ixcotel and a brain tumor that may kill her. She directs the inmates in a play for the annual celebration of the Day of the Dead. Flor plays the part of Death.

Lucía is a woman who never knew how to say no to a man. Most recently one asked her to steal a car. This is her third stint in Ixcotel, and she’s had two children born in jail. Sanger had read stories to her daughter, in a children’s home on the outside. The daughter comes to visit Lucía in Ixcotel, sees Sanger and runs to hug her and cuddle in her lap. Lucía develops a jealous rage against Sanger until one day they talk, and she shows Sanger a letter her daughter wrote. Lucía can’t read, and wants to know what it says. “It says, ‘I’m waiting for you. Your loving daughter, Noelia.’”

These are just some of the stories Mary Ellen Sanger tells in BLACKBIRDS IN THE POMEGRANATE TREE. Seventeen years of living in Mexico, working in tourism (a people-centric job), a background in anthropology, volunteering in indigenous villages—these have prepared her somewhat for thirty-three days in Ixcotel, locked up on false charges. But what really sustains her is her large heart and her keen ear. She tries to blend in, despite being a gringa blonde, blue-eyed, educated. The inmates bring their stories to her, ask her for help, and in turn help her survive in the camaraderie of prison. Sanger listens, and doesn’t judge.

Instead, she tells us the story of her own life, her passion for Mexico, and how it led her to become the pawn in a land dispute that ended her up in a Mexican prison. The dispute reveals shocking corruption—in a Mexican university and its link with the government, in the expatriates that Sanger considers to be friends, as well as in the legal system. Her case becomes briefly famous, attracting the attention of US Senators and Congressmen, the press, NPR, as well as a wide circle of friends and acquaintances both in Mexico and the US. With their help and the work of a smart, uncorrupted Mexican lawyer, the charges are finally dropped. Sanger leaves Ixcotel; ten days later, she leaves Mexico. However, the stories she’s heard don’t leave her. She carries them with her, determined that the voices of the forgotten women of Ixcotel will be heard.

BLACKBIRDS IN THE POMEGRANATE TREE is both a lyrical portrait of the Mexico Sanger loved and a gripping tale of injustice.
Ms. Sanger's descriptive prose is engaging and sets the tone for the book. Passages such as "The sky changed from onyx to pearl and the hum of the morning turned melodic as insects stowed themselves away and birds awakened," are replete in the pages of this engaging but sobering story.

The central plot is how Ms. Sanger is arrested on trumped up charges so that land from her friend can be taken by the government however throughout the pages much of the book concentrates on the women of Ixcotel Prison, from the very young to the older women. This is from the book's description

"The largest and brawniest woman in the prison, doing time for armed robbery, kills a rat with her foot, then turns to the author for help with a very special letter. Another young woman, only nineteen years old, has already been in for three years, guilty of kidnapping her own child. And Ana, a political prisoner, teaches the author about creative ways to turn the tide, one including frog-eating snakes."

In a compelling manner, Ms. Sanger immerses the reader in every room of the overcrowded and draconian prison. These 'facilities' are different from those in the USA, one being that children are within the prison walls with their mothers until the age of two years. What is not different is the isolation of prison life. The 'not knowing,' about their families and the lack of contact often cause deep depression.

This book is one that celebrates the support women often give to others when they have seemingly nothing to give. The forward is written by famed Mexican journalist Elena Poniatowska who for decades has worked with the disenfranchised and poor of Mexico. This book is well worth a read. It is on Unlimited.