Christopher Soto has long been fascinated by the power and beauty of the written word. He said that he began writing poetry in the first grade. “So I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a poet.” Writing has been my obsession since childhood.
31-year-old Soto is receiving widespread praise for his first poetry collection, “Diaries of a Terrorist,” which tackles violence, policing, and trauma.
“The core of the book is to create an environment that doesn’t require policing or human caging,” Soto said. He/they uses the pronouns they/they and identifies as nonbinary. “As poets we are daydreamers. We imagine the world as it should be.
Soto is sometimes referred to as an abolitionist. He writes one poem.
Dear police
Trust is when I give you the gun
Shooting is not your thing
You don’t deserve it.
To be trusted
Salvadoran American activist and artist, he was born outside Los Angeles. He had started a poetry club in high school and began performing his work.
Soto’s perception of police work has been partly shaped by his personal experiences. Soto, a survivor of domestic abuse, saw firsthand the inadequacies of the current justice system for dealing with such issues.
Soto stated, “When I was experiencing domestic violence, I needed safe housing close to my school, food, and I needed access mental health services.” “What I did not need and would never desire was for my father’s imprisonment.”
One of Soto’s uncles was imprisoned as a child and used to send Soto letters with drawings made in prison. Soto was taught by this cousin how to be an artist. His family’s intergenerational experience with prisons and policing has made the arts possible.
Soto cited RAINN statistics that showed that only 2.5% sexual assaults result in incarceration. Why are we so invested in prisons and police if only 3% of sexual assaults lead to incarceration? What about the 97% other victims of sexual assaults? Shouldn’t we invest in systems that can help them instead of relying on prisons that perpetuate violence systems?
A Pew Research Center study last year found that a rising number of Americans want to see more police spending in their locality. 46% of Latinos believe that police spending should increase in their area, while 16% think it should decrease and 37% believe it should stay the same. Even though calls to defund police were common after the George Floyd murder in 2020, even Democrats have stopped supporting this approach.
Soto is not bothered by polling or popular sentiment. “I’m not distracted by the activities of others. As a poet, I have no obligation to create legislative strategies. My responsibility is to envision a world that is more just, caring, equitable, and fair.
Soto has been a writer for The New York Times, The Nation, as well as co-founder of The Undocupoets Campaign. This campaign successfully lobbyed publishers to remove citizenship proof requirements from certain book contests.
Soto was a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship recipient. He also co-founded Writers for Migrant Justice to protest the separation and detention of migrant families.
“I see (Soto’s) poetry and activism, and I also perceive their activism and poetry,” Myriam Gurba serrano, the acclaimed writer and author “Mean,” stated. “I think their work has an almost prophetic quality to it.”
Serrano Gurba said, “I think that Soto’s work walks a tightrope.” It achieves playfulness while maintaining gravitas. This is especially true when it comes to the violence that minoritized groups face in the U.S.A and abroad.
Soto hopes that their work will also disrupt the narrative surrounding El Salvador. “I want to challenge the notion that America is exceptional and that El Salvador lacks queer culture or poetry. My life feels fuller here than it does here in many ways.
Soto said that although transgender people are being persecuted in El Salvador, anti-transgender violence is also taking place across the U.S.
Soto feels that the U.S. media has become obsessed with violence and death when it comes to Salvadorans. “It seems that it is easier for the media to talk about our deaths — instead of the breadth and beauty of our lives, and the joy we share as a nation when we are together.”
El Salvador is home of over 6.4 Million people. There are approximately 2.3 Million Salvadoran-American Latinos in the U.S.
Soto isn’t the only one who feels that Salvadorans are often portrayed narrowly and linked with violence.
Roberto Lovato, journalist, stated that there is a long history of Central Americans being seen as victims of violence or as actual members of gangs like MS-13. This view often ignores the fact that El Salvador’s primary source of violence is state violence, he said.
Lovato stated that Salvadorans are “like an inconvenient fact for the U.S.” He explained that El Salvador is not often discussed in detail in U.S. media due to the negative light it would cast on our country’s role in creating instability within the region. It is rare for Central Americans or people of Central American heritage to tell their own stories. It is great to see that young people, like Soto, are sharing more love-soaked stories, rather than blood-soaked ones.
Soto is currently working on a novel. He wants to continue writing his truth and express himself.
“I consider myself an activist and artist for my whole life. He said that regardless of whether we win or lose, I will continue to do the same work to support Central Americans and queer and trans communities. “I will continue to do that work, regardless of the terrain.”
