Art of Captivity / Arte del Cautiverio explores these centers as architectural forms, while also showcasing the cultural production that takes place inside them, including drawings and letters created by those held captive. This stunning work of visual ethnography humanizes those held inside these centers, breaks down stereotypes about drug use, and sets the conditions for a hemispheric conversation about prohibitionist practices – by revealing intimate portraits of a population held hostage by a war on drugs.
Kevin Lewis O’Neill is a professor in the Department for the Study of Religion and the director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto.
Benjamin Fogarty-Valenzuela is a Mansueto Institute Fellow and Sociology Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Chicago.