Portraits of a New Beginning: Christopher Salazar

«We were trapped by evil and thought we had to follow in its footsteps out of fear and the influence of others. I started to have courage, to want to do things right. I no longer cared what anyone thought.»

Christopher Salazar entered the gang world after a gang leader defended him from a bully after he left school. Seeing that they accepted him, he became more and more involved. At 18, he was arrested for the first time and spent 15 years in prison. While incarcerated, he focused on sports. Although he wanted to change, he didn’t feel ready. “To survive, you go with the flow, because if you don’t, bad things can happen to you, so you go on out of fear,” Christopher says. The influence of a friend opened his eyes and showed him that he could live a more spiritual life. He began attending the Inside Circle program. “The day I got out, my girlfriend picked me up, and we went to the beach. I ran and fell to my knees. I felt God. I asked my victim for forgiveness one more time,” he says. After his release from prison, he began working for a company that distributes yerba mate. His next goal is to become a sports coach for children.

^{* The testimonies in "Portraits of a New Beginning" were collected and edited by Ana María Carrano, María Gabriela Méndez, Olivia Liendo and Tamoa Calzadilla, under the coordination of Olivia Liendo and Ana María Carrano.}

Go to the homepage of the book “Portraits of a New Beginning.”