What happens in the prisons to make that thousands of people like you, who go to prison to serve short sentences, once inside accumulate punishments of sometimes more than 100 years?

Prison is a place where one always tries to humiliate people, and then you have people who swallow and people who don't. If you swallow you serve your time and you leave prison, if you don't swallow you may do 30 or 40 years as happens with many prisoners, as well the so-called political as the so-called social prisoners, who once in prison choose to rebel against what they have to endure, and organize mutinies, refusals to leave the cells, escape attempts, make up lists of demands, etc. And you know that after these protests new trials will come and condemnations which make that you accumulate more and more years, and that you go from the prison yard to the isolation and later to the special FIES regime which means the isolation within the isolation. That nobody thinks that prison is democratic; it is a place where they throw you in and do with you whatever they want.

At what moment have you become conscious about what really happens and have you taken an ideological stance?

I became socially conscious in prison, in concreto with the anarchist ideas with which I could identify. There I became aware of the oppression that exists in prison, when I saw to what extent a person can be oppressed and how one can deprive people from their freedom and basic rights. When you rebel, when you have the strength to become conscious of what they do to you, and of what they desire, that's the moment you change.

How was this becoming conscious?

I started to read, to contact people, search for movements in which I could recognize myself, and that was in my case the anarchist movement, which has been the movement which has helped me to come out of prison and has given me the strength and the idealism, via the books of Bakoenin, Proudhon, etc, that I read in my cell, and later via many collectives which supported me and with whom I felt related in their struggle against the state, the prison, the police, etc.

How did you experience in prison the struggle for the rights of prisoners?

In the nineties we established the Asociación de Presos en Lucha, which was the reconstruction of the Coordinadora de Presos en Lucha; concretly, it was created by prisoners in special regume and the founders were some fifty people from all over the country.
At a certain moment we agreed to send a letter with demands to Antoni Asunción of the Management of the Penitentiary Institutions, in which was included the imprisonment of the prisoner at his place of origin, proper medical treatment of prisoners who are ill from AIDS, an end to all totures, and better food and sanitary. The answer from the side of the administration was complete silence. We decided to initiate a gulf of mutinies and takings of hostages of the guards to make our demands known to the press.
We did wait till the year '92 because then there would be a lot of foreign press for the Olympic Games; in that year, when a mutiny ended in one prison it was taken over by an other, and immediately by another, and so it went on for a time.

What was the reaction of the government to your protest actions?

At a certain moment the administration took the decision to isolate us, they created an internal register, dispersed us two by two, change of prison every 5 or 6 months, and later came the physical extermination: I have seen comrades die in the FIES regime, some were beaten everyday till the committed suicide, others I have seen dying of illnesses without any medical care. I can still talk about it.

Who directed the retaliations?

Antoni Asunción and Gerardo Dominguez, who we have brought before the court for the theme of the FIES, but they walked on roses and remained unpunished, because of course we know that the state ha sits mechanisms to protect itself... All crimes committed by the state in the prisons remain unpunished, and I was 16 years in prison and never I did see a warden there, never did I see a millionaire, or a military or a politician.

What is the current situation of the struggle inside prison?

When the people who formed the APRE were dispersed and isolated, a period without movement followed. Thereafter the whole struggle was more organized through the organisations outside prison, it brought a new reaction, new writings appeared, the people started to fight again; to wage collective hunger strikes, protests, etc. Let's say that tye contacts were preserved between the people in the prisons and the anarchist movement, many anarchist ideas were introduced and many prisoners embraced the anarchist ideal, started to read books, took contact with the collectives, etc.

How do you see the direction the struggle against prison has taken?

I think this struggle is much more useful than the struggles we did build earlier, because besides the making known of the reality of what happens inside, the prisoners have developed a greater political consciousness, they do not only fight, but think, and write, they search a social reasoning for what they do, want to know who causes the suffering they endure, what their identity is, who they are as persons. At this moment, the people in prison feel motivated by the support they receive from many anarchist groupss

Is there a great difference between the impression you had of the anarchist movement when you were inside from the one you have met in reality?

I have given many lectures all over the country these days, and seen libertarian groups who are very worthy and represent that which is the real anarchist movement, the one we have been reading about in the books, the way they organize themselves, the struggle for social equality, for a better world, not perfect, but sure better and where people live together in brotherhood. I also want to ask the attention of the comrades who waste their time with drinking, smoking … This situation can be chocking for the people in prison, because some of them have ended up here because of use or misuse of drugs; they imagine themselves the anarchists of the "old times"? But I can say in all honesty that I have very good feelings about the people I have learned to know, the anarchist movement undoubtedly carries the future, I mean that outside anarchy there is nothing cause it is the best of all possible worlds.

What are, do you think, the steps that have to be taken in the future?

We have to continue on the same road, first we have to open the prisons, tell what has happened.
And another very important thing is the support of the prisoners, give them metarials enabling them to come out themselves, send information, inform them, reach a helping hand, ideas, affection, and above all a future. I think the anarchist movement is obliged to open the gates.

Is a reform of the penitentiary system possible?

That nobody makes any illusion about the reform of prison, prisons can only be destroyed, and the only ways to destroy prison is by destroying the State and construct a new society. It is clear that that's my alternative, it is your alternative, and the alternative of the people who are in prison; TO CHANGE ALL THINGS!
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[ Interview appeared initially in the magazine Marea Negra nr 3, July 2003: http://mareanegra.unionlibertaria.org. Xosé Tarrío was then one month free.
In September 2003 he was arrested again, charged with 4 robberies, and in May 2004 he was tried, found guilty for 3 robberies and condemned to 11 years imprisonment. Again he was sent to prison, again to Teixeiro, his health deteriorated very quickly (Xosé carried the AIDS virus for many years) and in July 2004 he had a serious problem with his brain. Only in August did the prison authorities release him provisionally. In September 2004 he fell into a coma and he died in Dec 2004. Xosé is finally free, no more prison, no more torture, humiliations. Left for us is his immensely humane story, full of successes and mistakes, left for us is one person`s dignity, a weather-beaten human face of the fight for life in a prison hell.. Doctors said that Xosé was ill, and we say that this society is ill, He did not die, he was murdered. Today was him, tomorrow somebody else, and like this every day. We can`t do anything else for him but keep his ideas in our hearts and actions, elbow against elbow and fist against fist, until we demolish the prison walls. This will be our Homage.