LOS ANGELES — Digging into a bowl of chips and salsa at a Salvadoran restaurant on Vermont Avenue, Kevin Rivas shared his memories of the prison where he became intimately acquainted with pain, humiliation and impotent fury.
He recalled the pepper sprayings. The multiple baton blows to his ribs. The scrapes and nicks as his head was shaved. The dehumanizing mug shot.
“These photos are taken of us to make us look bad,” said Rivas, 26, as his father shared a harrowing police photo of his bald-headed son, who was detained in April and, for three days, locked up in the notorious La Esperanza prison, better known as Mariona, on the northern outskirts of El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador.
