UN TRIP: RAÚLRSALINAS AND THE POETRY OF LIBERATION PREMIERES NATIONALLY ON PUBLIC TELEVISION SEPTEMBER 15, 2026
“The poem once described as the Chicano equivalent to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” shimmers with the film’s jazz-inflected pulse, a way of hearing not just Salinas’s voice but also the eternal echoes of the communities he wrote for.” Alex Avila, filmmaker/professor
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Un Trip: raúlrsalinas and the Poetry of Liberation premieres nationally on PBS.org, the PBS App, and participating public television stations beginning Tuesday, September 15, 2026, during National Hispanic Heritage Month. The film is distributed nationally through Austin PBS, its presenting station, via the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA).
Inspired by the poem “Un Trip through the Mind Jail,” written by Texas Xicano poet and activist raúlrsalinas in 1969 while incarcerated at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, the 25-minute split-screen jazz and liberation documentary explores incarceration, community erasure, the power of cultural memory, and the possibility of social transformation.
Un Trip traces Salinas’s transformation from a young man who spent much of his adolescence and early adulthood incarcerated to a poet, community organizer, and advocate for social change. Through his words and legacy, the film examines how political education, creativity, community, and cultural expression can become tools for liberation.
The film has been selected for the WORLD Channel and has already achieved nearly 70% carriage. Bethiael Alemayoh, Director of Content and Distribution at Austin PBS, called this “an incredible and deserved success for a thought-provoking and wonderful film.”
Un Trip will air on public television beginning September 15. Viewers should check local listings for broadcast times or watch on PBS.org and the PBS App. https://www.pbs.org/show/un-trip-raul salinas-and-the-poetry-of-liberation/ Un Trip will air on Austin PBS on Friday, October 9th at 3:30 pm.
“An aesthetically rendered treatment of Raúl Salinas’s poetic and social vision through the lens of his signature poem… gritty, poignant, and lyrical.” Louis Mendoza, Vice Dean and professor, University of Arizona
“It reminds me of being at the old Nuyorican Poets Café in New York, where poetry, jazz, and politics mixed freely… just wonderful.” Paul Stekler, documentary filmmaker and founder of the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ School of Public Affairs
ABOUT RAÚL R SALINAS
Often signing his work as “raúlrsalinas,” he identified with the Beat Generation of poets and dedicated some of his poems to writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and musicians such as Charlie Parker. He was an active voice in the American Indian Movement and various other social change movements, which he frequently discussed in his writing. Salinas’s other publications include East of the Freeway: Reflections de Mi Pueblo (1995) and Indio Trails: A Xicano Odyssey through Indian Country (2006). He also recorded spoken word CDs, including Los Many Mundos of raúlrsalinas: Un Poetic Jazz Viaje con Friends (2000) and Red Arc: A Call for Liberación con Salsa y Cool (2005).
While at Leavenworth, Salinas’s leanings toward activism began to take shape. He edited the prison publication New Era, and he and other Chicano convicts produced a newspaper—Aztlán de Leavenworth. Salinas penned one of his most well-known poems, “Un Trip through the Mind Jail,” in which he chronicled the struggles of coming of age in Chicano barrios, such as his own neighborhood of La Loma in east Austin. The poem used Chicano vernacular idioms and incorporated graffiti to capture the street culture integral to his experience. According to scholar B.V. Olguín, the “semiepic, semiautobiographical poem…first appeared in May 1970 in the cultural nationalist prisoner newspaper Aztlán de Leavenworth” and went on to become “a foundational work in Chicana/o letters.” Salinas advocated prisoners’ rights and explored emerging issues of the Chicano movement.
Read more here
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Laura Varela, producer and co-director, is a Xicana filmmaker, producer, writer, and cultural translator whose work explores culture, memory, social justice, and communities shaped by the U.S.-Mexico border. Her documentary American Sons, which originated with Varela and Gold Star family member April Villarreal, premiered at SXSW in 2025 and broadcast nationally on PBS VOCES in January 2026. The film is nominated for Best Documentary at the 41st Imagen Awards.
Varela’s documentary As Long as I Remember: American Veteranos aired nationally on PBS from 2010–2016 through American Public Television. Her projects have received support from Latino Public Broadcasting, Black Public Media, California Humanities, Humanities Texas, ITVS, NALAC, Bexar County, and the City of San Antonio. She is also developing Queen of the Accordion, based on the life of Conjunto musician Eva Ybarra, and Rebecca Flores: Under the South Texas Sun with Anne Lewis. Visit varelafilm.org, FB and IG
Anne Lewis Producer, Co-Director, Editor is an independent documentary filmmaker associated with Appalshop Films who focuses on working-class communities and social change. Her work spans more than five decades and includes some of the most influential documentary films of the American social-justice tradition. She served as an associate director and assistant camera on the Academy Award-winning Harlan County, U.S.A.. She has produced, directed, and edited films on social action, human rights, labor, environmental justice, and cultural democracy. Her work includes Anne Braden: Southern Patriot, Morristown: In the Air and Sun, Justice in the Coalfields, On Our Own Land, which received a duPont-Columbia Award, and Fast Food Women and Chemical Valley broadcast on PBS’s POV. She moved to Austin from Appalachian Kentucky and teaches film editing at The University of Texas at Austin. Her Texas-based work includes Un Trip: raúl r salinas and the Poetry of Liberation, On Dying of Dementia in a Capitalist System, A Strike and an Uprising (In Texas), Emma Tenayuca and the 1938 San Antonio Pecan Shellers Strike, and Annie Mae Carpenter and the Uprising in Nacogdoches. Visit here annelewis.org, FB and IG
ABOUT AUSTIN PBS
Since 1962, Austin PBS has been a part of Central Texas, delivering programs that educate, entertain, and inspire. As the only locally owned and operated nonprofit public television station in Central Texas, Austin PBS uses its unique position to serve as a bridge to the community and provide essential services to 3 million potential viewers in more than 20 counties across the region.
Austin PBS broadcasts 35,000 hours of curated content across four channels, devoted to education, arts and culture, and news and public affairs. We also provide a safe space for kids to learn and grow through our Austin PBS KIDS 24/7 channel. The station is home to beloved, award-winning Austin PBS Original series such as Austin City Limits, Overheard with Evan Smith, Central Texas Gardener, as well as the Regional Lone Star Emmy®-nominated weekly news and feature program Austin InSight, which blends in-depth reporting, incisive interviews, and Austin PBS’s signature storytelling style as part of our expanded commitment to news and public affairs.
Tune into Austin PBS through one of our 4 channels, or stream online with the PBS App. Become a member and receive Austin PBS Passport, which gives station supporters access to even more content online—binge entire series before they air or catch up on programs you may have missed.
PRODUCTION & FUNDING
Un Trip: raúl r salinas and the Poetry of Liberation is a co-production of Varelafilm and Anne Lewis Productions, with funding provided by Humanities Texas, the ITVS Diversity Development Fund, the NALAC Fund for the Arts with major funding provided by the Ford Foundation, and the City of Austin.
For more information:
Website: https://raulrsalinasdocumentary.com/
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Contact
Anne Lewis annelewis615@gmail.com
Laura Varela varelafilm@gmail.com
