Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ida McCray, Keith Wattley and Terry Collins talk about Hugo Pinell

March 3, 2016 episode of Freedom is a Constant Struggle, with guests, Ida McCray, Keith Wattley and Terry Collins discussing the life of Hugo "Yogi Bear" Pinell.

Locked Far Too Long Behind the Walls (reprinted from 2010)

RELATED:  Kiilu Nyasha and Terry Collins remember Hugo ‘Yogi’ Pinell (August 2015)

(Artwork by Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, 1859887, Clements Unit, 9601 Spur 591, Amarillo TX 79107; Featured at HugoPinell.com)



Locked Far Too Long Behind the Walls


by Kiilu Nyasha

(First published on September 26, 2010)

Trust no one in whom the desire to punish is strong. (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

I’ve been corresponding with prisoners since 1970, shortly after joining the Black Panther Party in 1969.  At that stage of the struggle, the Seventies, I was writing so many prisoners I had to keep files and carbon copies so as not to get mixed up with who said what.  There were fierce arguments being waged re individual leaders, strategies and tactics, and ideology.  I was also able to keep various political prisoners in touch with one another when they were transferred to different t gulags in separation. 

Recently, after a picture of “Pat” with Huey Newton and Charles Garry surfaced, one of the brothers I wrote and visited during the 70s saw it in another prisoner’s Bay View newspaper and sent me a kite via the SFBV.  His name is Arthur Anderson, aka, Andy or Frelimo. He was in the San Quentin AC on August 21, 1971 when George Jackson was killed.  It grieved me to learn he’s been down 47 years, and was just denied 3 more.  Here’s some of what he said:

And well for the last (30) some years I have been in war zones and I had to keep the oppressors knives out my back and to help protect some of these ndugos up in there who didn’t have the heart to protect themselves.  And so I got caught up…and when I was at Folsom and the Mex M. came to serve me… his ass got served. And that’s what I got the other 9 years to life for, they stretched me out on that one….To defend ones self when you’re being attacked and you’re given 9 years to life for assault… How do you justify keeping a human being locked up and away from society for 47 years?...And now for the past 17 years I have been involved with a program here and in another prison called convicts reaching out to people, CROP. (a mentoring program for youth)

When I told Yogi, (Hugo Pinell) that I heard from Frelimo, he said, “Of course I remember him and love him a lot…I’m so glad you’re in touch….I hope he is in good health and holding on strongly.  My best to him and his family and all other true loved ones.”

KPOO interview: Kiilu Nyasha and Terry Collins remember Hugo ‘Yogi’ Pinell

(Hugo 'Yogi' Pinell, artwork by Kiilu Nyasha, 2015)

(Transcription of KPOO interview from SF Bay View Newspaper)

This interview was broadcast live on Aug. 18, 2015, on Terry Collins’ show, The Spirit of Joe Rudolph. Listen to it in full here; these are highlights. Read more about Hugo Pinell here.

Terry Collins:  A lot of people around here are definitely in deep mourning for the murder of Hugo Pinell on the 12th of August, this month. From my correspondence with him over the past three or four years, I know he was a person full of love.

I loved Hugo or Yogi Bear, as he was called, and he really helped me sustain myself through some of the problems I thought I had with growing old and still trying to keep the struggle going on. I know you love Hugo also, so tell me some of the things you want to talk about.

Kiilu Nyasha:  If there was one word that could describe Yogi Bear, it would be love. His love energies are what sustained him for 45 years in solitary confinement beginning December 1970.

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ida McCray

October 1, 2015 episode of Freedom is a Constant Struggle, featuring Ida McCray, Director of Families With a Future.

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Dylcia Pagan on Puerto Rico and Pierre Labossiere on Haiti

July 2, 2015 episode of the Freedom is a Constant Struggle TV show, with guest Dylcia Pagan.

See also a 2011 interview with Dylcia Pagan, alongside Francisco Torres of the SF8, entitled Dylcia and Cisco on Panthers and Independistas.