Portraits of a New Beginning: Amanda Santiago Tarver

«It took me a long time to be able to talk about my story. I feel like this experience has led me into something bigger than what I am and has put me in a position where I can help women like myself.»

“I never thought or imagined that I could be in a prison”, says Amanda. “My fiancé [Legend Tarver, now her husband] was involved in selling drugs, and I didn’t know the severity of it.How did I take things so lightly?” In 2015, approximately two weeks after entering prison, she discovered that she was pregnant with her second child. Approximately one and a half years later, upon her release and reunion with her family, she was able to secure her previous position at a plastic surgeon’s office. “My boss was extremely understanding,” she says. In 2019, she was awarded a fellowship by Univision and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for the Second Chance Project. “I accepted my past. The only way that you can help anyone is to be transparent. That was definitely a change,” Amanda says. She now runs 300 Letters with her husband to help rebuild families after incarceration.

^{* 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.}

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