Freeing the San Antonio Four

Vasquez was visibly shaken in an interview with the Current last week, having registered as a sex-offender the day before. "Yesterday was very upsetting," she said, fighting tears. "The thought, the reality that I am a registered sex offender, that's real hard to deal with." She's barred from going online, and can't be around or even talk of children younger than 17 — including family members. "My parole officer even looked at these photos on the walls," Vasquez said, pointing to a cluster of family photos inside her mother's West Side home, where she's now staying. "We might even have to take those down as a condition of my parole."

Vasquez still views Rivera's children as her own, having kept in contact with them throughout her time in prison. But Rivera's daughter just had a child of her own, and Vasquez worries the conditions of parole might keep them from ever truly re-connecting. "I will be devastated if that happens," she said.

Vasquez sat in her new, small room, reading from a journal she started keeping in prison. She's afraid to go outside. "There's just this terrifying feeling that something will go wrong," she said, before adding: "I just want to be able to breathe again."

For more information about the San Antonio Four, see:
fourliveslost.com, a website advocate Darrell Otto set up to publicize the case
sanantoniofour.tumblr.com, with info on Deborah Esquenazi's ongoing documentary project, along with notices for upcoming screenings
NCRJ.org, the National Center for Reason and Justice.

 

* She read the letter in an on-camera recantation to Esquenazi, the Austin-based filmmaker.

**The DA's office denies Limon's statement. On Monday, November 19, Rico Valdez at the Bexar County District Attorney's office told the Current: “I haven't and nobody in this office has urged Mr. Limon to not talk to the press or to not cooperate with the defense. That's not our place. We would never do that.” 

 

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