How can I help? And the convict will say, Whats happened here is that we dont have any books or any say-so, I dont have any freedom . You can hear Baca read from two of his longer poems, Singing at the Gates and Rita Falling from the Sky, below. I dont believe that we can have anything in this life, that we can possess anything. [17] The film was produced by Gabriel Baca, David Gruban, and Andres Salazar[18] The creators of the movie also made a school curriculum to strengthen and highlight the morals within Baca's life story, containing a workbook and films. Throughout the poem, Bca used electricity as his controlling image. If I hadnt written I would have taken the other route. Jimmy Santiago Baca spoke with NPR's Arun Rath about his long career. Los tres hijos de Julia (play; title means "The Three Sons of Julia"; also see below), first produced at Los Angeles Theatre Center, spring, 1991. And these are the truths that are called Truth. Melendez observed that the publication of Immigrants in Our Own Land "established Baca's potential as a serious and prolific new voice on the poetry scene. Discussing the themes in Healing Earthquakes, which include acceptance in a community, the loss of family, and contradictions in romantic relationships, a Publishers Weekly reviewer considered the work "a sprawling journal of epic proportions certainly a breakthrough book for Baca." I never thought I would have that way of life back, especially living near St. Louis, Missouri. Most of the time our farm and animals are also a labor of love, Or I would have killed somebody, and I would have gone to the madhouse if they would have taken me there, and I would have asked them to put me under some kind of drug where I wouldnt know my name anymore and I could completely dissolve myself. There are thousands of guys rotting in prison that we dont even know about.

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My job was to get up on my feet and continue forth, and I did that through language. If you want a gritty, raw, punch-in-the-face but ultimately optimistic and life-affirming story, look no further than Jimmy Santiago Bacas memoir, A Place to Stand, and the documentary film based on that memoir.

Twenty-eight years old now, he spends much of his time writing; his work has appeared in New Directions, Mother Jones, and other publications. Poems Taken from My Yard, Timberline (Fulton, MO), 1986. And thats the way I tried to live. It was phenomenal. His semiautobiographical novel in Everything seemed to work very nicely for me. I noted very early on that my family flailed in the darkness, and the shadows attracted me because I wanted to free them from this moral quandary and into the light. BACA: It was just a little place about the size of an ordinary bathroom and they stick you in there without lights or sheets or clothes or anything. Feb. 15, 1989 12 AM PT. Youre admonished, youre kicked, youre laughed at. They have such a reverence for language. By facilitating this Smashing The Pipeline From School to Prison Summit I want to give back what Ive been gifted, blessed and honored with. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. And that realization made me confounded. How? Rather, he became intellectually invigorated during his incarceration period, teaching himself to read and write. Jimmy Santiago Baca (born January 2, 1952 in Santa Fe, New Mexico) is a Chicano-American poet and writer. WebSANTiAGO BACA. .
Jimmy Santiago Baca Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. When I went to prison Id made up my mind that I wasnt going to go along with anything. People, September 30, 2003, "Second Acts," p. 123. A new anthology of his work called Singing at the Gates tells the story of his life in poetry, from prison to renown. to Upaya Zen Center for a special dharma talk entitled. He does that, they give him a hundred and fifty, two hundred dollars. Intended to convey the sometimes traumatic Chicano experience in America, Martin and Meditations on the South Valley details the protagonist's sense of abandonment and displacement. SUN: How did you deal with 30 days in solitary? He has written 31 books of poems, essays and stories. Santiago Baca lives in Albuquerque with his wife and two teenagers. You dont do anything. Absent are the self-destructive tendencies that typified Baca's earlier years of searching and wandering. He has two older children as well. You dont have to be a specialist. It was language that saved [me]." Fleeing the orphanage as often as he could to hide in the barrio or live with relatives, Baca was eventually reduced to a life on the street. Booklist contributor Donna Seaman concluded, "Baca's harrowing story will stand among the world's most moving testimonies to the profound value of literature. He has two older children as well. ", Baca has also had some success with dramas: his play Los tres hijos de Julia was performed in Los Angeles in 1991, and his film Bound by Honor, for which he cowrote the screenplay and produced, was released by a Disney company in 1993. 33-34; April 26, 2004, review of Winter Poems along the Rio Grande, p. 57. Kym has served teachers as President of Florida Council of Teachers of English (FCTE 2011-2013) and is involved with the national group (NCTE) working with the anti-censorship committee. It is a contemporary hero tale. When Jimmy Santiago Baca was 20, he was convicted of drug charges and sentenced to prison. Most of the time our farm and animals are also a labor of love, "The biographical file on Jimmy Santiago Baca might well be read as the working sketch or preliminary study for much of the autobiographical elements that infuse his poetry," noted Melendez. [4], During this time, Baca taught himself to read and write, and he began to compose poetry. I knew that was mine. Anybody can see what prison is spawning today. The critic continued: "Black Mesa Poems represents the culmination of a long process of recovery and vindication through language and poetry. 11. You take them and pop them in your mouth and it burns your whole mouth. so if we all wanted to get together to have a class we couldnt do it. Its pretty much like a family. ." Baca: A Poet Emerges from Prison of His Past. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. He wound up living on the streets, and at the age of twenty-one he was convicted on charges of drug possession and incarcerated. Immigrants in Our Own Land: Poems, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1979, enlarged edition published as Immigrants in Our Own Land and Earlier Poems, New Directions (New York, NY), 1990.

I just told him I wanted to be left alone in my cell.

You must live intensely, each moment, recognizing new feelings and new ideas about you and the world around and perceiving those with the innocence of a child and the vigor of a wise man.

Set This Book on Fire! WebSantiago Baca lives in Albuquerque with his wife and two teenagers. And I believe that we the people can make it happen and raise our children in a way that allows them to love who they are. We finally started a youtube channel go here and subscribe, we're going to do some live stuff, we're digging through the archives and we're When he was 21, he was convicted on charges of drug possession and incarcerated. He was convicted on drug charges in 1973 and spent five years in prison. I was having a guard bring me chili, because we didnt get any chili in prison. Abandoned by his parents at the age of two, he lived with one of his grandparents for several years before being placed in an orphanage. He was illiterate when he arrived at the Arizona State Prison. The whole system is based on favors. And its funny because I took out my notebooks, my first notebooks, and I didnt know how to spell sea or light or darkness. It was just scribbles of screams and singing. 11-12; November, 1983, Michael Hogan, review of What's Happening, pp. Jimmy Santiago Baca. "Baca, Jimmy Santiago 1952- There he learned to read and began writing poetry. Master Slave Husband Wife. The vast majority of people that have gotten out of prison and seen what their status is in society turn to drugs, or alcohol. A fellow inmate convinced him to submit some of his poems to the magazine Mother Jones, then edited by Denise Levertov. I don't do anything for money. And dont go to the places the guard takes you. I dont want to sound clicheish, but the acceptance of your own doom brings on such profound humility that you begin to reorder the movements of your hands, the movements of your speech, and on towards the movements and the structure of your entire day. Please RSVP to our front office at 505-986-8518 ext. Most of them are flying from job to job. The poems, highlighting the splendor of human existence amidst the desolate surroundings of prison life, met with rave reviews. Ive been helped by a lot of them. Judging Baca a talented writer, Levertov began corresponding with the inmate and eventually found a publisher for his first book. His memoir reaches for a deeper truth. And its difficult for me to believe that those cannot be broken and the person cannot grow into his or her own self. I try to mix the moon with the sun, and the stars with the water.

The critic continued: "Baca's poetry is to a large degree infused with elements drawn from his experiences, and the reader is struck by the recurrent themes of transformation, metamorphosis, and self-actualization that have accompanied the poet's own trajectory as an individual and a writer.". Can you run a clean prison in this society? SUN: The dramatic way to put it is, if you hadnt gone to prison, you wouldnt have discovered that you are a writer. Poet Jimmy Santiago Baca and National Writing Project Fellows Kym Sheehan and Denise VanBriggle have crafted these teaching tools (textbook and curriculum) using poems from Bacas incarceration as a young man. Poets.org, http://www.poets.org/ (September 21, 2005). And it was singing beyond all the grammatical mistakes and all the naive exclamations of honor and sincerity and love toward mankind. Encyclopedia.com. I went to the vast, vast extremities, of what stood against prison. And then from that embryonic stage, you go forth and begin to touch something, and then teach yourself how to communicate that feeling, and then ask yourself, Do you want this or dont you want this? And from there you start life again. Admired for his use of rich imagery and lyrical language, Baca, unlike a growing number of "prison writers" who inject their works with rage and desolation, writes poems dealing with spiritual rebirth and triumph over tragedy. BACA: It was a wasteland. To attend, contact Karen Vargas: KarenAnnVargas@live.com or call (575)751-0952. Shining way down.

Feb. 15, 1989 12 AM PT. First came reading (from an anthology stolen from a jail guard): It was late when I returned to my cell. A Kliatt critic, for example, found Baca's works "astonishingly beautiful" for their "celebration of the human spirit in extreme situations." Ghost Ranch offers adobe houses and dormitory accommodations, a cafeteria and pool, big sunlit rooms, hiking and horse back ridingeverything to refresh ones spirit. But you cant look to the institutions of learning for the moral way of living. Denise VanBriggle, literacy professional, teacher-consultant with the National Writing Project, and JourneyDance Facilitator, spends most days following her combined passions as she explores the power of the expressive arts to act as change agents, perspective shifters, and resilience builders in her own life and the lives of others. And damn if it didnt work. Thats where the intensity comes in.

I sat down and I wrote it all out, all three stanzas, and I had one line missing and I looked at it and WHACK! WebJimmy Santiago Baca was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on January 2, 1952. I'm too busy trying to capture the aspects of myself in the dark. Baca has read from his work and provided an interview for a sound recording in the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape at the Library of Congress, 2004. Throughout the poem, Bca used electricity as his controlling image. And the way the court systems are working now, they are getting too backlogged, so theyre reverting to easier sentences. If Im going to write the truth, I believe in first living it out. He continually uses his gift of writing and the power of words to help others. Prairie Schooner, winter, 2002, Marcus Cafagna, review of Set this Book on Fire!, pp. He was convicted on drug charges in 1973 and spent five years in prison. When he got out five years later, he was well on his way to becoming one of The easier sentences are mandatory sentences. Molly Worthen On The Modern Search For Meaning. I believe in making our life what we want to be zones. He has mellowed with age, but he is still as passionate as he was when he was a younger man. Im not content to look at nature as Thoreau might have, or as a scientist might have. He has two older children as well. I was just standing, there was nothing wrong, emotionally or otherwise, and suddenly something took me, just went right down the middle of my whole existence and split it in half, and I turned around to look at the bed, and I saw what seemed to be the opposite extreme of eternity: Where there was supposed to have been a wall with a mirror and a bathroom there was just, just. He is the founder of a nonprofit grassroots cooperative for inner-city youth called Black Mesa Enterprises. New York Times, April 30, 1993, Vincent Canby, review of Bound by Honor, p. C8; January 14, 1994, p. D16. And you can plan five years and discipline yourself to those five years. Meeting a spouse, rediscovering an ex, matching with yourself. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. They did that so people wouldnt read, or study. He is just as much a thinker and human being as you are. Get your ass out here! So I put my pen down and I grabbed my towel and I my grabbed my bar of soap and I ran out to take a shower and Im in the middle of the shower, all this soap on me . Throughout her lifes journey she continues to find ways to feed her passions and promote literacy. 21 Mar. [11], Baca's poetry collections include C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans: Dream Boy's Story (Grove Press, 2002), Healing Earthquakes (2001), Set This Book on Fire (1999), In the Way of the Sun (1997), Black Mesa Poems (1995), Poems Taken from My Yard (1986), and What's Happening (1982). They dont accept the damnation that they will come to. BACA: No, my mother split when I was about two or three. The critic concluded that Baca "is a freshly aggressive poet of many abilities. Raised by his grandmother and later sent to an orphanage, he became a runaway by age 13. WebBorn in 1952 in Santa Fe of Chicano and Apache descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was abandoned by his parents and at 13 ran away from the orphanage where his grandmother had placed him. SUN: This happened before you went to prison? What's Happening (poetry), Curbstone Press (Willimantic, CT), 1982. If you go along with the system perfectly, youre able to do that. He has mellowed with age, but he is still as passionate as he was when he was a younger man. WebJimmy Santiago Baca was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on January 2, 1952. Source for information on Baca, Jimmy Santiago 1952-: Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series dictionary. WORK IN PROGRESS: A Glass of Water, a novel for Grove; Hand Signs and Closing the Circle, sequels to Set this Book on Fire!, for Cedar Hill. WebJimmy Santiago Baca was born Jos Santiago Baca into the chaos of a fractious family living in an adobe shack on the outskirts of Sante Fe in 1952. The organization employs ex-offenders as interns. [13][14][15], https://faculty.ucmerced.edu/mmartin-rodriguez/index_files/vhBacaJimmy.htm, Santiago Baca wrote the screenplay for a Hollywood production, Blood In Blood Out. Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts (198, Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1931, Babylon of the Chaldeans, Patriarchate of, Baca, Judith F.: 1946: Muralist, Visual Artist, Educator, Baccarin, Morena 1979- (Monrena Baccarin), https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/baca-jimmy-santiago-1952, Pinsky, Robert 1940- (Robert Neal Pinsky), Wright, Charles 1935- (Charles Penzel Wright, Jr.). But I do believe in a sort of self-hypnosis of the spirit in which you can become happy and meaningful. I was directed to that as the only salvation I had. Jimmy Santiago Baca.

"I took a wild chance," he related to Krier, "I didn't even know how to put the stamp on the envelope and address it." WebBorn in 1952 in Santa Fe of Chicano and Apache descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was abandoned by his parents and at 13 ran away from the orphanage where his grandmother had placed him. SUN: In prison, what did you have to watch out for? . . (laughs) Sure enough it frightened me. They they work their way up to $500; some of the guards make $500 or $1000 for runs. I wanted to know how to function in this world. I was away somewhere else and WHACK! And now theyre throwing all these 19 year old kids that dont have any responsibility in prisons. At the age of 13 he ran away and You can do things that otherwise you wouldnt have been able to do. But the method that I like to use is that if Im going to write about a cop mistreating people, what Id like to do is set it up where I could confront him. He sent me there two or three times. Trying to balance work and family is a labor of love. He has written 31 books of poems, essays and stories. Salt (1962) Black Mesa Poems, New Directions (New York, NY), 1989. (Born Thelma Lucille Sayles) American poet, autobiographer, and author of children's books. So someone tells them, Listen, my old lady brought me in some heroin last week, and could you run this upstairs to this dude up there and get the money for me, and Ill give you twenty dollars?, So he goes upstairs and he gets the money and brings it down, someone gives him twenty dollars, and before you know it, theyre asking him, Hey, can you bring me in a couple of twenty-two pistols, or pick up a little heroin for me?. WebJimmy Santiago Bca chose to use a controlling image to symbolize a relationship that went from good to bad. The threats were often carried out. The wife wanted more freedom, a bigger mansion. The mansion could represent her need for more things.