Presenter: Nancy Gordy

Respondent: Diane Tincher

September 28, 2000

I. Biographical Information: Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California, in 1952. He is the author of numerous books of poetry. An accomplished poet, Gary has received many honors, including the Andrew Carnegie Medal, and the United States Award of the International Poetry Forum. Since Gary Soto is an Hispanic, he writes about his experiences through his poetry. He writes about the lives of Mexican Americans, about nature, and about personal dreams. During his childhood he dreamt of becoming a priest, a hobo, a paleontologist, and a geographer, but instead he discovered poetry. He comments that when he was growing up that he didn’t have access to many books and wasn’t encouraged to read. Soto writes a great deal about Baseball, as in "Black Hair." Soto also mentions that, " even though he has two languages, he writes in English; he says those who speak two languages never dare write in both."

• Objective 3c: Mexican American alternative narrative, "The ambivalent Minority"
• Objective 4: assimilation
• Objective 6a: Image of the individual, the family and alternative families.
• Objective 7b: shifting of names or identities of the dominant culture.

1. Angles of Interpretation :

• This poem represents the ambivalent Mexican culture in that it shows the sport of the dominant culture-baseball. On the other hand the author mentions coming home to brown-armed people.
• The color brown is referred to in this poem even when it is not outwardly mentioned: there is the tan image of the baseball field and the brown dirt on their feet. This suggests how the Hispanic culture might feel divided between the two worlds of skin: brown and white.
• The view of an alternative family or sense of belonging. The boy idealizes and uses the figure Hector Moreno as a male role model due to the loss of his father’s physical influence. Obviously this baseball player is an Hispanic who has attained fame and adoration, the kid’s aspirations to one day fill that role of success.
• The sense of pride, the link to heritage by many minority cultures. The child prides in his diversity, being, " brilliant in the stands."

• Extended metaphor

1. body shines like bleachers--simile
2. black hair can allude to youthfulness.
3. Plenty of detail, adds to the imagination of the childhood experience.
4. Use of sound images of the baseball game.

5. Discussion Questions :

1. What does the title of the poem mean, or what does it allude to?
2. Why would Gary Soto say that writers of two languages never write in both?
3. What is the meaning of the passage in 2^nd stanza about his black hair as a torch, and the image of the mother?
4. Why do many minority writers refer to hair?

Respondent: Diane Tincher- The black torch of hair is possibly going out because he feels he is losing his identity. If he doesn’t make his break in life his brilliancy will run out. He feels brilliant in the stands--the uniform aspect of the baseball game.

The picture of the mother and the butter knife represent poverty, like all they may have had to eat was peanut and butter sandwiches, or something of the sort. Poverty and the butter knives is the hurt of hunger, she can’t afford to feed the family.

Dark and bright at the same time as having black hair and wearing white shirts--this represents the ambivalent minority.

Teresa Ferguson- The realization of black hair and brown arms is the resistance to white dominant culture, "whiteness."

Phyllis- The dream of being a baseball hero is the idea of assimilation -the dream success out of poverty. Black torch is being brown due to skin color.

Classmate 1- The twisting of butter knives represents pain, because butter knives are blunt and not sharp, like his family is struggling to survive since the father is not there.

Classmate 2- About the black torch of hair, the boy’s life has already been tough and he feels that he has already lived a hard life. His hair could go gray from fatigue of worrying, and a harsh life. Sometimes people who have lived hard lives, their hair goes gray earlier. Black torch, is his hair being the first thing a person sees to identify him with being Hispanic-just like the torch at the Olympics that is the first thing you see-ties in with sports.

My views during the discussion- The boy's obsession with Hector Moreno is his need and admiration for a father figure since his father is dead. This ties directly with objective 6a-the image of the individual and the connection with alternative families. Here it is his alternative family-baseball a place to get away from the reality of poverty.