Jimmy Santiago Baca

“So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans”

UA 115 - 116

Reader:  Anissa Cantin

Respondent:  Tammy Nohr

Biographical Information:

 Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1952. He had a rough start on life when, at age two, he was abandoned by his parent.  He lived with one of his grandparents for several years but was ultimately placed in an orphanage and later wound up living on the streets.  At the age of twenty-one he was convicted on charges of drug possession and incarcerated. He served six years in prison, four of them in isolation. During this time, Baca taught himself to read and write, and he began to compose poetry. A fellow inmate convinced him to submit some of his poems and first poems were published while he was still incarcerated. (1970’s)

He has won numerous honors, including the National Endowment for the Arts award in poetry, the Vogelstein Foundation Award, the National Hispanic Heritage Award, the Pushcart Prize, and the International Prize. He also has held the Wallace Stevens Endowed Chair at Yale.

The poem’s relation to the course objectives:

Objective 1c point 2:  To observe alternative identities and literary strategies developed by minority cultures and writers to gain voice and choice.  

·        Using the dominant culture’s words against them

Example:  “Mexicans are taking our jobs, they say instead.  What they really say is, let them die, and the children too.

Objective 5a:  To discover the power of poetry and fiction to help “others” hear the minority voice and vicariously share the minority experience.

Example:  “Below that cool green sea of money, millions and millions of people fight to live, search for pearls in the darkest depths of their dreams, hold their breath for years trying to cross poverty to just having something.”

Term:  tone

            The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms defines this term as “the attitude of the author toward the reader or the subject matter of a literary work” (482).

The tone of this poem can only be described as bitter.  There is definitely a high level of animosity from this poet toward the white culture due to the quotes of some.  This is a definite contrast to some of his other works.

Read the Poem

Interpretation of Poem:  

            I feel this author is very bitter over his hearing white people complain about the “Mexicans…taking jobs from Americans”.  While he does not deny that Mexicans are coming to America to look for work, he points out that they are not forcing out the Americans.  He alludes to more of a take over by the “clean-suited” buying jobs out from under the poor of even the “white”.  This turns the direction of the poem more to an economical view, pointing out that while some live with wealth, others have children who are starving.

Questions:

1.      The poem seems to have two parts, divided by the line “Well, I’ve gone about trying to find them, asking just where the hell are these fighters”.  Any thoughts on the effectiveness of this approach?

2.      In the third paragraph he writes about people on TV.  What do you think he means by “crawls turtle heavy”?  Why does he describe the tongue as “paddles”?

Sources:

The official Jimmy Santiago Baca website.  http://www.jimmysantiagobaca.com/