Jimmy Santiago Baca
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Jimmy Santiago Baca
- Born: 1952
- Birthplace: New Mexico
Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in New Mexico of Chicano and Apache descent. Raised for a few years by his grandmother, he was later sent to an orphanage, and, by the age of thirteen, was a runaway. When he was 21, Baca was sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison on drug charges. It was there that he learned to read and write and developed a love for poetry.
In 1984, Baca received a BA in English from the University of New Mexico. He got his PhD in Literature in 2003. He is the winner of the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the National Poetry Award, the International Hispanic Heritage Award, and, for his memoir A Place To Stand, the prestigious International Award.
Baca has written novels, books of poetry and two screenplays. His novels are A Place to Stand (2001), The Importance of a Piece of Paper (2004), A Glass of Water (2005). Among his books of poetry are Black Mesa Poems (1989), Healing Earthquakes (2001), C-Train & 13 Mexicans (2002), and Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande (2004). In 1992, he wrote Bound by Honor for Disney Productions (the video name: Blood In, Blood Out), and in 2000, he wrote The Lone Wolf -- The Story of Pancho Gonzalez, for HBO Productions.
Most Famous Works
- Martin and Meditations on the South Valley (1987)
- Immigrants in Our Own Land (1991)
- A Place to Stand (2001)
- Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande (2004)
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Works by Jimmy Santiago Baca
(1952-)
| 1988 | Martin and Meditations on the South Valley. The winner of the American Book Award follows the adventures of an Apache man who travels across the United States. Baca began writing poetry after teaching himself to read while incarcerated in an Arizona prison on drug charges. His work is remarkable for its lack of bitterness, since, unlike many other prison poets, he does not write so much about human suffering as about joy and triumph. |
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Jimmy Santiago Baca
| Jimmy Santiago Baca | |
|---|---|
 Photograph by Gloria Graham during the video taping of Add-Verse, 2004 |
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| Born | January 2, 1952 Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | USA |
| Notable work(s) | Martin and Meditations on the South Valley |
| Notable award(s) | American Book Award, Pushcart Prize, International Hispanic Heritage Award, International Award. |
Jimmy Santiago Baca (born 2 January 1952, Santa Fe, New Mexico) of Apache and Chicano descent is an American poet and writer.
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Life and career
Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, in 1952. Abandoned by his parents at the age of two, he lived with one of his grandmothers for several years before being placed in an orphanage. He wound up living on the streets, and at the age of twenty-one he was convicted on charges of drug possession and incarcerated. He served six and a half years in prison, three of them in isolation, and having expressed a desire to go to school (the guards considered this dangerous), he was for a time put in the same area of the prison with the inmates on death row before he was released.[1]
During this time, Baca taught himself to read and write, and he began to compose poetry. He sold these poems to fellow inmates in exchange for cigarettes. A fellow inmate convinced him to submit some of his poems to the magazine Mother Jones, then edited by Denise Levertov. Levertov printed Baca's poems and began corresponding with him, eventually finding a publisher for his first book[citation needed].
Immigrants in Our Own Land, Baca's first major collection, was highly praised. In 1987, his semi-autobiographical minor epic in verse, Martin and Meditations on the South Valley, received the American Book Award for poetry, bringing Baca international acclaim and, in 1989, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature.[2] A self-styled "poet of the people," Baca conducts writing workshops with children and adults at countless elementary, junior high and high schools, colleges, universities, reservations, barrio community centers, white ghettos, housing projects, correctional facilities and prisons from coast to coast[citation needed].
In 2004 Baca started a non-profit organization, Cedar Tree, Inc., that supports these workshops through charitable donations. As well as writing workshops, Cedar Tree has produced two documentary films Clamor en Chino and Moving the River Back Home. The organization employs ex-offenders as interns.[3]
Published works
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). His memoir, A Place to Stand (2001), chronicles his troubled youth and the five-year jail-stint that brought about his personal transformation. Baca is also the author a collection of stories and essays, Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio (1992); a play, Los tres hijos de Julia (1991); a screenplay, Bound by Honor, which was released by Hollywood Pictures as Blood In Blood Out in 1993; he also published at the end of 1993 Second Chances; Baca is also the author of a memoir, A Place to Stand: The Making of a Poet (2002). Baca's most recent novel is A Glass of Water (2009)
See also
Notes
- ^ "The Progressive Radio Show". http://www.progressive.org/radio/baca09.html. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
- ^ "Hispanic Heritage Awards for Literature". Hispanic Heritage Foundation. http://www.hispanicheritage.org/hispanic_search.php?name=&opt2=10&opt3=0&x=6&y=10. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
- ^ "Cedar Tree Inc". http://www.cedartreeinc.org/aboutus.html. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
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