The Emotional Life Story Of Jimmy Santiago Baca By Rob Baker

728 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of being in a gang

Baca The mystical life story of Jimmy Santiago Baca, as told by freelance writer Rob Baker, goes through multiple stages fortunate and unfortunate events. As described in the article Baca’s mother was bitten by a rattle snake before he was born, this would translate into Baca being able to “see in the dark” and also more realistic “he would change many times throughout his life, just as a snake sloughs its skin”. A beautifully explained metaphor by the healer, but sadly a tragic impact on Baca’s life. The numerous stages of Baca’s life, as discussed in the article, explain that through his hardships, unexpected redemption and eventually his life calling as a mentor to troubled youth can mean that anyone has a chance to find their place in …show more content…

As mentioned in in the article Baca “could not keep up academically nor mesh with the ‘normal’ kids who had families”. Without a family or friends to console him through his life he had to do what would keep him alive, sadly drugs and violence mixed into Baca’s life line to survive. He became a “successful” drug dealer, which is humorous because something that could have the chance to put you in jail or worse be killed should certainly be labeled as successful. At age 21 that’s exactly what happened, Baca was sentenced to 5-10 years in prison. Although his life seemed to be an endless layers of violence and crime, a new coating of his skin would began to emerge, ripping off his old hazardous …show more content…

When confronted and asked to leave the kids said the had no other place to go. How could Baca simply turn away from these kids, when in fact he was one of these kids, homeless and without a purpose. To help the young kids he sets up a make shift home in a local church and for the time being allows the kids a few nights off the streets. Baca since then has set up many work shops with troubled youth in order to try and help them change their lives. It helps that Baca was a troubled adolescent because he can relate to the kids more, because he understands their problems and what they struggle with in day to day life. His final layer of skin has allowed him to connect to the youth and use his gift of poetry to help those in

Show More
Related

  • A Wall Of Fire Rising Summary

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    The father, Guy struggled for work he wanted his son Little Guy to work as well but his mom Lili wouldn't allow it. This family was not well off, “The rattling door of his tiny shack. His wife, Lili, was squatting in the middle of their one room home, spreading cornmeal mush on banana leaves for supper.” (Pg.45) This quote represents how poor and desperate this family is, they have fallen to eating off banana leaves in a one room shack. Guy begins to really be affected by the family's lack of money and poor living conditions, “ I just want to take that big balloon and ride it up in the air. I’d sail off somewhere and keep floating until I got to a really nice place with a nice plot of land where I could be something new. I’d build my own house, keep my own garden. Just be something new” (Pg.61) Guy has become so desperate he wants to run away from everything. Later on Lili was out for her morning water run when, “On her way back, the sun had already melted a few gray clouds. She found the boy standing alone in the yard with a terrified expression on his face, the old withered mushrooms uprooted at his feet. He ran up to meet her” (Pg.63) At this point in the story, after all of Guys reactions and things he has said begin to unfold,”’It’s Papa,’ he said finally, raising a stiff finger in the air. The boy covered his face as his mother looked up at the sky. A

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jimmy Santiago Baca's 'A Place To Stand'

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jimmy Santiago Baca recovers his life and his afflictions in A Place to Stand. Conceived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from the time Jimmy was young when he saw his father in prison, dependent on liquor, a mother dependent on patriotism, and kin broken rationally. This diary memoir investigates the thought that regardless of what foundation you originated from you can transcend it. Additionally, the earth in which you live, inhale, and rest can have a significant impact on your fate or destiny. In Jimmy Baca 's case, his destiny ended up being jail at Florence, where he figured out how to improve as a person. In a place to Stand the prison system works on taking away people 's humanity .The prison system tends to dehumanize and punish people.Tend

    Read More

  • Santiago The Alchemist

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the Englishman lent Santiago his books, it teaches the boy how to read the language of the world which allowed him to spot omens later. While returning the books to the Englishman, Santiago explains that he learned, “ The world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things,” which allows Santiago to spot omens, like seeing the army in the eagle’s dive, later on in his journey (Coelho 83). Santiago also learns that people learn in different ways in order to follow their personal legend. While travelling through the desert, Santiago warns the Englishman, “ you should pay more attention to the Caravan... We make a lot of detours, but we’re always heading for the same destination,” and he replies, “ Books are like caravans in that respect,” showing that both could learn from each other, which allowed him to further his

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In Running, By Luis Rodriguez's 'Always Running'

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some kids have no other choice but to join the gangs at an early age. Lack of parent supervision has been shown to be linked with both boys and girls joining a gang. Even though most have men to prove they are the violent ones, not every gang member is shown to be violent. While the rest of Luis’s gang members treat women with disrespect, Luis seems to respect everyone no matter what gender they are. Being told his own mom the pain she had to go through influenced his ways of viewing and treating

    Read More

  • Carol Ventocilla's Short Story

    296 Words  | 1 Pages

    Even though all of her friends switched schools or moved away, Carol Ventocilla continues to keep her head high. Carol is the same age as my sister, but a good friend to everyone regardless of how old they are.

    Read More

  • Nora Zeale Hurston: A Comparative Analysis

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    Legend says, “What goes around comes back around”. This saying is often used to describe karma, which is clearly illustrated in Nora Zeale Hurston’s 1926 short story “Sweat” and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1955 short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. These two stories are so different but so similar in many ways. For example, the conflicts and genres of these stories are completely different. The settings and styles of writing are also different. On the contrary, these two stories are told in a similar point of view. More than anything, the conflicts of these two stories are the biggest illustration of karma’s “powers” in their own meticulous ways.

    Read More

  • Innocence In Di Michele's Papa Was The Bogeyman

    490 Words  | 1 Pages

    His parents, who he looks up to, are crueler than he ever imagined. Michele’s mom said “’When it’s dark the bogeyman comes out and takes the children away and sells them to the gypsies.’” Michele then thought “Papa was the bogeyman.” In this passage, Michele discovers how brutal the adult world can be. The father that he looked up to was not the good guy that he thought; he was the villain who made Michele’s perfect world come crashing down. Michele then thought “Why didn’t they give him back to her? What use is a barmy little boy to them? Filippo’s mother was distressed, you could see that. If she asked on television it meant she cared a lot about her son. And papa wanted to cut off his ears.” This shows the guilt that consumes Michele up because he knows about the boy and he knows that his father is involved; his innocence is lost. This causes Michele to be in a dilemma of whether to abide his father’s actions or take his own stance and do what he thinks is right . Now that he is exposed to the adult world and shed his innocence, he has to make his own decisions even if it means going against his family. Although this passage does not summarize the whole book, it conveys what the author is trying to show. Nicole Ammaniti is trying to explain the loss of innocence in a child through Michele getting thrown into the adult world and

    Read More

  • Clara Trueba The House Of The Spirits

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a child, Blanca helped Pedro Tercero Garcia to properly read with books she brought him that sparked his curiosity and desire. With Blanca’s aid his literacy improved in ways that “his schoolmistress had been unable to do with all her canings” (Allende, 139). This later helps him as he gets a job under the socialist party through his musical influence on the radio. Both jobs require a high literacy level which was able to be unlocked through Blanca’s tenderness and caring nature. This caring nature is also a large factor when she cuts her new husband Jean de Satigny out her life forever. This dramatic change in Blanca’s life was done for the protection of her unborn daughter from Blanca’s husband. “She had decided to forget the man she had married and act as if he had never existed. She never spoke of him again, nor did she offer any explanation for her flight from the conjugal abode” (Allende, 265). Blanca’s decision changes her life as she is now living without a husband, a frowned upon decision in society. Along with her little education, she can never get a decent job and support herself and her daughter. Although Blanca cannot get a well paying job, she opens up a pottery class for mongoloid children in the big house on the corner. During these classes “Blanca and Alba had quickly understood that the children worked much better when they felt loved, and that the only way to communicate with them was through affection. They learned to hug them, kiss them, and fondle them until they wound up genuinely loving them” (Allende, 280). The classes not only help the children express and enjoy themselves but it also helps everyone else learn softer and loving ways to communicate with them. Her actions cause parents and guardians to be able to understand and love their children who have not been able

    Read More

  • The History of the Gallaudet School for the Deaf

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ays of getting out of his punishment including insanity, which was professionally proven not the case, and that someone with black gloves signed for him to do what he did. Which was also proven wrong. Mesa was charged with charged with two counts of felony murder, one while armed, along with some robbery and burglary charges. He went to jail for the rest of his life without parole.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Social Inequality In Los Olvidados

    466 Words  | 1 Pages

    Another character is called little eyes, carries out the chores of an older blind man who pays him with food and shelter after little eyes’s father never showed up at their meeting place. The gang children constantly state “only morons work” and how prison life is better than their own. Although they are lazy and search for trouble, they are on a constant lookout for money. They even beat up an old blind man for his money after he earns the money from playing his instruments for a crowd of listeners. It's all about having the money to eat food or how to get a job to do as minimal work necessary to eat food. Wherever they are, children without parents are still subjected under older children’s control as the older ones have more experience with criminal acts. That is how Jaibo has so much control and is why Pedro seems overwhelmed by his older, larger, and more brutal friend, unable to escape from his grasp anywhere from the streets to farming school. Pedro is unable to avoid the cycle of poverty, desperation, and crime. He is abandoned by his mother and society to find a job and not get into trouble. Pedro is once given 50 pesos by the principle of the farming school to walk to

    Read More

  • Sugar Cane Alley Essay

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the days, the children would experiment and get themselves into trouble for example in the scene where they caught the neighbor’s garden on fire. Also, when one of them broke M’Man Tine priceless sugar bowl and Jose was punished for it. The extent of the mishap indicate the hardship of the community. M’Man Tine was a very hardworking woman, loved her grandson dearly and worked in the cane fields to provide for both of them considering her old age and aching body. She made it her point of duty that Jose was well fed, oversee that Jose read frequently to keep his reading skills on point, grooming him(preparing him for the outside world) and sending him to school. M’Man Tine was determined that her grandson would have a better life and he would break the cycle of working in the

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Stephen King's The Last Rung On The Ladder

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    Time can change everything including a person’s personality, which is shown in Stephen King’s ‘The Last Rung on the Ladder”, by portraying one of the main characters, Kitty. She goes through a profound change after her life begins to disintegrate. At the beginning of the story, she appears to be daring and trusting but later without her brother to help her, she becomes hopeless and weak who would rather jump from the top of a building than be tortured by life.

    Read More

  • Jimmy Breen Short Stories

    283 Words  | 1 Pages

    Jimmy breen lands in a small town no one knows the name except civilians living there. Jimmy arrives at his hotel at 11:25 pm he checks in and heads up to his room on floor 11.

    Read More

  • Decoding Evil in Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown'

    1839 Words  | 4 Pages

    As soon as this fear arises, a mysterious traveler appears. This traveler is associated with being the devil. The devil is prevalently known as a symbol for evil. Especially when considering this evil spirit from a religious standpoint as Young Goodman Brown does. A black staff accompanies this devilish traveler. The black color signifies evil and the staff was described as a great, black snake. The snake continues as a biblical symbol for the evil one, as a serpent in the Garden of Eden that tempted Eve to commit the original sin. The traveler that carries the black, snake-like staff, happens to be Brown’s guide through the woods. Young Goodman Brown is not in safe hands. The goodness that survives in Brown can sense that he is in possible danger. Trying to refuse to go further into the woods, the evil traveler convinces the protagonist to do otherwise.

    Read More

  • Should Kids Make Their Own Choice Essay

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    Norma Bourland: Our son started using drugs when he was 14 years old. We had just moved to another state for the second time in two years, after living overseas as missionaries for the first 12 years of our son’s life. This was a lot for all of us in our family to handle, especially for an adolescent. Because my husband was the pastor of a small evangelical church, we lived on a limited budget, whereas our new community was very affluent. Our son’s new high school was huge, with about three thousand students. He was the youngest one on his soccer team, and although he was very skilled because he had been playing almost from the time he was born, he had a bit of an accent and was unsure of American ways. So he kind of stood

    Read More

More about The Emotional Life Story Of Jimmy Santiago Baca By Rob Baker

Open Document