18 pages • 36 minutes read
Jimmy Santiago BacaA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
"There Are Black" by Jimmy Santiago Baca (1979)
This poem is another vivid and emotionally poignant depiction of prison life, emphasizing its normalization of brutality and its effect of turning inmates against each other, a theme Baca also address in “Immigrants in Our Own Land.”
"I Am Offering This Poem" by Jimmy Santiago Baca (1979)
This is another poem from Immigrants in Our Own Land. Unlike the title poem of the collection, this love poem does not address the experience of incarceration directly. However, it is a lyrical statement of his belief in the nurturing and protective power of poetry. You can also listen to Baca read the poem here.
"Who Understands Me But Me" by Jimmy Santiago Baca (1990)
This poem is an ode to the ability to overcome adversity and turn hardship and mistakes into the building blocks of personal growth. While it contains a few explicit references to incarceration, it takes a much broader view and speaks to a universal potential of discovering within ourselves previously unknown strength and richness.
By Jimmy Santiago Baca
American Literature
View Collection
Banned Books Week
View Collection
Chicanx Literature
View Collection
Contemporary Books on Social Justice
View Collection
Immigrants & Refugees
View Collection
Indigenous People's Literature
View Collection
Poems of Conflict
View Collection
Poetry: Perseverance
View Collection
Political Poems
View Collection
Required Reading Lists
View Collection
Short Poems
View Collection