Jimmy Santiago Baca

It can be extremely difficult to focus on things that one may want to do in order for them to change their life. Life is full of surprises that sometimes we find ourselves becoming the person we never imagined to be. The memoir A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca, a story about a man who was abandoned by his parents at a very young age, having a mother who desired to blend into “white world” and an alcoholic father, a man who was convicted at the age of twenty-one. Baca’s story tells about how he changes his life from being illiterate to becoming a poet inside the prison, exploring his inspirational transformation through poetry. This is a Journey of how Baca took charged of his life and molded himself as the person he is now. Baca grew up in New Mexico. The youngest child of teenage parents: a Mexican boy and a fair skinned girl of a Spanish descent. Cecilia grew up in Willard, New Mexico and she was the prettiest and youngest among her four sisters. Cecilia fell in love with a guy named Damacio; they met at the school where she was a cheerleader and Damacio, a basketball player. The two fell in love and resulted having three kids but as time passes by their status in life didn’t improve which resulted to, Cecilia having an affair and Damacio being dependent to alcohol. According to A Place to stand by Baca, he and his siblings didn’t have a wonderful life when they were kids, not having a normal life just like the other kids. Baca states “We were going into their world. Mom sat up front all made up, wearing a pretty pink dress and red high heels” (15). Cecilia, their mom always tells them what to do and not what to do. They are pretending to be the people that they are not. Cecilia was never proud of what she is and what she has. She is getting tired of her life not being able to buy the things that she likes such as the white picket-fenced house that she always dream about. She would blame her kids because of the disappointment that Damacio promises that