Jimmy Santiago Baca Coming Into Language Summary

When he had arrived in Buffalo, Lewis’s first reaction to when they had finally reached his Uncle Otis’s home. “When we reached my Uncle O.C’s home and Dink’s house, I couldn’t believe it, They had white people living next door to them...on BOTH sides.” (Lewis and Aydin March Book 1: 43) Segregation in the north wasn’t a big deal to people in the north than it was in the south and from that he experienced a lot during that visit in the north. Once he had returned back home, he knew what was different now, he understood what the problem and differences were while he was up in Buffalo and at home. It came to him when school time was coming back around in the fall. “ In the fall, I started right the bus to school ,which should’ve been fun. But it was just another sad reminder of how different our lives were from those of white children.” (Lewis and Aydin March Book 1: 47) Between the black and white community, Lewis saw how “degrading” it was when it had came to school. They didn’t have the nice playground, the nicest bus, roads, and the ugly, sad sight of the prison full of black men and only black men, but he had managed to get pass all of the gloominess with a positive outlook of reading. “ I realized how old it was when we finally climbed onto the paved highway, the main road running east from Troy, and passed the white children’s buses..We drove past prison work gangs almost every day the prisoner were always

Jimmy Santiago Baca, What is Broken Is What God Blesses, is in a piece sort of passages ballad. The sonnet happens in the sand, in the mud on a homestead, in jail, in human, dispossessed homes, destroyed relational unions, the ghettos, barrio sand, and trailer parks. In addition, the word picture he uses is mates' impressions, ten-year-old child's uncovered feet in the mud, picking peppers, and, ruined soil streets loaded with challenging people. One of the structures utilized by Baca is the line break. A key idea, in a mental state, I see the lyric smashed divider that declares opportunity, to the

In the Daily Gazette, Micaela Baranello states that Diane Anderson, a Swarthmore Education professor, emphasized, “The importance of realizing that just because students speak outside of the dominant discourse does not mean they are deficient, but rather that they are different” (Baranello). This demonstrates that if someone is different somehow, it should not degrade them, and that is what both Gloria Anzaldua in How to Tame a Wild Tongue and Frederick Douglass in Learning to Read explain in their texts. Even though Anzaldua promotes language identity while Douglass encourages an overall education, they both promote social justice and tolerance through the role of literacy.

Learning how to read and write while he was in prison changed the way Baca perceived many things in life. He felt the loss he had endured throughout his whole existence until this point by not bothering to read or write. When he first started reading, he “became so absorbed in how the sounds created music” in him, that he forgot, for a while, where he was (Baca 54). At first, Baca did not want to believe that he was missing out on anything special, but as he started reading, it dawned on him that language was such a critical part of life. Reading gave him the chance to visit another world and, for a moment, it did not matter to him that he was locked up in a jail cell. He could connect with the outside world for a while and not have to worry about spending the rest of his life imprisoned unjustly. Baca was able to release all of his anger and repressed feelings that he had bottled up inside of him his whole life with no way to vent them out before. He realized that language was truly a gift that he had been lacking for the first twenty years of his life. Learning language was such a fortunate thing which allowed him to escape the horrors of life.

In the profile article “Jimmy Santiago Baca: Poetry as Lifesaver” author Rob Baker, who also is a creative writing and English teacher proves to not only the readers but also the National Council of Teachers of English the significance of poetry. The authors main point is that poetry saved Jimmy Santiago Baca’s life, he shows us how by explaining the emotions when Baca began to read poetry; he then went on to write poetry and even publish his own works while still in prison, after Baca’s release, he became a dedicated teacher who also works with gang members and teaches workshops.

Jimmy Santiago Baca is a prime example of the impact that can be extracted from a strong and caring passion towards an education. Baca was passionate in learning how to read when he was in prison, and he eventually achieved that goal. With his passion fueling his career, Baca would go on to become a poet, writer, and education activists for diverse classrooms. Baca is fueled by improving the conditions of those who feel like they have hit rock bottom like he once was. Several books were written from Baca’s backstory in hopes that people would learn from his mistakes and lessons learned within his lifetime. One of the subject areas that Baca has spent a good amount of his life promoting and discussing is the importance of education. Baca wrote a collection of stories that showed his experiences where people attempted to keep him down, but Baca’s drive to continue to expand and learn prevented him from staying down. This collection of stories is called “Stories from the Edge,” and Baca decided to add something extra with this book. He decided to go into a classroom with diverse students and he shared his stories from the book in greater detail. There were open discussions with the students about how his stories related to the students lives. After the student group left, Baca met with the teachers that aided with the student interaction, and they discussed the teaching methods that fuel the students motivation to learn. Jimmy Baca clearly is passionate in aiding individuals

Every person in life faces a number obstacle that he/she either conquers or the obstacles conquer that person. In the two essays, “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass and “The Library Card” by Richard Wright, the two authors face many obstacles in their lives. Frederick Douglass is a slave who has a desire to gain knowledge regardless of the circumstances and obstacles. Richard Wright is an African American man who lives in the South during the Jim Crow Laws and also has a yearning to attain more information about the life he lives. A previous EOF student, Rakiyah Johnson’s reaction to the essays written by Frederick Douglass and Richard Wright is that Douglass suffered far worse difficulties than Wright did. On the contrary, there are facts, which proves that the two men, Douglass and Wright suffered equal obstacles throughout their quest to gain knowledge. The obstacles consist of society’s restriction of knowledge to African Americans; the idea of Frederick Douglass and Richard Wright became ostracized; and the gained knowledge left the two authors with awareness, which brought distress in their lives.

1. One way to read Richard Rodriguez’s essay is as a discussion of two discrete educational philosophies. What are they?

The poem's speaker, Jimmy Santiago Baca didn't exactly live the best life. He was convicted of drug charges and sentenced to a maximum security prison and he was sad. Textual evidence to support this is “they lock my cage, so I live without going anywhere, they take each last tear I have, I live without tears”(Baca 93).

Through out the years African Americans in the south were not only treated unfairly, but they were also viewed as property rather than human beings; and were forced to follow certain laws that white people made. They were not granted the right to be free or to practice their own beliefs. During the 19th century, the 13th amendment was established, with the intention to free African Americans from their suffering. However, African Americans dreams were broken into many pieces since “their freedom” wasn’t truly a freedom in the end. Living most of his life through Slavery, Fredrick Douglass, eventually wrote “Learning to Read and Write”. In the same manner, Richard Wright, the author of “The Library Card” explained

Slavery and the Jim Crow laws that followed were both dark moments in American history where black people were discriminated and harassed over a hundred years. “Learning To Read And Write” is an autobiography that takes place during slavery. Readers see how Frederick Douglass had to outsmart his superiors and find a way to learn how to read and write. In “The Library Card” Wright lives in the period of Jim Crow laws, where the former slaves were allowed to read, but they had limited resources to do so. In the story, wright finds a way to manipulate the system to his advantage. During Slavery the whites took advantage of black people 's status in order to

A significant awakening is illustrated in Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “Who Understands Me but Me”. The awakening began with the speaker’s individual rights being taken away from him. His oppressors “take [his] life and crush it, so [he] lives without a future” (Line 7). His oppressors were stripping Baca of his rights, trying to break him. However, “in the midst of this wreckage of life they incurred, [he] practiced being [his]self, and [he has] found parts of myself never dreamed of by [him]… taught [him] water is not everything, and gave [him] new eyes to see through the walls… who understands [him] when [he] says this is beautiful?” (Line 22-24, 32-33, 37). The people he speaks of cut off almost everything from Baca, but he does not let these

African slaves were prohibited from reading and writing because their owners didn’t want them to gain intellectual freedom and empowerment. Of course, in some cases, they were secretly taught by their mistresses or children of the slave owners. While others took a risk by sneaking to learn how to read and write. African slaves not being permitted to read or write didn’t stop them from communicating by using African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or Gullah. For African slaves, it was their own way of expressing themselves either through songs (negro spirituals), storytelling, or just having basic conversations. This way of communicating became a part of African American culture as could be seen in literature and music (Blues and Jazz.) Musically,

My daughter, Lisbeth Chamba, doesn't have a class; which is Spanish. I would like for her to have Spanish instead of Dramatics Arts during 5th period if possible. She is a fluent speaker, but I still would want her to take Spanish.

Throughout the course of Introduction to African American Studies many of the themes we discussed connected to Freedom. I chose the theme Freedom In The City because there were many forms of freedom that African Americans faced. For example, for my book review I had to read The Life and Times of Fredrick Douglass. Fredrick Douglass experienced physical, emotional and intellectual freedom. Douglass’ mistress was chastised by her husband for trying to educate Douglass on how to read and write. Douglass grasped the idea that real freedom came from the skill of being able to read and write. The slave masters did not want their slaves to have the ability to read because if they could read for themselves they would be unqualified to be a slave. Also