Jimmy Santiago Baca's Coming Into Language

He describes to the readers how he kept his private and public identities separate--his home being the private area where he spoke Spanish with his family and “the outside world” such as school where he was forced to speak English. Rodriguez shows a lost connection between his family because of learning a new language when he says, “The old Spanish words I had earlier used-mama and papa- I couldn’t use anymore.. On the other hand, the words I heard neighborhood kids call their parents seemed equally unsatisfactory… As a result, I never used them. Whenever I’d speak to my parents, I would get their attention by looking at them.” This shows that after English became Rodriguez’s main language, he’s become unsure of how he should address his parents or how he should start a conversation with them. He loses the connection and the intimacy that was once there has vanished. However, keeping your culture and language alive is important because it is very beneficial. When you keep your language it makes it easier for children to bond and connect with relatives who may not know English and also making it possible for the language to continue being passed down from generation to generation. Even though, it’s almost necessary to learn English when coming to the United States, it’s important to note that you should never

The second article is “Coming Into Language” by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Baca presents his information in an autobiographical style. He begins his story by introducing himself as the main character around the time when he was to be thrust into the prison system for the first time. He notes his agony due to the fact he cannot read or write, which in turn makes it impossible for him to truly describe his feelings. (Baca 42) His first experiences in beginning to understand the written word were in prison. He was sent back to prison years later on drug charges, and again he was forced to abide his time with learning the written word. It was not a burden for him. Baca discovers that through language he is able to free himself from all the barriers he had encountered. Baca decides that he must write, and that it should take precedence over all other aspects of life. This decision is met with resistance by the prison personnel. Baca is put through a hellish gauntlet of indignities in order to write. (45) He never loses hope. He concludes that all his writing was really just done to express his feelings that he couldn’t express to anyone else.

In the essay “Coming into Language”, the author Jimmy Santiago Baca expresses how he used reading and writing as an escape to his reality. He begins by talking about his first engagement with books during his night shifts at the hospital where he was working. During this time, Baca would only look at the pictures in books because he didn’t know how to read. He found a book on Chicano history and found his true identity. It was from then on that Baca found he felt free reading and expressing himself on paper. When he first went to prison at the age of seventeen and heard the inmates reading aloud together is when he ironically said, “Never had I felt such freedom as in that dormitory.” (Baca, 1992, pg52) This quote is an example of Baca feeling

As a person who came from another country to the USA. learning how to read and write wasn’t easy. At the beginning, I found it so hard to read and write I would sit for a long time trying to read one page and most of the time I didn’t understand what was it about. writing one complete sentence was very difficult I had to learn read and write for that reason I feel that I have a lot of similarity with Jimmy Santiago who also had a hard time reading and writing and he had to teach himself how to read and write. I have a lot of similarity with Jimmy Santiago Baca. Jimmy Santiago was born in poor Mexican Family.His dad was addicted to alcohol and his Mom left him when he was a kid because of the financial problem they were facing and married a rich man. Regardless the struggles that Jimmy Santiago Baca faced he was able to cope with them by teaching himself how to write poems. Jimmy found a place for him in the community and he felt that by writing poems he was able to connect with people. He found a place to stand. A place that he was always searching for and he mentioned that in his book,“ A Place to Stand The Making of a poet.” by saying,“I was searching for something to make me feel more a part of the world, I couldn’t share with anyone the pain that still drove my exploration to find a place to stand comfortably in my skin.”, also, he was able to get rid of his anger that he was born with wrong skin color. reading, writing, and becoming a poet helped Jimmy Santiago get

“COMING INTO LANGUAGE” by Jimmy Santiago Baca portrays how literacy can bring light into life and forever changed a person’s world. Baca, a ninth-grade dropout, before his 18th birthday Baca was arrested for refusing to explain the wound on his forearm. This unfortunate event exposed how powerless he was. In prison, the reading of the prisoners enlightens Baca. The words of different writers influenced his original thought toward reading. Two years later, as Baca was arrested again, he fell deeper into the art of language and the art of reading and writing. Throughout “Coming into Language”, Baca used many rhetorical strategies such as, metaphor, Imagery, description, asyndeton, and dictions that appeal to emotions to persuade readers of the effect of literacy toward a person’s life.

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.

The article, Jimmy Santiago Baca: Poetry as Lifesavor retells the challenges and hardships Baca experienced. Rob Baker, the author, informs the readers that past experiences will continually influence decisions in the future. In the beginning it is revealed that the characters parrents abandoned him at the young age of seven. His troubles only worsened as time went on for he dropped out of junior high, due to not performing well academically and socially. Therefore, he fell into the wrong crowds and was eventually sentenced to prison for five to ten years, at the age of twenty-one. Poety helped him to overcome the mental and emotional impact that prison imparts with the individual. Baca now uses his experiences to reach out to the community by becoming a teacher to encourage children to embrace their own stories.

This dehumanization can be felt within many global communities today and continues to destroy the well-being of many individuals. Whether this freedom of speech is denied due to poverty or overbearing authority, it provokes a widespread sense of insecurity and vulnerability. This emotional instability is expressed in the autobiography “Coming into Language,” where Jimmy Santiago Baca reveals the hardships of his poverty-stricken childhood. Growing up in an orphanage and later living on the streets, Baca did not have access to a viable education or support system, and eventually dropped out of school. This abandonment of education was due to educators focusing on Baca’s deficiencies opposed to his potential, and creating an environment where

Richards essay describes how he has to “ trade” his Spanish language identity to find his “public” language identity . He remembers his parents trying their best to speak more English in their home to help their kids fit into society . He talks about how the fact that he lost one identity was worth the gain of the other identity he so longed for . “At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true since my birth: I was an American citizen” (454-455). It was at that moment that he knew for a fact that his whole life he was already an American citizen . To him beign an American citizen meant having an English language identity and being able to speak the public language. As a boy Rodriguez was able to only speak and understand the Spanish language . To him it was the only real identity he ever had growing up . He also discussed that because the Spanish language identity is developed among his family members. That the language is somehow responsible for how they were able to identify themselves

Studying a foreign language also gives students insight to another culture. As John Christie said, "Learning to speak a foreign language helps you to understand the people who speak the language." Foreign language study helps students to understand why people think other ways and why some of their traditions came to be.

Language, culture, and self are inseparable, as one cannot exist without the other. The structuration of one's consciousness stems from the language that one learns as a child, thus the formation of self is largely out of one’s control. As humans we live to experience, for our native language structures the world at which we inhabit and molds one's very modes of conscious awareness. Simply put, “who we become is not a matter of our own volition” (Encyclopedia of Identity 384), how we perceive and evaluate the world at large is entirely out of our control. Our development consciously is driven by the world we are brought into, ergo the language and culture we are raised with ultimately determines who we become.

Second benefit is improvement of social skills. Knowing a different language helps children to adapt easily to a new environment, increasing his/her self-esteem and self-confidence. How would you feel if someone asks you a question and you don’t understand? I know that feeling. Children feel more confident and secure and will never feel humiliated by not being able to communicate.

“One of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time”, Federico Fellini once stated that “A different language is a different vision of life” and I, in my turn tend to say that he was perfectly right. A person who speaks more than one language can experience multiple personalities, visions and reflections consisting which language is he speaking. High School students should comprehend the real benefit of speaking a foreign language. Being a multilingual myself and speaking fluently four languages and studying another two, I consider that I am qualified enough to persuade that my argument is strong, plausible and not ultimately-right. In the following paragraphs I am going to address the following three reasons why should other High School students learn at least one foreign language? Firstly, learning a new language enhances performances in the academic domain and makes you smarter. Secondly, knowing a new language is a high estimated and a very valuable characteristic in your professional CV. Thirdly, international travel is more pleasant through knowing a foreign language.

During the span of my life till today, I have experienced many circumstances which has shaped the way I think and my overall personality and morals, these have structured my idiolect in today’s society, there are many influences in my life that have shaped me, such as my family, culture, friends and media (internet or TV) . Although I am immerse by my upbringing and I am greatly influenced by the family, neighbors and friends, I also inculcate my own experiences and actions in life. Such as trying to adapt to situations to suit others. I feel that along side with media and culture it boils down to the main question: Do I change my language to adapt to its circumstances or speak to please people happy? And why do I do this?

This is part of my identity what demands me to think about an even more important subject which is intercultural communication. I really enjoy reading poems and books in my native language which reminds me of my grandfather’s lessons and advice that have formed my identity.