Jimmy Santiago Baca

1952 –
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Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on January 2, 1952. Abandoned by his parents at the age of two, he lived with one of his grandparents for several years before being placed in an orphanage. He wound up living on the streets, and at the age of twenty-one he was convicted on charges of drug possession and incarcerated. He served six years in prison, four of them in isolation. During this time, Baca taught himself to read and write, and he began to compose poetry. A fellow inmate convinced him to submit some of his poems to Mother Jones magazine, then edited by Denise Levertov. Levertov printed Baca’s poems and began corresponding with him, eventually finding a publisher for his first book.

Immigrants in Our Own Land, Baca’s first major collection, was highly praised. In 1987, his semi-autobiographical novel in verse, Martin and Meditations on the South Valley, received the American Book Award for poetry, bringing Baca international acclaim. That same year, he received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A self-styled “poet of the people,” Baca conducts writing workshops with children and adults at countless elementary, junior high and high schools, colleges, universities, reservations, barrio community centers, white ghettos, housing projects, correctional facilities and prisons from coast to coast.

Baca’s numerous poetry collections include Selected Poems / Poemas Selectos (New Directions, 2009); C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans: Dream Boy's Story (Grove Press, 2002); Healing Earthquakes (Grove Atlantic, 2001); Set This Book on Fire (Cedar Hill Publications, 1999); Black Mesa Poems (New Directions, 1989); Poems Taken from My Yard (Timberline Press, 1986); and What’s Happening (Curbstone Press, 1982). His memoir, A Place to Stand (Grove Press, 2001), chronicles his troubled youth and the five-year jail-stint that brought about his personal transformation. He is also the author of a collection of stories and essays, Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio (Red Crane Books, 1992); a play, Los tres hijos de Julia (1991); and a screenplay, Bound by Honor, which was released by Hollywood Pictures in 1993.