Jimmy Santiago Baca
Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States on January 2nd, 1952 and is the Poet. At the age of 72, Jimmy Santiago Baca biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Jimmy Santiago Baca, born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on January 2, 1952, is a Chicano-American poet and writer.
Early life and education
Alpha Baca was born in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, in 1952. He was abandoned by his parents at the age of two and spent time with one of his grandmothers for many years before being placed in an orphanage. He ran away and ended up homeless on the streets at the age of 13. He was arrested on suspicion of drug possession and jailed when he was 21 years old. He served five years in prison, three of whom were in isolation, and after being released, he was held in the same area of the jail with the prisoners on death row for a period of time.
Baca learned how to read and write during this period, and he began to write poetry. In exchange for cigarettes, he sold these poems to fellow prisoners. Denise Levertov, a fellow prisoner, compelled him to submit some of his poems to the magazine Mother Jones, which was then edited by Denise Levertov. Levertov published Baca's poems and began corresponding with him, eventually finding a publisher for his first book.
Career
The Louisiana State University Press first major collection of immigrants in Our Own Land, Baca's first major collection, was published in 1979. "I Am Offering This Poem," an early poem that was later published in 1990's Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems and anthologized in The Seagull Book of Poems. Martin & Meditations on the South Valley, a semi-autobiographical minor epic in verse, received the American Book Award for poetry in 1987, earning Baca international recognition and the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature in 1989.
Baca established Cedar Tree, Inc., a non-profit group that supports literary workshops for prisoners and homeless people in 2004. Cedar Tree has produced two documentary films Clamor en Chino and Moving the River Back Home, as well as writing workshops. Ex-offenders are recruited as interns by the company.