Jimmy Santiago Baca: Words Have the Power to Change the World
April 27, 2018 – Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in New Mexico of Apache and Chicano descent in 1952. Abandoned as child, he was in an orphanage and was in and out of trouble as a teenager before eventually being incarcerated in the brutal and violent Arizona State Prison for five years. That was where he taught himself to read and began writing. His poems brought him attention from the literary world even before he got out of prison. Since then he has published numerous volumes of poetry, as well as novels and essays. His novel “Blood In Blood Out” was adapted into the film “Bound By Honor.” He has also worked extensively with people who are still incarcerated as well as young people and those living on the margins of society. Baca has won numerous awards including the American Book Award, Pushcart Prize, and the International Hispanic Heritage Award. He has held a Regents Chair at UC-Berkeley, the Wallace Stevens Endowed Chair at Yale University, and the Endowed Hulbert Chair at Colorado College. He also has an honorary doctorate from the University of New Mexico. His memoir “A Place To Stand” was made into a documentary of the same name in 2016.
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