Jimmy Santiago Baca Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Breaking Bread with Darkness Books
Breaking Bread With the Darkness | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Lucia Poems | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
A Glass of Water | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Adolescents on the Edge Teacher Pack | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
American Orphan | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Misfits | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
A Place to Stand | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Adolescents on the Edge | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Laughing in the Light | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Poetry Collections
Fired up with You! : Poems of a Niagara Vision | (1977) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What's Happening | (1982) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Poems Taken From My Yard | (1986) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Martín & Meditations on the South Valley | (1987) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Black Mesa Poems | (1989) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Immigrants in Our Own LandSelected Early Poems | (1990) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Working in the Dark | (1991) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Set This Book On Fire! | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Que Linda La Brisa | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Healing Earthquakes | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Importance of a Piece of Paper | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Spring Poems Along the Rio Grande | (2007) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Rita and Julia | (2008) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Stories from the Edge | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Face | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Singing at the Gates | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
When I Walk Through That Door, I Am | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Buffalo Circles: Conjuring the Buffalo Way | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Anthologies
Jimmy Santiago Baca is a published poet, writer, and author. He is also an activist as well as an award winning writer of memoirs. He is the writer of the screenplay Blood In, Blood Out, and has appeared as himself in a documentary called Def Poetry.
Baca was born on January 2, 1952. He was born in the city of Santa Fe. This is of course located in the state of New Mexico in the United States. He is of Chicano as well as Apache descent.
Baca first officially came into print as an author with the release of his fictional novel. The book came out for readers to enjoy for the first time in 2009 and garnered him a lot of praise. He also has several collections of poetry out.
Jimmy Santiago Baca is a spokesperson when it comes to being Chicano and has established himself in this role and given a voice to those who do not have a voice of their own.
A Glass of Water is the first novel from this author. It is a tale that includes a lot of themes about the human experience. Feeling the need for revenge, having ambition to get to where you want in life, having the loyalty that you need in order to stick together, and a story of family are all involved in this interesting tale. If you are looking for a book that is contemporary and provides a totally different feel than you are used to, then you are in the right place with this debut from Baca!
The author takes the reader instantly inside some tragedies that are going down in a fictional story of what happens along the borders of one country. The reader is introduced to Nopal and Casimiro.
These two people once lived in Mexico but the decided to make the journey to go and cross the border. It is an adventure that often proves to be deadly and many fall ill or die along the way. Even if you have the good fortune to be able to get to the border, you might get shot if you cross over, so they were lucky to get through.
However, going to the country across the way from Mexico may not be the exact same thing as going to the country where the streets are paved with gold. It’s not the same life and they don’t have the same opportunities as other people normally would.
Nopal and Casimiro are committed to doing whatever they can in order to provide for their family. They work tirelessly for the length of the day doing labor in chili fields so that they can make a living and provide the things that their sons need. Their sons are still very young but if they work hard now they might be able to rise above their circumstances and finally live the American dream.
Everything changes when one of them ends up killed. Nopal is murdered and now the boys do not have their mother in this world. They are on their own with just one parent now and the sons have to navigate what sometimes is an unforgiving world on their own. It was just one incident, but that brutal experience that took their mother from them has altered the course of this family forever.
Lorenzo is the oldest son of the family and decides that he would like to do what his father does. He finds that he really falls in love with working the land and decides to devote himself to it. While in this process, he finds himself falling for someone that he never ever saw coming into his life.
The young woman has a strong mind, and Lorenzo is quickly seeing that he is falling for her. This woman arrived at the migrant camp with the goal of studying the workers there and their lives. Vito is another son who has a restless nature and some hot blood running through his veins. He is wanting to get out of the routine of his life and what he knows and to just find something new.
Vito does end up attempting to find fame and becomes a boxer. Soon his name has a bit of weight when it comes to being inside of the ring and when he is outside it. The brothers are each on their own individual journey and they are working to do what they can to establish themselves in the world. It is now a world that they have to face without their mother.
They have no idea that even though they are trying to pursue different paths, it might just be only a matter of time before those journeys come together. When this happens, they might just find that they end up facing an enemy that they both have in common.
The two brothers have each been seared by the past. Each has been affected by the sudden loss of their mother in a different way. Have they come to terms with the nature of her passing, or are they still being haunted by the loss that they each suffered all of those years ago?
Bonds that bind us all will be tested and more in a sensational fictional novel from author Jimmy Santiago Baca. The brothers each have to find their way as adults in the world, even without the guidance of the one person that should have been there to show them the way. The two siblings will have to rely on each other as well as a bit of faith that everything will finally work out, just the way that it’s supposed to.
A touching tribute to family, the past, brotherhood, and the belief in achieving the American dream at last, this is a story that you don’t come across often. A family portrait and an interesting story all in one, check out this fictional story from an author that is able to channel all of the soul and the eloquence of his poetic voice into a novel about a family that has come to America to prosper and what happens to them along the way.
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