Jimmy Santiago Baca
Coalition Member
Jimmy Santiago Baca is a prolific writer whose published works include 18 books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. His recent work, When I Walk Through That Door, I Am: An Immigrant Mother’s Quest for Freedom, describes the journey of an immigrant woman searching for her four year old son after being separated at the US-Mexico border. A winner of the American Book Award, the Pushcart Award, and numerous other honors, he facilitates writing workshops worldwide in prisons, youth offender facilities and alternative schools for at risk youth. In 2019, he was selected as the Artist-in-Residence at California Lawyers for the Arts’ national conference at Santa Clara University: Arts in Corrections: Reframing the Landscape of Justice.
Born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he was abandoned by his parents at the age of two and 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 21, 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.
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.
His memoir, A Place to Stand (2001), chronicles his troubled youth and the five-year jail-stint that brought about his personal transformation. Baca is also the author of a collection of stories and essays, Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio (1992); a play, Los tres hijos de Julia (1991); and a screenplay, Bound by Honor, which was released by Hollywood Pictures in 1993. After writing a Mexican Roots series for HBO, he established a non-profit, Cedar Tree, Inc. that provides free books through its bookmobile and sends interns to assist teachers in rural communities.