The first thing Jimmy Santiago Baca tells me is that he’s walking in the rain. The 61-year-old poet walks at least one mile every day, rain or shine. Today is just a light drizzle. I say thanks for taking the time to speak with me, I’ve got lots of questions I’d really like to ask him. The second thing he tells me is that he doesn’t like interviews. I say I’ll try not to take up too much of his time.
And that’s how it is with Jimmy Santiago Baca: the writer doesn’t waste time with superfluous adjectives or long winded syntax; he’s concise, blunt and effective, like the best of Hemingway only without the grimness. (While he doesn’t like interviews, he does like Ohioans, so I have that going for me.)
It’s a style that Baca has perfected ever since he first taught himself how to read and write while serving a six-year sentence in a maximum security prison notorious for its violence. He chronicled that chapter of his life in his 2001 memoir, “A Place to Stand,” which quickly became his most popular work.
Baca doesn’t limit himself, though: over almost 30 years, he has written poetry, novels, shorts, essays and screenplays, addressing issues in the Mexican and Mexican-American community, and he works tirelessly on education and prison reforms through Cedar Tree, Inc., a non-profit started by Baca to create writing workshops and provide employment opportunities for former convicts.
The award-winning writer will talk about his work and more as part of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library’s Authors! Authors! series Wednesday, October 2 at 8pm.
First off, thank you very much for taking the time to talk. I was surprised how quickly you responded.
That’s what happens when you have no agent to feed your ego: stuff gets done. [Laughs]
What will you discuss at your Toledo presentation?
I’ll be reading excerpts from my two new books coming out [“Singing at the Gates,” January; “Sace,” TBA] and inspersing that with small anecdotes about the work that I’m doing in the world today with education reform, prison reform, illiteracy. I’ve traveled pretty extensively throughout the world to really impoverished areas so I can address these crushing, crushing debilities that are devastating our communities.
Where are some of the places your work takes you to?
I just got back from Stanford where I went to speak with all these teachers and graduate students, and I spent some time there, then I took off and went to visit some [prison] facilities where 15- and 16-year-old kids are being sentenced as adults for 30 years. I try to do my writerly obligations, but I also try to become conscientious about the work that needs to be done in the community and I try to do it.
A documentary adaptation of “A Place to Stand” is coming out soon, and it was funded through Kickstarter. What has that process been like?
It’s been receiving tremendous, tremendous admiration that won’t be out by the time I get to Toledo, but it will be out around the country soon. It will show up in an Ohio theater somewhere, or on Showtime or HBO. I wasn’t really involved, I was just trying to help these kids out. I really, really enjoy independent thinkers and doers, and these two kids, Gabe Baca [my son] and Daniel Glick, just completely surprised the entire film community in America, including me by taking on this memoir and doing such a great job on it. They’ve attracted some of the greatest directors and producers in the world to be on it. Some of the great stars of our cinematic community are asking to be put on the film in some capacity. It just goes to show you: these two kids, this is their first major work, and I just gave them the opportunity to do it, and they did it. And I’m so proud of them, I can’t believe it. All the glory goes to them. I just made myself available.
Why do you think your personal story resonates with so many people?
I think people are looking for answers, and my book offers one of the many answers available. But I think when they read it, the outlook for the future is so bleak, everybody’s predicting the end of the world and stuff. When you read “A Place to Stand,” it gives you hope that the end of the world may not come, and that there is some reason to hope that our politicians quit taking so many pharmaceuticals and start acting sane.
Education is a very important part of your work and life. What’s your prescription for today’s educational issues?
I don’t have a whole lot to say about the educational nightmare, where all the wrong textbooks are given to the students, all the wrong administrators are hired for the school, half of all the teachers have no interest in benefiting the kids. I don’t have anything to say about that because it is the nightmare that it is, and that’s one aspect of our failing grade as a country or our politcians disservice to our communities. What I try to do is get a bunch of books and show up in these areas full of kids who’ve never owned a book, hand them a book, and then stay there to talk about the wonders of literacy. About the enchantments of reading and writing and owning a book, and doing writing workshops with them.
Just be there. It’s not a theoretical formula: you get out of bed, you put on your work boots and jeans, and you be there. When the kids get there, you’re there. And they ask, “Is it true you made that movie ‘Blood In Blood Out’?” Yes. “Is it true that you didn’t know how to read or write and you learned?” Yes. “Is it true you have a book you wrote?” Yes. It’s a Yes Day! It’s a Yes Day for books, of compassion and education, not this crap of having the authority teacher lord over them like some fairy tale giant. So that’s what I do, I just show up.
As a Mexican-American writer, what are your thoughts on the idea minority and ethnic writers are only successful when they write stories dealing with stereotypical topics like immigration or East vs. West, etc.? Personally, I feel like this often happens to Asian-American writers.
I’d say you’re not reading enough of your Asian writers and poets. Li Young Lee, he writes amazing poetry. He’s the most amazing poet on the planet, I think. Just look around, dude. Let the writers write what they want, and you’ll find what you need if you look hard enough.
Jimmy Santiago Baca will speak at the McMaster Center in the Main Library (325 Michigan St.) Tuesday, October 2, 8pm. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for students and available at any library branch. For more info, call 419-259-5200 or visit toledolibrary.org.