Second Poem of witness

For the second poem, I chose” Immigrants in Our Own Land” by Jimmy Santiago Baca. This poem is intense with several emotions rolling from happiness, betrayal, sadness, to regret. I thought it is very well written but takes a little more involvement to figure out. I had to read the poem several times before I realized what was happening. Right off the bat the author uses a clever tactic by using the name of the poem to throw me off course. Then on the first two

lines it states “We are born with dreams in our hearts, looking for better days ahead” (Lines 1-2). My initial thought was that this poem is about immigrants from one country crossing a border to another, which is not the case but I had trouble letting that go. Keeping that idea in my head throughout the poem led me to confusion. “At the gates we are given papers,” (3). Again I thought these were papers that were given to immigrants crossing a border. When you figure out that the speaker is an immigrant talking from inside a prison, is when the pieces start to come together, but not completely. The poem never tells you why he was in prison which keeps you wondering. I think it’s pretty moving with the analogies the speaker uses to compare prison to the land he once lived. I think he is telling the audiences that it is harder to survive in the real world for some people than others think.

http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/jimmy-santiago-baca

Work Cited

Baca, Jimmy Santiago. “Immigrants in Our Own Land”. New Directions Publishing Corporation.1990.15 June, 2010.Web. http://www.poetryfondation.org/archive/print.html?id=179708