Oppression ( Jimmy Santiago Baca)

Jimmy Santiago Baca is an accomplished Latin American poet who wrote appealing poems about his experiences in the Arizona state prison. One eye-opening poem that caught my attention is called " Oppression". I scrutinized the poem very carefully and it seems that the poem is about, how to endure the suffering and adversity of living caged behind bars. Baca began to use descriptive word choice when he says " unshed tears" because it took strength to keep the emotions bottled up inside from being in prison. When he uses metaphors like the feeling of "being trampled under" that gives the reader sentiment of empathy because it as well as shows  distress and difficulties of being imprisoned in the penitentiary. In the middle of the poem Baca began to change his attitude towards being locked away and he states that one should " look deep to find the grains of hope and strength". That symbolizes that its okay to be locked away and that one should be bold of the dangers and horridness that lurk in the walls of the jailhouse. Lastly at the end of the poem Baca articulates that " fiery spears will count your years "I feel like he's trying to insinuate that " you reap what you sow". So basically you do something wrong you get more jail time and that would be something to keep in mind. I as the reader have been given an abundance of advice from Baca because there have been times I felt like I was kept in a prison from society. In this poem Baca teaches not only prisoners but he also taught me how to overcome suffering and adversity by staying strong and being bold. Above all I feel that Baca's intended meaning is to help us subdue the fears and the sorrows of being caged in our own physical and mental prisons.