About "Becoming a Poet"
There are times in life that one feels incomplete due to his/her experiences in life, and a seeming bleak future. Baca for instance, came from a Mexican background and therefore had to grapple with being a Chicano and as a result face rampant racism, stereotyping and discrimination from indigenous Americans. At the age of only 17, Baca was working as a night shift worker at a hospital emergency room and therefore witnessed many accident victims being brought into hospital. It is also at this hospital that Baca's interest in understanding his identity became a reality. This happened after he spotted a picture depicting the struggles that his ancestors staged in order to advocate for equal rights for the Mexican Americans at the time. It is also at this point that Baca's interest in books also started developing. This is a story that illustrates the peace, calmness and tranquility that leaming to read and write brought to Baca at a time of incarceration and constant danger. Writing as a means of expressing oneself is an effective therapeutic habit and can be a source of solace and hope even for individuals who do not see a bright future in their lives (Baca 386).…show more content… While in prison, Baca steals a book and starts teaching himself how to read and write. He confesses that the first time he wrote he became hungry for poetry and he never looked back again. At that moment, he discovered that he had something inside him that was clear in the midst of all the murk in his life. He portrays this in the following
