A Place to Stand

1312 Words6 Pages
What does it mean to have a place where you fit in? What is the key ingredient to being accepted? In Jimmy Santiago Baca’s memoir, A Place to Stand, he is set out on a journey to find his way to be accepted into society. In the memoir he yearns to be accepted by his family, friends and the external society. He encounters many relatable challenges that soon enough help lead the way to overcome the obstacles he faces and shares it all through his memoir. Even though jumping from a home to an orphanage and then in and out of jail Baca is determined to find his Place to Stand. While Baca was growing up he dealt with remarkable struggles, masculinity, abandonment, illiteracy and homelessness, which all point him in a more justifiable direction to becoming an educated writer/poet. One of the struggles that Baca faces throughout his life was masculinity. Baca was put in a lot of situations where being a man was either to make or break him. He would show off just to be noticed and being noticed is what happened. In one situation, Baca writes “The only way I seemed to impress them was by my fighting” (page #); he was like a hero in Theresa and her friend’s eyes. If he backed out his friends wouldn’t respect it and fighting was the majority is his life through out the memoir. Baca later states, while being in jail, “All the fights I’d won to prove I was a man didn’t matter; nothing mattered expect what I was going to do now. The longer I postponed the inevitable showdown, the more it looked like I was afraid and the stronger it made him.” (Page #) When Baca says him he is referring to the black man who comes off as threat to him so something has to be done before the worse comes to him. Being put in this predicament he has to prove he’s a man so he can feel accepted from the society in jail. Along with masculinity, Baca has a hard time dealing with abandonment. As a

More about A Place to Stand

Open Document