.......Karen
Wong, Associate Professor of English
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Jimmy Santiago Baca's A Place to Stand |
10/22/ 03 DISCUSSION BOARD |
Please note the chapters to which you've been assigned. By the week the chapters have been assigned, work with your partners to code them, and provide translations of any Spanish within the chapter, then send your results to me at wongk@smccd.net so that I can post them on our website.
CODING (WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW, WHY) Chapter One: Karen Damacio and Cecilia marry at 16; live in Estancia, New
Mexico; give birth to their children-- Martina, Mieyo, and
Jimmy-- in the 1950's; father turns to alcohol in
frustration; mother elopes and abandons children; children
live with grandparents until grandpa dies; boys sent to
orphanage Chapter Two: Karen At 13, Jimmy sent to detention center for boys; learns to
hide feelings and vulnerability; school-- success in
football but can't read + feels like an outsider; first
girlfriend, Theresa, who's middle class-- both are afraid of
intimacy; fights a lot to let out steam; valued for his
fighting prowess by her friends Chapter Three: Karen After being falsely accused of murder and serving time,
Jimmy leaves to San Diego; struggles between going straight
and dealing drugs with Marcos; being Chicano considered
"cool"; begins to fall in love with Lonnie Chapter Four: Liliana, Ricky, Marcia Jimmy, Marcos, and Lonnie are selling so much weed that
it's making them paranoid, so they decide to take a
vacation. They leave Carey in charge of selling. They go to
San Diego so that Lonnie can make peace with her father.
Jimmy decides to go to San Francisco to look for his dad.
Once Jimmy has found his dad's home, he decides that he
doesn't want to see him because he doesn't want to be let
down, so he leaves. After this incident Jimmy decides to do
cocaine and party with Galvan. To remember the good times
that they've had Jimmy and Marcos decide to celebrate with a
bottle of tequila at La Zona. There, they're falsely accused
of stealing a pack of cigarettes, so they get arrested and
locked up for 3 months. After being set free Jimmy decides
to give up this way of living and move with Lonnie to begin
a normal life. Jimmy splits up the money with Marcos and
they say good-bye. Jimmy then feels that he owes Carey a
good-bye so he and Lonnie go to Carey's home. There one of
Carey's friends, Rick is selling heroine. it turned out that
the guy buying the heroine was a narc and so there was a
shooting. Jimmy managed to get away, but he was being
searched for and with no one to help him he decided to turn
himself in. Chapter Five: Jonathan, Mercy, Silvia In chapter five a lot of things happen to Jimmy. Once
again he feels back abandoned by both Theresa and his
sister. Theresa has fallen in love with Carey.Theresa writes
him a letter saying that she was no longer in love with
him-- that really broke his heart. Jimmy's sister also turns
her back on him. He asked her for some money to get a better
lawyer, but she says no.When he needed her the most she
ignored him. Jimmy is also sentenced to a mandatory no
parole five to ten years, and is sent to the Florence
prison. The court system works against people like him. But
while in prison, he begins to discover the power of
words. Chapter Six:Joenna, Chris, Yvette Jimmy is locked up in Florence, Prison and he's trying to
aviod being in there. He had to learn how to earn respect
because of the guy that was going to rape him. and his
friend Macaron told him that he had to get his respect by
fighting or killing this guy who wants to rape him. After
doing so, he ends up in isolation. Chapter Seven: Alejandra Gamez Jimmy is thinking back on his childhood memories. No,
they were not not all bad. He writes about his friend
Mocoso and all the good times they had. He thought about
the good times he had with his grandfather Baca. He recalls
his grandmother's friends and their discussions. But he
also remembers his mother and father's discussions. These
memories are vivid in Jimmy's mind. Chapter Eight:Alejandra Gonzalez, Lizeth Jimmy is in the hole for the second time. He has
hallucinations about his past. He starts reflecting on his
life, and he starts the proces of healing himself. Jimmy in
this chapter tries to speak for himself. He has never done
that before. Jimmy starts fighting for his rights, but in a
different way, without violence. I think his views are going
to start to be different from this point on. We will see a
more healthy Jimmy and eventually he will grow to be his own
man. Chapter Nine:Abraham, Mayela, James It is between 1975 and1976. Jimmy is still in prison at
Flourence. He starts to teach himself to read and write. He
has a new pen pal named Harry, who encourages him to read
and write. He gets a visited by Mieyo, then Theresa. He
tries to show his love for Theresa, but she doesn't want
anything to do with him. Chapter Ten:Dolores, Alexis, Ruth Both Mieyo and Jimmy were taught to live a lie rather
than tell the truth. They also felt that it was better to
feel guilty about something they did rather than do
something about it. But Jimmy starts to reject this belief.
He starts to have conflicting feelings about fighting,
especially as he begins to take refuge in his reading and
writing. He starts sending Norman, a writer, samples of his
poetry that was written while he was in jail. But Jimmy also was in jail for so long that when his
picture was taken he didn't recognize himself. Chapter Eleven:Irma Jimmy is 25 years old in 1997. Jimmy is corresponding
with a writer in Virginia. Jimmy tries to write to his
father, but he realizes that they never have had a good
relationship and good time together. Horrible news--
Jimmy's father dies. He is not able to mourn the pain and
despair is to great on him. Jimmy is not able to attend his
father's funeral because one of his uncles called the warden
and said Jimmy had threatened him. Life in prison had killed
a part of him, but not just prison-- also his father, his
mother, and all people who came in contact with Jimmy had a
good play in it. Chapter Twelve:Yajaira, Leticia Being in prison, Jimmy meets Nick, a Russian poet who
guides Jimmy in his poetry by giving him russian novels. He
is still writing Virginia, Norma's friend who lives in North
Carolina, who also is helping in his reading and exploration
of his background by sending him history and poetry books.
He encounters Rick and he starts to reflect on the main
reason he is in prison in the first place; it affects him
greatly, causing a nervous breakdown. He is so physically
impacted by Rick's presence that he has trouble conducting
his daily activities. For example he is so paranoid that
when he is in the cafeteria a guy whistles and he gets all
mad thinking that the guy is whistling at him. At the end of
the chapter he is moving back to the old cells packing and
remembering that the box signified he had no place in this
world, remembering as a kid the neglect he experiences.
Being in prison make him not want the life he wants and with
the new knowledge, he has acquired he wants to change his
life around. Chapter Thirteen:Cesar, Juan, Myra Epilogue: Matt, Genny, Armando