Childhood Reminiscences Of Jimmy Santiago In His Memoir A Place To Stand

In Jimmy Santiago Baca's A Place to Stand, he gives a self-portraying memoir of his childhood and time in prison. Baca makes the exploration from a child utilizing savagery to survive the realism of life in prison, to a writer with a feeling of direction throughout everyday life. During his time in prison, Baca is sent to isolation more than once. This significantly impacts his development as an individual and as an author.

In Jimmy Santiago Baca's memoir, A Place to Stand, isolation plays a major role. While spending over four years in isolation, the audience can view how Jimmy’s time was spent there and how it affected him. Throughout his memoir, the audience can see how isolation functions as a transformative experience in Baca’s life, the values that Baca embraces as a result of solitary confinement, and Baca’s experience in isolation related to older ideas of prison isolation. An antithesis is also portrayed throughout the autobiography between isolation and citizenship, but could also be seen as a connection.

Isolation functions as a transformative experience in Baca’s prison narrative. During his time in solitary confinement, Baca went from going from losing his mental insanity to developing a change in perspective when it came to his isolation. Baca’s time confined brought on negative emotions and impactions. This negative reaction was like most others in his situation. Baca’s reaction eventually turned into a place for Baca to search his past memories that became ultimately became clear to him once in confinement. “More than anything else, I love the open space” (Baca). This acknowledgment struck Baca while in prison for the following five to ten years of his life. Baca's first time in isolation demonstrated to be the hardest, and the others became easier over time. Baca’s time in isolation had the only upturn of meals shoved through a slot.

The author has nothing but his mental state to encounter in his time in solitary confinement that eventually began to test his sanity. Baca endured bad dreams of the fight that put him in prison. Paranoia began to occur about creeping rodents, bugs, and additional prisoners coming through the walls. Baca needed to learn to fight these growing insanities and make it through his allotted time in solitary confinement. Baca attempted to exercise and tried to remain normal and sane, however, the growing isolation made him fall into despair. Baca decided it was time to change his perspective and take advantage of his time in solitude. Baca’s experience with becoming isolated became a transformation for him to grow in his writing and relive his past, heal, and grow from it.

Baca gained some values of importance that he embraced while being confined to solitude. “I was seeing things as if for the first time because something was different inside me” (Baca). Baca had finally gone through and had been released from isolation for three full durations of time. Baca became inspired to teach himself to read and write when he was denied the opportunity to join the prison classes taught there. Writing eventually turned into a method for Baca to express the emotions he was feeling and share the experiences he had whether good or bad.

Before solitary confinement, Baca might have reacted in violence as he was taught as a source of survival, however, having that time isolated urged him to refuse work. The act of refusing work allowed Baca to accomplish something and take control of his life as much as he could. The memories that Baca had time to remember from his past during his time in solitary confinement allowed him to write them down. Baca’s time in solitary confinement compelled Baca to develop as an individual. The more that Baca was able to write, the more his written works developed and progressed.

There does seem to be an antithesis between isolation and citizenship. Isolation includes being confined to one place without others around to communicate with and having complete segregation from everything. Citizenship is individuals being viewed as a member of society, interacting with others. The two terms do seem to be quite opposite from one another. In Baca’s case, inside and outside of the prison system, he has felt quite isolated.

During his childhood to the time of his conviction, Baca never really found his place in society being tossed into orphanages and finding his way on the streets. It seemed inevitable for Baca to eventually find his way in prison. Even though he found himself in ruthless fights with other cellmates, Baca again finds himself isolated with no one or thing around. However, his time isolated allowed him to encounter feelings within himself that allowed him to connect outside of prison in a way he could not before. This isolation allowed him to evolve into a community by searching his deepest thoughts and encountering them head-on. Thus, in a way, isolation and community could have a connection.

Baca’s experiences in prison relate to older ideas of prison isolation. Baca's response to isolation turns into an inventive hold on the community as a barrier against separation and its mental damages. During his time isolated, Baca was only aware of the darkness and insanity going on inside of his mind. “I panicked for long stretches at a time, sweating, my heart thumping loudly as I listened to the thuds and hammering closing in on me” (Baca). Baca’s experience connects to those who experienced similar situations and emotions in older ideas of prison isolation. Baca even goes as far as to take the idea of the materials surrounding him in isolation was built by the labor of the community surrounding him. In the 1970s, there became a reputation in solitary confinement that it drove prisoners insane.

Eventually, solitary confinement had low regard and was condemned. During this time about one-quarter of the inmates who were sent to solitary confinement developed extreme mental disorders. In Baca’s case, during the first portion of his solitary confinement, he started going insane. After a while, he discovered this isolated time to put his unending time to more positive use. Baca wanted to take control of the little freedom that he had, which led him to the inspiration to learn to read and write. It also became a time to rediscover his past and analyze why he did what he did to end up where he was.

In Jimmy Santiago Baca’s A Place to Stand, isolation plays a key role throughout his autobiography. While following Baca’s life from his early childhood to his time in prison and making his place in the writing world. The audience can perceive the developments and as values gained as an individual and as an author by going through solitary confinement.