I decided to respond to the poem titled “Immigrants in Our Own Land” (Baca).
At first when I started to stroll through the words I thought he might be talking about arriving at the pearly gates, but I thought it kind of strange that they were receiving overalls. Only after reading further did I realize that the reader is talking about going to prison. This struck a personal nerve with me because my father was in prison until the time I was nine. The reader talks about how they dream of a better life and are promised a new start in this world when their time is through. Yet when they arrive he realizes it is all a lie or at least the opportunities they say they had are not as his location. The prisoners are discouraged that they cannot better themselves like they were told they would be able to. They realize that things are no different in prison than they are on the outside. All the same problems are just contained in a smaller area.
I feel that the true message of this poem is to convey the frustration within the prison system at this point in time. They all have been put away to conform and reset their minds to the way the world thinks they should be. Yet when they arrive and throughout their stay the chance to change is all but taken away. They are restricted in their cell when they should be sitting in school. Instead of schooling or training they send them to work in fields or wash dishes, like that is going to help? I don’t even know anyone on the outside that enjoys those things. Don’t get me wrong I understand that punishment is in order and needed, but how do you expect people to get better if they don’t have the chance. If you read the poem you will feel the frustration and anger in the underlying tones. Can we really expect people to change when we are feeding their anger and frustrations? Can you really better someone by breaking their spirit and stuffing them in a hole? I think not. I say kill off the ones that deserve it and concentrate on the ones that can make a difference.
Works Cited
Baca, Jimmy Santiago. “Immigrants in Our Own land.” (1977) New Directions Publishing www.ndpublishing.com
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