A Glass of Water by Jimmy Santiago Baca

A Glass of Water by Jimmy Santiago Baca

Award-winning memoirist, poet, and activist, Jimmy Santiago Baca has established himself as an inspiring and important spokesperson for the Chicano experience, continually giving voice to the voiceless. His first novel, A Glass of Water is a gripping tale of family, loyalty, ambition, and revenge that takes us inside the tragedies unfurling along our country's borders. Having made the nearly deadly journey across the border from Mexico, Casimiro and Nopal spend their days in the chili fields, building a life for their young sons. But when Nopal is brutally murdered, the boys are left to navigate this capricious new world without her. The elder son, Lorenzo, follows his father's footsteps, devoting himself to the land, and falling in love with a strong-minded young woman who's come to their migrant camp to study the lives of its workers. But Vito, hot-blooded and restless, breaks away to find fame as an itinerant boxer, gaining notoriety inside the ring and out. Eventually, the brothers' journeys converge, bringing them face to face with a common enemy. A Glass of Water is a searing, heartfelt tribute to brotherhood, and an arresting portrait of the twisted paths people take to claim their piece of the American dream.

"Jimmy Santiago Baca's poems read like novels, and his novels read like poems.. Baca fills his prose with evocative, naturalistic details, [and] his poetry's beating heart ... weaves stories of Chicano loss and redemption, often through a reconnection to Earth's natural elements... Baca's tangible earthiness seeps through [A Glass of Water] ... but his bucolic prose is anything but lulling; as the story builds to a violent resolution, so do the political undercurrents. But ultimately, it's transcendent performance--Carmen's song and Vito's populist pugilism, not to mention Baca's own transformation through literature--that offers salvation."--Wells Dunbar, The Austin Chronicle "[With A Glass of Water] Baca manages to put a face on desperation. He decries the exploitation of migrant farm workers in the United States ... [and] derogates not only an exploitive American economic system, but also Mexican drug lords driving the poor off their land, who become homeless or victims of violence... [But] a field worker's life isn't all toil and gloom as reflected in the lives of the characters. There's also passion, joy, love of family, adventure, love, longing, and accomplishment. The imagery is striking, the prose lyrical."--Aurelio Sanchez, The Albuquerque Journal "[A] blistering novel ... The sheer passion that drives Baca's [work] is undeniable."--Publishers Weekly "[With] image-rich writing ... A Glass of Water adds another strong voice to the growing body of literature on immigrants and migrant farm workers... Baca should be commended for tackling injustice in his fiction."--Don Waters, High Country News "A well-written and at times lyrical saga told with understanding and compassion."--Library Journal "Impressive ... Fierce and uncompromising, but also beautiful and wise, A Glass of Water might be [Baca's] most accessible work yet... Baca's concerns are universal: family, loyalty, the dignity of hard work, and, above all, love."--Kevin Canfield, Pasatiempo "Buy an extra copy of this book and send it to your senator. I'll pay for it! It's the best antidote around to the sorrowful, dehumanizing discourse on undocumented immigrants going on in Washington. Hard economic times always translate into extra misery for the more vulnerable. Ay, and we used to be known as the land where people were given a fair chance!"--Ilan Stavans

Jimmy Santiago Baca spent his youth on the outskirts of society as an abandoned child and a runaway. He resorted to a life of crime several times as an adult, eventually receiving a five-year sentence in a maximum-security prison. He emerges from jail a voracious reader and a brilliant, self-taught writer after years of horrible torture in administrative segregation and isolation. He miraculously acquires a strong love for poetry, which proves to be his saving grace. Baca is now a well-known author who has won numerous awards, including the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the Hispanic Heritage Award, and the coveted International Prize for his memoir, A Place to Stand.

In 2006, he was honored with the Cornelius P. The Turner Award is a national honor that honors one GED graduate each year for extraordinary achievements to society in the areas of education, justice, health, public service, and social welfare. Baca has done hundreds of writing seminars in jails, community centers, libraries, and universities after dedicating his post-prison life to writing and teaching those who are overcoming adversity. He founded Cedar Tree, Inc., a nonprofit foundation dedicated to assisting people in improving their lives via education, in 2005.

Poetry Selected Poems/Poemas Selectos Rita and Julia Spring Poems Along the Rio Grande Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans Healing Earthquakes Que Linda La Brisa/How Lovely the Wind Is Immigrants in Our Own Land Black Mesa Poems Martin and Meditations on the South Valley Short Tales and Essays Adolescents on the Edge / Stories f

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780802119223
ISBN 10	0802119220
Title	A Glass of Water
Author	Jimmy Santiago Baca
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
Year published	2009-10-01
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.