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People for whom English is not their primary language may face comparable barriers to finding out about meetings, attending events, becoming part of the leadership of an organization, or simply participating as a member when interpretation is not provided. (Kivel 4)

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Jimmy has always thought of books and education in general as a weapon that can be used against him. He had never been able to read or write before teaching himself while in prison, so he had no power in situations that required literacy. This changed when he taught himself, and now he acquired the weapon that had been used against him all of his life. It provided him the ability to turn his life around.

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Jimmy experiences loss throughout the story. He has no control in these situations. His brother, his father, and his mother die in a short span, and he was in prison when two of the deaths occurred. There is nothing he could have done to prevent them. This has been the case for most of his life. He has never really been in control of what happens to him or those around him. This changes once he teaches himself to read and write and as he becomes educated.

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When Jimmy began to sell drugs with Marcos and Lonnie, he started to get a taste of some power. He finally had some control over his financial state and the three of them had some freedom.

They had to constantly worry about the higher-ups in the drug business, though, so the three of them were never really in control.

Selling drugs gave them some time to settle down, but eventually they got busted. This was what ultimately caused Jimmy to be sent to prison.

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Jimmy had very little power over how his childhood went. After the divorce of his parents, and after his grandma could not take care of him any longer, he was sent to an orphanage. After that, he had to go to a detention facility. And then after a few years of selling drugs, he went to prison. He had to move so many times and had virtually no stability in life. As we discussed in class, he had a lack of nurture in his life, and this resulted in some of his bad decisions.

This quote shows how he associates boxes with this lack of stability and constant moving during his childhood.

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When Jimmy was younger and spent time in a gang, he and his friends would frequently get in trouble around the community. As a result, they were easy targets for the police. Since they often did do things to cause trouble, they would constantly be blamed for other things that they were not involved in as well. The police would do this so that they look like they are doing their jobs without having to go through the work of finding the real culprits. These police were definitely abusing the power. that they had over these children.

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Many of the authorities that Jimmy interacts with throughout the story use their power against him. This is especially evident when he is told to accept deals that he knows nothing about. He has no choice but to place some of his trust in these people in hopes that they actually want to do good, when in most cases, they did not.

As the quote above shows, the judge was going to try extra hard to get Jimmy convicted. Jimmy had already been on the news, so everyone thought of him as a criminal on the loose. By giving him a harsh sentence, the judge would win the favor of the people and likely secure a ticket for reelection.

The quote below also shows how knowing a certain language can give people who are a part of certain groups power over others. Since Jimmy is unable to understand legal jargon, he is at a major disadvantage when dealing with lawyers and judges. He is vulnerable to their power.

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As Jimmy learns how to read and write and starts learning poetry, it gives him a power that he had never experienced before.

As shown in the quote, he finally begins to be able to express himself. This newfound ability gives him much needed hope and serves as something to live for so that he can eventually get out of the prison.

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Prisoners, including Jimmy, are almost like marionette puppets. The warden and the guards are able to control them. The inmates often have little control over their daily lives; this allows these authority figures to take advantage of them using their power. They do this to show dominance and even for amusement and pleasure, which is inhumane.

As shown in the quote above, the prison uses education as leverage against the prisoners. Due to things that Jimmy has to do to survive in the facility forcing him to behave poorly in the eyes of the prison authorities, they never allow him to take advantage of the education even though he desperately needs it.

As shown in the quote below, to get Jimmy and the other prisoners to behave, they often drug them. Inmates could be drugged so much to the point where they are unable to function normally, which was evident when Jimmy chews on his tongue without realizing it while trying to speak.

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At various times throughout his life, Jimmy feels hopeless. No matter what he tries to do or where he goes he finds dead ends. This is similar to the picture I attached of a man walking through a maze. No matter what he does, Jimmy cannot make his way out of the loop of being in and out trouble that causes him to go to jail and later prison. For much of his life, he has been wandering around without much of a plan. The only way he is able to break this pattern is through his newfound ability to express himself in poetry. By teaching himself to read and write, and by trying to learn while in prison, he is finally able to express his emotions and what he thinks. This education that he mainly gave himself, provided a new meaning for his life. It gave him the motivation he needed to finish his sentence and finally get out.

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While in prison, Jimmy is almost completely alone. There are other inmates, but everyone is just doing what it takes to survive. He lives life day-to-day and is almost completely powerless in what happens to him. Guards play mind games with him and the others, and he constantly has to balance survival with being able to finally leave the facility eventually. If he slips up while trying to survive from other inmates, they could add more time to his sentence. At one point, he thinks that they were going to make sure he was in prison forever, believing himself to be completely powerless.

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Everywhere I went, I arrived and left with a box; it reminded me that I had no place in this world, that no one wanted me. It seemed there was always a box nearby, ready to be filled with my clothes and shoes. (Santiago Baca 243)

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[An inmate] told me they were putting medication in my food to make me lethargic. He said he'd seen them do it before, so that prisoners would go along with the program. (Santiago Baca 216)

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I had never been able to reach an agreement with the prison administration. (Santiago Baca 192)

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But the simple truth was, from the warden on down to the guards, they had the power of life and death over me. And I truly thought they were going to keep me in prison forever. (Santiago Baca 163–164)

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When the counselor interviewed me, he told me that if I behaved well and obeyed the institutional rules, I'd be permitted to go to school. (Santiago Baca 116)

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Books had always been used to hurt and inflict pain. Books separated me from people like her and those two detectives, who used lawbooks to perpetuate wanton violence against poor people, and from greedy lawyers, who used lawbooks to twist the truth. (Santiago Baca 100)

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"You picked the wrong time to get busted," he said. "It's reelection time, and you're the judge's ride to a second term." (Santiago Baca 92)

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The police always accused me and my friends of crimes we didn't commit. With no money for a lawyer, and no family to challenge the injustice, we were easy targets. (Santiago Baca 37)

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Poetry helped make me the person I am today, awakening creative elements that had long lain dormant in me, opening my mind to ideas, and enabling my intellect to nourish itself on alternative ways of being. (Santiago Baca 5)

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Santiago Baca, Jimmy, A Place to Stand. New York, Grove Press, 2001.

Kivel, Paul, "The Culture of Power." Conflict Management in Higher Education, vol. 5, no. 1, Sept. 2004, pp. 1–7.