Immigrants in Our Own Land

“Immigrants in Our Own Land” is based on the author’s personal experiences as an inmate at Arizona State Prison, where he spent over six years, much of it in isolation. He was often punished for fighting with other inmates, but also because he defied what he perceived as inhumane and exploitative prison rules. In an interview, Baca describes how prisoners were forced to work in the fields and brutally treated in a way that contradicted the idea of rehabilitation: “I was tired of being treated like an animal. I wanted to learn how to read and to write and to understand….I wanted to know how to function in this world. Why was I so ignorant and deprived?” (Krier, Beth Ann. “Baca: A Poet Emerges from Prison of His Past.” Los Angeles Times, 15 Feb. 1989). Baca refused to perform prison work, considering it legally and morally wrong, and faced severe punishment, including electric shock treatments, for standing up against unjust exploitation of prisoners. These experiences inform his description of new inmates’ dreams of self-improvement being extinguished by the oppressive reality of prison life.

In the poem, Baca explains that prison experiences are more likely to cause bitterness, despondency, and further criminality than rehabilitation.