Tom Redfern Redfern itibaren Gumchinmardi, Karnataka 591122, Hindistan itibaren Gumchinmardi, Karnataka 591122, Hindistan

A Place to Stand, was written by Jimmy Santiago Baca, a Chicano writer introduced to me for first time in the English class I am taking at the City College of San Francisco. A Place to Stand is an autobiography that details the struggles Baca had to face in order to become a famous writer. But his struggles are not like the ones any writer has to confront… Baca was the product of a mixed family in which he couldn’t fit. The book takes us to his childhood in his hometown in New Mexico, growing up in a chaotic family and his experiences as an abandoned teenager…. In the book, Baca also takes us to a recurrent place: jail. I am not spoiling the book if I tell you this (I am sure if you Google Jimmy Santiago Baca this will be the first thing that you’ll find) but the most memorable part of the book is when he shows us how learning to read and write while he was in jail saved him from a certain spiritual death. With the most beautiful, strong and poetic language, Jimmy Santiago Baca tells us the story of all the people who faces difficult times in order to find their place in the world. A Place to Stand is the journey of a Chicano kid trying to understand the troubles of a dysfunctional family, a Chicano teenager running away from what he didn’t understand, a Chicano man finding his true identity. It’s the journey of a man who can’t fit in a society, a man without a family, without education, a man searching for himself in the darkest places. And it’s exactly in the darkness where Baca finds the spark that will lighten his road to salvation.

Clever. Very clever.

One word - AMAZING. Conor, you are my new hero. At first I had mixed feelings about Americans going to India and Nepal to help children when there are so many here in the states that need help. But after reading the conditions and the circumstances in such wonderful details, I'm convinced that he was meant to be there and help those orphaned trafficked children.