Working in the Dark

Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio

Baca passionately explores the troubled years of his youth, from which he emerged with heightened awareness of his ethnic identify as a Chicano, his role as a witness for the misunderstood tribal life of the barrio, and his redemptive vocation as a poet.

Reviews

In WORKING IN THE DARK, he affixes the beam for us, for others. "I am a fool and a king, genius and imbecile, for this is what it is to be a poet," he says. . . . And we, in kinship, empathize because of our various prisons, our individual and collective needs for ministry, our desires to break free and soar on whatever wings are available. We share in Baca's transcendence and are grateful. "Adelante! Firme!" we shout with him. Viva Burque! Viva Baca! Viva la Raza!
-The Bloomsbury Review