"Green Chile" Explication

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The chile pepper is a vegetable that has been a part of Americas history. Chile peppers haave been a part of the human's diet for as long as 7500BC. Chiles are used in many Mexican and South American cuisines as whole peppers and also grinded into spaces. In Jimmy Santiago Baca's poem "Green Chile," he refers to green chiles to represent his memories of home. Jimmy Santiago Baca is a mix of Chicano and Apache origins. At the age of two, both of Baca's parents abandoned him (Poets.org). After he was abandoned by his parents, he lived with his grandparents until he was thirteen. It was during this time with his grandmother that inspires the story in "Green Chile." When Baca was 21, he was convicted of drug possession and was incarcerated. It was when he was incarcerated where he learned to read and write. In "Green Chile," Baca tells a narrative story about his grandmother cooking green chile. Jimmy Santiago Baca uses his earliest memories of his grandmother cooking green chiles to show his appreciation of his cultural traditions while also using the green chile to signify a sense of maturity. Jimmy Santiago Baca wrote "Green Chile" with a narrative tone. He uses four stanzas in a freeform to formulate his poem .Baca begins by letting the readers know his chile preference. "I prefer red chile over my eggs" (1). Baca begins with red chile to show the contrast between the two different chile. "Red chile ristras decorate my door, dry on my roof, and hang from eaves" (3-4). Since red chiles originally start as green chiles, Baca signifies the age difference between the two colored chiles. The green chile is in its early stages where it has no ripened. The older the green chile becomes, the darker and redder the chile will be. There is... ... middle of paper ... ...like his grandmother. "Ah, voluptuous, masculine, an air of authority and youth simmers" (15-16). Where his grandmother loves green chile, Baca uses it to represent a young person, like himself. "youth simmers" represents the maturation process when the green chile matures into an red chile. "Green Chile" is a completely filled with wonderful images created by the use of metaphors. In the literal sense, the poem talks about the traditional aspect of the green chile. Where it is used as decorations in the home to traditional home cooking to the people who sells the green chile. But when you look deeper into the poem, you'll discover a new usage for the green chile. In this poem, he represents youth with the unripe green chile which can be compared this himself in youth. The red chile represents a sense of maturity while it is physically older than the green chile.

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