Green Chile Jimmy Santiago Baca Analysis

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Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “Green Chile” describes a personal experience growing up with a staple food of the Southwest tradition. In the 3 stanzas and 45 eloquent lines, Baca uses symbolism through red and green chile peppers. The red chile peppers symbolize strength and progression and are also the peppers the author prefers. On the other hand, the green chilies represent youth, which are Baca’s grandmother's favorite. Both the red and green chilies are differentiated by the flavor and taste to tell a story of Baca and his history of growing up with his grandmother. The first stanza of the poem discusses the author’s preference of red chilies as well as how they are important to Mexican culture. The green chile is then described as being …show more content…

They are men and women from New Mexico who drive old pickup trucks. The places the green chiles come from are small towns with names like Belen, Vegunita, Willard, Estancia, San Antonia, and Socorro. Once the men and women retrieve the green chile, they roast them and begin selling. The last sentence of the poem says, “We relive this old, beautiful ritual again and again” (Baca, 44). This sentence describes how the green chiles are a tradition for so many men and women in New Mexico. For them, the green chiles have been around a long time, and selling is something these people did for a long time. Foe these men and women have a big job working on the green chiles and they gave a lot of dedication and hard work goes through this. Working and selling the green chilies is probably a family tradition that has been going on from generation to generation. “Green Chile” by Jimmy Santiago Baca is a personable poem of symbolism through the use of the traditional staple crop chile. The poem outlines Mexican culture, tradition, and the origin of chile peppers and how they are of importance in Hispanic life. Baca tells an intimate story of love and sacrifice and how one sacrifices for

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