Green Chile Jimmy Santiago Baca Analysis

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

part of a tradition and appreciation in the second stanza of the poem. At last, “Green Chile” focuses on the actual origin of the chile and how this staple crop is brought in from New Mexico fields. The first part of the poem runs from line one to ten and illustrates the author’s preference of red over green chiles to eat and to decorate his home with. He directly begins stating how he prefers eating red chilies. “I prefer red chile over my eggs and potatoes for breakfast” (1-2). He then follows “Red chile ristras to decorate my door, dry on my roof, and hang from eaves” (3-4). The author is sharing evidence that chili peppers are common in New Mexico and played a large significance in his growing up. The author decorates his home with red chiles and finds them to be welcoming in town. Mr. Baca shares a little historical and traditional insight of the peppers. “They lend open-air vegetable stands historical grandeur, and gently swing with an air of festive welcome. I can hear them talking in the wind, haggard, yellowing, crisp, rasping tongues of old men, licking the breeze” (5-10). The chiles are not just a significant pepper for eating, but he describes them as an inviting symbol on the door of a person’s home. “Tongues of old men” are known to be storytellers and they tell the historic and traditional attributes of their own. Chile peppers are and will be a historical figure in the New Mexico community, they are a traditional symbol in the author’s life, and as he stated in the beginning of the lines “I prefer red chile” he too is a “tongues of old men.”
The second stanza from Green Chile runs from lines 11-38, green chile is a simple, healthy fruit that unites people and demonstrates appreciation. Moreover, the author provides a descriptive explanation of how his grandmother prepares the green chile. Tradition is portrayed “as she serves [him] green chile con carne, between soft, warm leaves of corn tortillas, with beans and rice-her sacrifice” (32-34). This is a traditional dish in New Mexico. It is rare to have a meal without beans, rice and tortillas. Tradition is also portrayed by describing how his grandmother appears young again when she is preparing the green chiles. The way she handles the chile is immensely sensual, such that it seems to take her back to her youthful years, as she “[rubs] its firm glossed sides” and “cuts it open, with lust” (13-31). Often times, in Mexico women are the ones to serve to men, and she provides all that she can give to her grandson, in a very caring manner the grandmother gives “her sacrifice, to her little prince” (33-34). Appreciation is demonstrated as the author “slurp[s] from [his] plate, with last bit of tortilla, [his] mouth burns and [he] hiss[es] and drink[s] a tall glass of cold water” (36-38). As previously described in the poem the green chile is portrayed as a rubbery serpent, as if it were dangerous and full of life. Regardless if green chile is not his favorite and is immensely spicy, he still manages to finish the meal out of respect to his grandmother and his culture.
The third stanza of “Green Chile” poem is about where the chilies come from; the narrator describes the people who work on growing and delivering the green chile “All over New Mexico, sunburned men and women drive rickety trucks stuffed with gunny-sacks” (Baca 40-41).

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

love.