Sister Anna Louise

Despite the fact the made some poor choices, his opportunities were limited by having been brown, being poor, having irresponsible parents, and people’s betrayal. When Baca was thirteen, Sister Anna Louise failed to place him in a foster home. Baca writes, “When protective parents come, my brother and I are never chosen. Our hair, our color, our speech- everything is wrong about us”(174). Foster home can be the start of his life. However, due to his race and language he speak, he never got the chance. Here author uses “everything is wrong” to describe his brother and him. His race or the language is not his intention, it is something he born with. Even he didn’t do anything wrong at that time, theses protective parents already labels them as

defective by their appearance. When Baca was seventeen, police always accuse him of crimes even he didn’t commit. Author writes, “With no money for a lawyer, and no family to to challenge the injustice, we were easy targets for the police to hang something on”(37).

His right as a citizen needed to be protect. Nevertheless, he still need at least some money to fight against injustice. Because of poverty, the only thing he can do as an innocent street teenager is to suffer the long-time staying in jail. If he had responsible parents, he would not be abandoned in the jail with nobody care for him. Teenager period was a crucial threshold for him, all he need is a guidance from his parents about how to be a mature man. But he was not the only one who suffers from his race. After several years in prison, he writes, “I began to see who I was in a new context, with a deeper sense of responsibility and love for my people”(225.) After seeing so many his people in prison and his people’s suffering outside the prison, he sees his people and himself in a new context in the racial and historical level. He can say parts of his struggle was from his parents. But for his parents, the society never be good to them as well. Historically, American society is so mean to his people. In the book staying in the prison years of time is one of the biggest suffering Baca

has. Before he went to court, Rick put him into severe trouble. Author writes, “The marshals had trumped up a paper saying that I had sold heroin to Rick, and Rick had signed it. He was a state witness according to he snitch, I’d been dealing heroin to him for year”(96). There were justice for law-breaker. But it is not supposed to make up crime he didn’t make. heroin and marijuana are different things, and the length of time in prison is significantly different. Baca never imagines another criminal Rick who only sees him a few time would make up the crime Baca didn’t make. He deserve some punishment since he breaks law, but it shouldn’t be that long. Again, he is not able to get justice, his business partner pushes him aside. Indeed, during his early Baca made some mistakes, some of those mistakes should be punished; however, he was dealt with bad hand due to his dysfunctional family, being a poor brown man and people’s betrayal.