Jimmy Santiago Baca

Oppression

Oppression - meaning Summary

Endurance and Shared Humanity

The poem addresses people who suffer oppression and captivity, urging them to remember their humanity and find inner strength. It counsels looking for hope like "grains" and singing together as an act of resistance and solidarity. Natural images—the sun, spring grass—mark time and offer consolation, framing endurance as both communal and hopeful: persist through hardship while holding onto shared dignity and anticipation of renewal.

Read Complete Analyses

Is a question of strength, of unshed tears, of being trampled under, and always, always, remembering you are human. Look deep to find the grains of hope and strength, and sing, my brothers and sisters, and sing. The sun will share your birthdays with you behind bars, the new spring grass like fiery spears will count your years, as you start into the next year; endure my brothers, endure my sisters.

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