Family Ties

Baca’s poem, “Family Ties” addresses many complex issues. Perhaps, it is even fair to say that components such as its syntax, imagery and themes are equally as complex as the poem itself. As the title suggest, Baca writes about a middle-aged man with a wife, and two sons attending a family barbeque, in which three generations are comprised from: the young, middle-aged and the elderly. Because there are essentially three different generations, this poem expresses the issues amongst them all, and also allows us as readers to understand the family unit, and how the narrator feels towards them.
            As early as the very first, few lines of the poem we can begin to analyze the three generations of the family that are referenced. “I play with a new generation of children, my hands in streambed silt of their lives, a scuba diver’s hands, dusting for buried treasure” (4-7). In the context of this passage we can comprehend a sense of hope that the narrator has for the youth. The imagery he uses and the scuba diver’s hands digging for treasure perhaps suggest the endless possibilities the youth are entitled to as being American. Like a body of water that is forever flowing, the children and their outcomes are unlimited.  
            For the middle-age Baca explains that their issues stem from their profession on the farms. “Tempers ignite on land grant issues” (14). From this text we can gather that the narrator’s generation of cousins, sisters and brothers feel unhappy with the conditions of which they are subject to work under. Probably they feel entitled to land grants from the governments, while the elderly whom are tossing “horseshoes on the lawn” are content with their circumstances as immigrant Americans  (16).

When carefully scrutinizing this poem, it can be concluded that the syntax creates a lot of meaning. For instance, when referencing the difference in the generations like the children, or the aunts and uncles, we can see that each start a new line. However, when we look at certain lines, there exists different themes, yet they coexist in the same line. “…uncles and aunts surround taco and tamale tables. Mounted elk head on wall, brass rearing horse cowboy clock” (9-11). This passage is critical to analyzing and comprehending because within the context it is referencing both Hispanic/Chicano culture (ex: tacos and tomales), as well as Western American culture (ex: elk head, cowboys). Furthermore, when we look at the syntax, it appears to be blended together in one line, which can symbolize the blending of cultures. For immigrants from another country arriving to America, it is a common thread for them to feel the necessity to adopt the new and abandon some of the old. The syntax of these few lines is representative of this understanding.

I’ve read this poem probably a hundred times in just a few short days and I have constantly had to ask myself why the narrator felt a lack of love and connection with his family. In questioning this theme, it was concluded that perhaps the narrator feels uneasy with the idea of being given a fraction of something by a white man. While the “sons and daughters” become angry over land grant issues, the narrator specifically separates himself and chooses not to include himself in this discussion over government reparations to his people. In fact, all throughout the poem never does the narrator use pronouns like “we or us” when describing his extended family, instead he uses “they and them” (ex: “they arrive…” ). For the readers this directly demonstrates the separation the narrator feels from his family. Perhaps the narrator feels disconnected from his family because he refuses to settle for a false representation of freedom, given to his people by the white man. Maybe, land grants, in the narrator’s opinion do not represent the true definition of freedom. On the contrary, true freedom, real freedom is one that the narrator absolutely “cannot afford” (25). It is the “grass clearing” behind the “abandoned rock cabins in the mountains. It’s the “sunlit pasture” in which his children dream of, where they play tag and run aimlessly and innocently in an open field.