When I Walk Through That Door, I Am

Starred review from February 1, 2019
Baca's (Singing at the Gates, 2014) new book is a powerful, relevant epic poem inspired by his life-changing encounters with a Burmese immigrant who was deported along with his wife and children. Baca also draws from his own cultural history as he compassionately imagines a Central American woman and her child escaping gang violence at home and enduring further bloodshed, violation, and pain while seeking refuge in the U.S. Baca offers poetic glimpses into the nightmare she is escaping and how she then bravely faces new horrors at the border. Her dreams and aspirations for a new life with her child in a new land are succinctly depicted in Baca's tender lines. Having experienced his own share of suffering, Baca, whose memoir, A Place to Stand (2001), was made into a PBS documentary, places us squarely at the center of the current and tragic battle over immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. This slim, salient volume will open readers' eyes wide to the true human stories behind blaring headlines about immigration policies and debates. (For more perspectives on this crucial subject, see the review and read-alikes for The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez, p. .)(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)