Zoom, Pan and Characterization

I‘m pretty sure that with the exception of Baca’s A Place To Stand, I have never gotten teary-eyed reading a Prologue. Before I even got into the story, I was convinced that it was going to be a wonderful book and, in most cases, Baca did not disappoint. However, from a craft perspective, I felt that Baca had such incredible storytelling skills and he didn’t always utilize them to their maximum potential. The opening where describes himself as a little boy by under the porch of La Casita, hearing witnessing his mother having an affair is so powerful because he actually places the reader in the scene. However, by the time Jimmy is at the orphanage, it seems like Baca wanted to get a lot in so he rushes through many parts. As Elmaz would say, the lenses zoomed out. Throughout the piece, I noticed that Baca does a lot more “telling” than showing” (particularly in the section from the orphanage thru San Diego) and I kept finding myself yearning for more close-ups. We get many more of these when he is thrown in jial at age 20.

One craft technique that I think Baca handled and employed particularly well (and would have loved to see more of) was his ability to condense a whole period of his life into one short description. Here’s an example:

“I lay in the dark remembering how my brother Mieyo stole a candle from the altar at the orphanage, and for my birthday we hid under his bunk with the candle lit and he sang a happy birthday song to me. He gave me a handful of hard candy he’d stolen from the living quarters of Father Gallagher, the priest” (63).

Such a simple scene yet it packs such a punch by essentially encapsulating the nature of his childhood and his relationship to his brother.

I also thought that Baca was very strong with characterization. I got a clear sense of most of the people in his life story. One thing I found interesting was that he rarely describes the physical appearances of the main characters in much detail. Or at least physical description didn’t stand out to me until he meets Lonnie. He describes her as having a “caramel complexion, in a yellow skirt and off-rose silk blouse, black main of hair, red lips.” (58) There isn’t anything particularly unique or poetic about the description (expect perhaps the fact that he describes the color of her blouse as being off-rose) but it made me feel that, unlike all the other “chicks” Jimmy was partying and hooking up with, this one was going to be special. And, of course, she was.

Another point on characterization that I found particularly intriguing was that Baca often gives the most in-depth descriptions of insignificant characters that we never see beyond his initial encounter with them. Here’s a couple of examples:

When Marcos and Jimmy get out of jail in San Diego and head to a hotel that they have been given vouchers for, Baca writes: “We handed the vouchers to a wrinkled, hunch-backed man at the desk, who was puffing on a cigar and playing poker with a floozy in a red miniskirt, pink fish-net stockings, and black stiletto heels.” (56) These two characters are insignificant and yet the description of them helps to enhance the nastiness of the place and confirm that Jimmy and Marcos have hit bottom at this point.

Soon after, when Jimmy, Lonnie and Marcos move to Arizona, they rent an apartment from a man who gets quite an elaborate description: “Mr. William Purvis, a doddering, bow-legged, weathered old cowboy, met us at the house and gave us the do’s and dont’s, scanning us with one good eye while his lifeless glass eye stared askew.” (62) Again, we never see Mr. Purvis again but he is almost an extension of the town and his characterization helps to establish setting and mood.

Although this technique was effective, I wondered if describing less significant characters in greater depth was a conscious choice or if it just “happened.” Personally, I would have liked to get a better idea of what the main characters looked like also. It reminded me how important it is to pay attention to these kinds of details and how every craft choice, whether it be characterization or panning/zooming, guides the mind’s eye of your reader.