Close Reading Questions

1. “Baca Grande” translates to “Big Baca” which could signify that Baca is an important
person. James Baca is Hispanic, and the word “baca” in Spanish means cow- implying
that James Baca is a cow. The word “boca”, which sounds similar to “baca”, means
mouth, implying that James Baca is also a talker that can’t keep his mouth shut.
2. James A. Baca was delivering the keynote address to the graduating class of 1980 in
the high school of which he attended, located in his hometown.
3. James Baca has been at Yale for 2 years and then went halfway through law school at
the University of California at Irvine.
4. “He had risen as high as they go”.
5. No, he has met so many more important, successful, and remarkable people.
6. Positive connotations:
• three-piece grey business suit
• Surfer-swirl haircut
Negative connotations:
• Menacing hint of a tightly trimmed Zapata moustache
The ‘old hometown gang’ must dress casually and informal compared to Baca.
7. The purpose of Baca’s nicely trimmed moustache—for cultural balance and relevance
—to show his cultural devotion
8. He was one of the most successful graduates from the school he attended and
therefore chosen to recite the address.
9. ‘Alma mater’ is a reference to a high-school someone has attended in the past.
10. “Each Kennedyish ‘R’” refers to the way Baca pronounces his r’s, just like president J.
F. Kennedy, in a formal, higher-class English way.
11.Positive connotations:
• Alliteration: slid so smoothly
Negative connotations:
• Repetition of hard, consonant sounds: meticulously bleached tongue
• Consonance: l—throwing up or choking sound
12. 1st person pronoun—he pretends he is important and formal
13.slick—smooth; elegantly honed—harmonious
14.d
15.“Making yourself out of nothing, creating a name and place for yourself in the real
world”
16. It is unexpected because it curses and uses the figurative language in a creative and
imaginative way that requires some thought to comprehend.
17.One of the students graduating—“toying with his yellow tassle”—on his graduating
hat
18.Baca thinks Martinez is an average, dumb student
19.The speaker’s
20. To create emphasis of the fact that it is possible, not likely, that Joey Martinez would
equal to James Baca, and also to create a tone of ridicule, as in, “ohhhh, it’s possible,
I suppose”
21.Change in opinion/speaker
22. gas station attendant—usually a low-paying job requiring little skill or knowledge, the
exact opposite of James Baca’s job
23. “Let us never forget; it doesn’t really matter what you do, so long as you excel”—
Baca says this to encourage the students who are going to be employed in lower
skilled and paying jobs to strive for their goals, even though he knows that really isn’t
 the case, because if you become the CEO of Trash Management you’ll still get paid
very little
24.James Baca had already climbed to the top of the ladder, the highest position he
could be in for his certain job or occupation
25. The point of view changes from Baca presenting his ideas to the speaker mocking
Baca’s ideas. The tone changes from condescending encouragement to mockery and
informality.
26.James Baca is really one of the ‘old hometown gang’ and no matter how much he
tries to change he stays the same.
27. Baca thinks his hometown lacks the necessities of a good education and life; “he’d
forget this damned town and all the petty little people”
28.big, little
29.determined
30.A peer or student in his graduating class who thinks that James Baca is an overblown,
un-ordinary, and haughty figure, proven in lines 53-65 from the change in point of
view.
31. Baca GrandeBig BacaBig Mouth
32.To mock or ridicule and set the tone of the poem

Close Reading—Figurative Language

1. to show how well he makes speeches after practicing regularly—Baca trained himself
to know what to say
2. Baca repeatedly used the 1st person pronoun “I” in his keynote address to emphasize
his point of view
3. Baca’s words where so smooth and accurate that they were deemed “white”, burned,
and destructive
4. Being an outrageously successful gas station attendant is a very slim chance
compared to jobs that require more effort and thought

Grammar/Syntax Questions

1. See blue slash marks on poem

2. “the old hometown gang”—seems impersonal because they don’t recognize Baca at
all
3. to emphasize how successful and “white” Baca is
4. A tone of mockery, ridicule, and condescend to the people below Baca’s ‘level’
5. “wasn’t nobody else from…who’d ever”—create mockery of Baca’s character as a
person because the speaker knows that Baca is pretending to be somebody he’s not
and the informal slang is the way the real Baca is
6. nobody else
from this deprived environment
had ever jumped
straight out of college
into the Governor’s office
—Creates a formal and educated tone—
7. Line 58—and maybe one day
Line 61—and when he did
Line 63—and all the petty little people
Line 65—once and for all
—Shows that Baca has a lot of plans for himself in the future—