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Melina Carachure
Professor Adler
STACC English100 #72051
29 November 2015
Bacas Life Agony

In Jimmy Santiago Bacas memoir, he tells his astonishing life story and the happy, sad and
traumatic events he went through that made him the person whom he is today. As a young boy
Baca was already living a rough life. He witnessed as his mother would get beat by his abusive
and alcoholic father. Later after his mother left, she not only abandoned his father but she also
deserted her three children. He then moved in with his grandmother whom could not afford to
provide for Baca and his older brother any longer, and was forced to drop them off at an
orphanage. In the orphanage is where Baca became angry and depressed due to those traumatic
events in his childhood.
All of those traumatic events that happened to Baca in his childhood lead him to depression
and addictions. Later the traumatic events in his adulthood continued and invigorated him to
drink and do drugs. When Baca was in jail for the second time he developed anger and posttraumatic stress. Throughout his life in prison, Baca encountered many different people and
many different life changing events, in which some of those events could have been lethal. As all
of those traumatic events seem to pilling on, Baca tried to disguise his depression and anger with
drugs and alcohol. He drank and would drug himself almost on a daily basis. He would find
some sort of comfort and felt as if his life was together when he was on drugs. Then and there is
when Bacas addiction began.

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There are at least 5 million children in the United States who have experienced some sort of
traumatic experiences. Witnessing his mother get abused by his father was what lead Baca to his
depression. Domestic violence makes huge impacts on children. Statistics say that by the age of
18, the chances of them getting involved or have gotten involved in an interpersonal event or
have been exposed to community violence is 1 in 4. In Bacas situation, not only did he
experience domestic violence but also life threating events and was also exposed to community
violence, so those 1 in 4 chances were really high to Baca. The human body as well as the brain
have sets of important and predictable responses to threat. That threat can very and may come
from internal (e.g pain) and or external (e.g an assailant). Baca seemed to have experienced some
of both internal and external threats. Increasing the chances of Baca developing depression and
or post-traumatic stress in his adulthood. When children face reminders of the original traumatic
event, they may experiences some sort of pain and anxiety and become overwhelmed. When the
child can not withdraw from that memory they often appear to be gazing off and tend to not
respond to question someone asked them or may respond with an answer that does not seem to
make sense. They also may act numb or stunned by any little thing that may happen. In Bacas
situation, as stated in the book, he was always confused about what people asked him and was
never quite aware of his surroundings. He became paranoid because of the side affects he was
developing from his childhood trauma and because he felt as if everybody who looked at him
was suspicious of him because of what he had done. Selling drugs only made Bacas paranoia
worse. After being a person who was never aware of his surroundings, he became a person who
was always on the look out for anything that he thought could get him caught. As time continued
to go by Bacas depression kept getting deeper and deeper. Reminders of the abandonment from
his mother caught up to him in later in his adulthood as well. He developed depression and to get

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rid of those sad memories he would drink and do drugs and also because he had the example of
alcohol in his household as a child.
Some techniques that Baca could have used to solve his depression is counseling for
example. Talking about ones problems to someone who studies the human brain and reactions to
certain situations is an excellent way to treat depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress
disorder. Baca did not have the guidance necessary to treat his problems. A solution we can find
to these sort of types of situations are to be aware of what a child is going through. Most adults
will not explain what has happened to child because they believe that are to young or not old
enough to understand and process what just happened. But in fact, although children do not
know the meaning of what may have just happened, as they get older and start to understand life
more and see things in different point of views. They will remember that certain traumatic event
and realize the meaning of it, they may start to develop depression etc So even though parents
may think that children are too young to comprehend the situation, as they start getting older and
begin to grasp on life, they will understand that traumatic event more and more and will start to
ask questions on why it happened. Answering those questions to children may be hard, but it is
better to tell the child so the chances of them developing post-traumatic stress disorder,
depression, anxiety and so on may not be so high. All of these side affects are indeed treatable
but not all can be prevented like depression. But talking to someone or reaching out to a family
member can be helpful as well as finding something to do to get your mind of that problem
which can also help to relieve stress. These are all very easy steps we can take to prevent and or
treat the side affects of a traumatic event or childhood trauama.

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Kaplow, Julie B. Saxe, Glenn N.Putnam, Frank W.Pynoos, Robert S.Lieberman, Alicia F. The
Long-Term Consequences of Early Childhood Trauma: A case Study and Discussion.
Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 69.4 (2006): 362-375. Psychology and
Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 13 Nov. 2015

Onset and Course of Major Depression in Adulthood. Depression and Anxiety

(1091-4269) 9.4 (1999): 169-174. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection.
Web. 13 Nov. 2015

Early Childhood Trauma. Early Childhood Trauma. Web. 16 Nov. 2015