Black Hair by Gary Soto
"Black Hair" by Gary Soto is a poignant free verse poem that explores the relationship between a young Mexican boy and his passion for baseball, embodied through the admiration of his hero, Hector Moreno. The poem opens with the speaker reminiscing about the joy and vitality of his youth, highlighting his physicality as he watches Hector play. The boy's identity, shaped by his cultural background and personal challenges, becomes central to his connection with the game. He reflects on his own limitations, including his shyness and the emotional weight of his father's absence, contrasted against the vibrant energy of the ballpark.
The imagery in the poem effectively conveys themes of aspiration and belonging, as the speaker imagines himself triumphantly sharing in Hector's achievements on the field. Soto utilizes metaphors of light and color, depicting the boy's black hair as a "torch" that symbolizes hope amid his struggles. The poem's conclusion underscores the importance of representation and community, as the speaker finds solace and pride in his connection to Hector and his heritage, envisioning himself as part of a victorious narrative. Overall, "Black Hair" is a celebration of youth, identity, and the power of role models in shaping one's sense of self.
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Subject Terms
Black Hair by Gary Soto
First published: 1985, in Black Hair
Type of poem: Lyric
The Poem
Gary Soto’s “Black Hair” is a short poem in free verse, its thirty lines forming three equal stanzas. The opening poem of the anthology, this poem is an eight-year-old’s explanation of how he connects with baseball, through players who look like him.
“At eight I was brilliant with my body,” Soto begins, describing the innocence and bravado of youth. Despite the oppressive heat of July, the speaker “sat in the bleachers” to see a “figure—Hector Moreno/ Quick and hard with turned muscles.” He comes to memorize the stance of Hector, his hero, to match it: “His crouch the one I assumed before an altar/ Of worn baseball cards, in my room.”
The reader wonders why this player, Hector, is so significant. The speaker answers in the second stanza, “I came here because I was Mexican, a stick/ Of brown light in love with those/ Who could do it.” The speaker comments on his own size, “What could I do with 50 pounds”; on a personality trait, “my shyness”; and in the next line, on a more obvious physical characteristic, “My black torch of hair.” The speaker wants to watch a player who can and does “do it,” “the triple and hard slide,/ The gloves eating balls into double plays.” He needs the role models of those—like him—who can succeed, unlike his parents. The end of this stanza abruptly shifts away from the game of baseball to the realities of this young speaker’s life. “Father was dead,” he states, “his face no longer/ Hanging over the table or our sleep.” As painful as such a revelation about his father might be, the portrayal of his mother may be even more painful as her actions continue. She “was the terror of mouths/ Twisting hurt by butter knives.” While his father’s actions no longer affect the speaker, his mother’s appear to haunt him continually.
The poem shifts once again as the third stanza begins. The joy of the game returns to the speaker: “In the bleachers I was brilliant with my body.” In the bleachers, the speaker knows how to be a great fan, using his body to wave “players in,” showing his support by stomping his feet. As a fan in July, he grows “sweaty in the presence of white shirts,” or white T-shirts, the uniform of stalwart fans. Intensely into the game, he chews “sunflower seeds” and drinks “water” and emotionally sweats out the end of the game, biting his “arm through the late innings.” The poem ends hopefully as Soto parallels the game of baseball with the “game” of life.
The last half of the stanza describes Hector’s prowess and the speaker’s wish for the same ability. The speaker lives vicariously through Hector’s accomplishments. He says, when Hector “lined balls into deep/ Center, in my mind I rounded the bases/ With him.” When the speaker is running the bases with Hector, the imagined vision of “my faced flared, my hair lifting” is “Beautiful.” This vision is critical to the young speaker’s sense of well-being, for in Hector the speaker is powerfully aligned with “his people,” Mexicans who succeed and are cheered in life. Mentally, running alongside Hector, he, too, is a victor who is “coming home/ To the arms of brown people,” the people from whom the speaker most needs affirmation.
Forms and Devices
Beginning with the opening line, Soto immediately engages the reader by using words in unexpected ways to reinforce his meanings. The speaker says he was “brilliant.” The reader typically associates brilliance with a level of intelligence, of cognitive ability; Soto surprises the reader by using it to designate physical talent, as he does again as he begins the third stanza: “In the bleachers I was brilliant with my body.”
The word “brilliant” is also often associated with describing levels of light. Soto forges a link with light imagery in using metaphor to compare the speaker to a “a stick/ Of brown light.” Color is linked with the goodness of light. Soto creates another metaphor to reinforce this connection when he states that the speaker’s hair is a “black torch,” which he fears is “about to go out” given the realities of his family life. However, Soto continues to use light imagery, with the word “flared” to describe the speaker’s vicarious rounding of the bases with Hector. Concurrently, Soto says his hair lifts “Beautifully,” in the shape of a lit torch. Despite the fact the speaker has dark hair, Soto uses it as an emblem of light, a symbol of promise, as in the first light of a new day, a symbol of tomorrow, of light that illuminates the future.
The poet squarely places the speaker at the game—“I sat in the bleachers/ Of Romain Playground”—and then uses movement to paint the setting of the game: “in the lengthening/ Shade that rose from our dirty feet.” As the sun sets, the shadows grow, covering the “dirty feet,” a typical trademark of an eight-year-old on a hot summer evening, but perhaps they are meant to be indicative of this young boy’s plight: He has dirty feet because he is Mexican and has no shoes.
If so, the speaker’s need for a hero in his life is heightened in the next lines when he admits to having created an “altar/ Of worn baseball cards” in his room. The word “altar” connotes religious imagery; before an altar, someone worships, as it appears this speaker does. Further, he does so in the image of the person he is worshiping; the young boy assumes “His crouch.” Beyond living vicariously through his hero, he worships his hero in the form of his hero.
Soto uses personification as gloves “eat” balls into double plays. The image of hungry mouths that “swallow” catches and potential victories, juxtaposed with the metaphor of the temperature of July as a “ring of heat/ We all jumped through,” creates a powerful picture of the speaker’s position in life and his need for great accomplishment against enormous odds.
Bibliography
Blasingame, James. “Interview with Gary Soto.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 47 (November, 2003): 266-267.
Bruce-Novoa, Juan. “Patricide and Resurrection: Gary Soto.” In Chicano Poetry: A Response to Chaos. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982.
Candelaria, Cordelia. Chicano Poetry. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986.
Cooley, Peter. “I Can Hear You Now.” Parnassus 8, no. 1 (1979): 297-311.
De la Fuentes, Patricia. “Mutability and Stasis: Images of Time in Gary Soto’s Black Hair.” American Review 16 (1988): 188-197.
Murphy, Patricia. “Inventing Lunacy: An Interview with Gary Soto.” Hayden’s Ferry Review 18 (Spring/Summer, 1996): 29-37.
Olivares, Julián. “The Streets of Gary Soto.” Latin American Literary Review 18 (January-June, 1990): 32-49.
Soto, Gary. “The Childhood Worries: Or, Why I Became a Writer.” Iowa Review 25 (Spring/Summer, 1995): 104-115.
Williamson, Alan. “In a Middle Style.” Poetry 135 (March, 1980): 348-354.