Jimmy Santiago Baca 
Importance of a Piece of Paper 
Stories

“In Jimmy Santiago Baca’s haunting story collection, intricate family dramas . . . play out against the luminous, wide-open backdrop of New Mexico.” —Los Angeles Times   In his first foray into short fiction, award-winning poet and memoirist Jimmy Santiago Baca explores the territory where old-world traditions meet new-world ambitions, and characters try to make something of themselves, while keeping their souls intact. In “Matilda’s Garden, ” an old farmer pines for his wife of fifty years who died in her sleep one-night months before. He is lured to the garden in the middle of the night by what he thinks is her presence, only to meet a gruesome fate. In “The Importance of a Piece of Paper, ” two siblings must face the brother who has betrayed them by selling his share of the family land, leaving an entire community vulnerable. In “The Three Sons of Julia, ” a long-suffering mother whose one request is that all her sons come home for the Fourth of July, watches her dream burst as two of her sons—one a successful businessman and the other a hard-drinking ex-con—nearly destroy her house, and each other. Merging a refreshing innocence with a profound understanding of the world’s brutality, The Importance of a Piece of Paper is a daring and arresting work that is at once fearless, tender, and inspiring.   “[Baca] continues to mine his experience, exploring conflicts between the rich traditions of Chicano culture and a modern world impatient with them.” —Entertainment Weekly   “Inspirational, tragic, and redeeming . . . Baca provides moving poetic imagery and unleashes his gift for finely crafted sensory detail.” —Rocky Mountain News