A fellow inmate convinced him to submit some of his poems to the magazine Mother Jones, then edited by Denise Levertov.

[10] In 2004 Baca started a non-profit organization, Cedar Tree, Inc., that supports literary workshops for inmates and troubled youth, through charitable donations.

As well as writing workshops, Cedar Tree has produced two documentary films Clamor en Chino and Moving the River Back Home.

His "memoir", A Place to Stand (2001), chronicles his troubled youth and the five-year jail-stint that brought about his personal transformation.

Baca is also the author of a collection of stories and essays, Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio (1992); a play, Los tres hijos de Julia (1991); a screenplay, Bound by Honor, which was released by Hollywood Pictures as Blood In Blood Out in 1993; he also published at the end of 1993 Second Chances.

He published an original essay in 2013 called, "The Face," in ebook form with Restless Books,[12] along with digital editions of his Breaking Bread with the Darkness poetry volumes.