"Green Chile" Explication

There are some short narrations like the one in page one hundred and nineteen that cause a emotion of sympathy and acceptance and displays the ever present desire, noticeable in many Hispanic literary works of this time, to become part of something grand.

There is a mysterious connection between grandparent and grandchild, one that transcends all ethnicities, religions, and socio-economic groups. In Jimmy Santiago Baca's poem "Green Chile", he explores this connection via the use of chile peppers as a medium. Baca personifies both green and red peppers to illustrate not only that special bond, but also the historical significance of said vegetable amongst the Mexican-American community.

Caught up in the whirl of a gringo society, confused by the rules, scorned by attitudes, suppressed by manipulation, and destroyed by modern society. My fathers have lost the economic battle and won the struggle of cultural survival... I look at myself. I watch my brothers. I shed tears of sorrow. I sow seeds of hate. I withdraw to the safety within the circle of life MY OWN PEOPLE. (Gonzales)

The first stanza depicts two main elements: metaphors and synecdoche’s. The first two lines of the poem set the stage for what this poem is about, “When my heart is not in my mouth, it’s in your hands” (line 1-2). This allows the reader to understand that this man’s heart lies with this woman and that she has complete control over it. This line also describes a synecdoche in which the woman is not actually holding a live organ in her hands as the reader would

The next six lines (or next sentence) deepens the class divide between the speaker and the ‘turistas.’ First, the speaker sees the women rub oil onto themselves, that is “sweeter than honey,” and the children being playful, sipping on drinks with “long straws, coconut white, mango yellow.” The scented oil and colorful drinks (‘material possessions’ in Marxist terms) demonstrate the privilege that the tourists have in comparison to what the speaker and her family have (or, more likely, do not have), for the latter would likely have regular plastic straws to basic drinks. Also, it is worth noting that the speaker does not even have a clear view of the tourists enjoying their vacation--she has to “peek” through the cactus fence, which is essentially a border between the two classes.

     As mentioned before diction was used along with other elements to help bring out the heart of the matter in Soto’s story. When Soto says he held the pie like a “discus” it makes one think that maybe he was ready to throw it like a Frisbee because at the time he was so nervous. Also, when Soto first steals the pie, he notices that the grocer’s forehead “shone with a window of light.” It seems because Soto is so nervous, he begins to notice every little detail of what is going on in front of him. Another example occurs when Soto is eating the pie and he declares that his teeth were “bathed with the jam-like filling.” This makes him look as if he is relishing every moment of eating the pie.

In the first verse of the introduction of the song, imagery is used for the audience to imagine what exactly is being told. As almost as if it was a setting in a play or a scene in a movie. In the first verse the first two set of lines says, “On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair. Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air.” (Eagles, Lines 1-2). One can already imagine the speaker driving down a dark desert highway, with his windows rolled down perhaps, and smelling the warm air full of desert flowers, or maybe he is smelling marijuana in the air. This could be because colitas is Spanish slang for a bud of cannabis, but it could also mean desert flowers, (Philpot). These first two lines already sets the mood of a restless traveler who needs a place to stay for the night after a long day of driving. It also hints that there could possibly be drugs or other temptations in this song considering colitas

Powerful diction aids in the portrayal of the deep-seated agony in Luis’ core due to his mother passing. One thought passing through Luis’ conscious was regarding a woman that came to the junkyard. He dreamily thought, “She was like a smooth wood carving. Her skin was mahogany, almost black, and her arms and legs were long and thin, but curved in places so that she did not look bony and hard -- more like a ballerina.” This reason for his affection towards her is possibly because of the lack of a woman in his life. The death of his mother led him to desperately desiring a feminine figure in his life. Seeing someone beautiful like her, he wanted her to be in his life, therefore he instinctively felt affection toward her. The diction assists in showing his feelings of affection. Without diction, the author would be unable to fully show his want for a woman in his life. An additional example that displays the gaping hole left in his life at his mother’s eternal departure was shown through a memory he has concerning her delectable food. Luis recalls, “yellow rice and red beans, the fried chicken, or the mouth-watering sweet plantains that his mother had cooked for them.” This shows the want that Luis had for his mother to be back in that he remembers vividly how great food was made by her. Even more, though, he remembers the underlying love in her making the food for him. He greatly desires to have that back.

Poetry is often used as a form of writing to express emotions or tell a story. The poems “LA Nocturne: The Angels”, by Xavier Villaurrutia and “Meditations on the South Valley: Poem IX” by Jimmy Santiago Baca, are two distinctive poems. In Baca’s poem he expresses the disbelief and the sorrow of the death of a boy named Eddie. While, in Villaurrutia’s poem reveals an expression of secret desire men have. Baca and Villaurrutia’s poems, both use repetition, imagery and metaphors in their poems to convey their message.

In Castillo’s three-stanza poem, she starts off by using the literary device of symbolism. As one reads this poem, it is quickly realized that it is a narrative and easy to follow along with. Compared with some other flowy and fancy poetry, “Christmas, 1970,” is a bit different. In the first stanza, Castillo talks in the present tense, as they put together a Christmas tree during their first Christmas in the United States, an unfamiliar territory. Castillo uses the device of symbolism to support her overall theme. She states “Mother finds herself opening,

In the profile article “Jimmy Santiago Baca: Poetry as Lifesaver” author Rob Baker, who also is a creative writing and English teacher proves to not only the readers but also the National Council of Teachers of English the significance of poetry. The authors main point is that poetry saved Jimmy Santiago Baca’s life, he shows us how by explaining the emotions when Baca began to read poetry; he then went on to write poetry and even publish his own works while still in prison, after Baca’s release, he became a dedicated teacher who also works with gang members and teaches workshops.

The poem begins explaining to the reader the story of a Mexican American as he worked in an industrial factory at some point in his life. “In the factory I worked, in the fleck of rubber, under a press of an oven yellow with flame.” (Lines 1-3) Soto uses visual imagery to describe the color of

The lines in part three of the poem “This is the dead land / This is cactus land”

The title of the poem is used to describe the authors night in the pawn shop. The author finds many Latin symbols in the pawn shop window each symbol is used to make up a salsa band. After describing that the object look like their at the city morgue the tone goes to depression feeling. The author express how these instruments were once used to bring to joy to people lives and now seeing them unused on Christmas night it makes him sad. The metaphor of the poem is the comparing the price tags on the instruments to the tag on a dead body at the morgue. Just like we a sense of sadness while seeing a death body the feels the same way while looking at the instruments being unused. The poem is real meaning is to show how much the author

When the first you read the poem, you will not recognize the Maya’s mean and then be extremely curious to read it again carefully until you get the real story from the poem. The poem has contrasting word “laugh” with some words, which have an opposite meaning such as