Poems: Where You From? by Gina Valdez, Legal Alien, Elena by Pat Mora, ad Here by Sandra Maria Esteves

In “Puerto Rican Obituary” by Pedro Pietri, the author takes his readers on a journey of the oppressive life of a Puerto Rican immigrant. He describes a vicious cycle of stagnancy in which immigrants work endlessly without reward. Hopeful every day that the American dream they once imagined would come to fruition, but instead they are continually faced with trials and turmoil on every hand. Instead of uniting as a body to work towards greatness, the immigrants grow envious of each other, focusing on what they lack instead of the blessings that they currently attain. Contrary to the ideals of early immigrants, Pietri portrays Puerto Rico to be the homeland. The ideals of early immigrants have drastically changed throughout the development of America. Petri paints a completely different picture of America throughout his poem. Early immigrants describe an America that is welcoming, with endless opportunities, and a safe haven. Despite earlier depictions of the immigrant experience, these ideals are challenged because they weren’t integrated into society, were inadequately rewarded for hard work, and were disadvantaged due to their socioeconomic status.

“ In Colorado My Father Scoured and Stacked Dishes” by Eduardo C. Corral is a poem about the speaker's father who was smuggled into the State. Coming into the State the speaker's father faced many hardship and struggles to make a living in the desert, the mountain, and Oregon. Corral the speaker shows empathy toward his father because he see’s all of the struggles that his father had faced and the speaker couldn’t do anything to help the father out. Corral used code-switching, diction and symbolism to show the hardships and struggles the speaker and his father faced as being Mexican American due to their identity. The struggles to survive when they don’t have money, family support, and also trying to fit in even though he is being disrespected because of his cultural background.

Cristina Henriquez’, The Book of Unknown Americans, folows the story of a family of immigants adjusting to their new life in the United States of America. The Rivera family finds themselves living within a comunity of other immigrants from all over South America also hoping to find a better life in a new country. This book explores the hardships and injustices each character faces while in their home country as well as withina foreign one, the United States. Themes of community, identity, globalization, and migration are prevalent throughout the book, but one that stood out most was belonging. In each chacters viewpoint, Henriquez explores their feelings of the yearning they have to belong in a community so different than the one that they are used to.

Pat Mora is an award-winning writer that bases most her poems on tough cultural challenges and life as a Mexican American. She was born in a Spanish speaking home in El Paso, Texas. Mora is proud to be a Hispanic writer and demonstrates how being culturally different in America is not easy. She explains this through her experiences and the experience other’s. In her poems “Elena”, “Sonrisas”, and “Fences”, Mora gives you a glimpse of what life as a Mexican American is; their hardships, trials, strength that make them who they are.

The poem “Finding Home” written by Carolina Hospital tells the story of how Mexicans who come to America try to find their heritage in the United States. Like many who migrate to America, the immigrants miss their country and are concerned about losing their culture. In contrast to Harvey Gomez, this poem shows that many Mexicans in America appreciate their heritage. “I have travelled north again,/to these gray skies/and empty doorways,” (Hospital 101). This shows that they miss their native country and are concerned about forgetting their heritage. Perhaps Harvey’s grandparents thought the same thing when they first came to America from Mexico. Regardless of their arrival in America, they want to return to Mexico someday. “I must travel again soon” (Hospital 102). Despite leaving their native land they have respect for Mexico and will visit again. After the experience that Harvey had in discovering his heritage, I am sure that he will visit Mexico again.

In “Illegal Alien” Pat Mora writes about the problem of the difficulty people have communicating when they are of different backgrounds. For years now people have been judged by their skin color, their race, or where the originally come from. In “Illegal Alien” Pat Mora gives us a good example of this as the character in her poem goes through this trial of being from both the Mexican and the American cultures. Pat Mora indicates her difficulties that she is going through being born into two different cultures.

The term immigrant is defined as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence” (“Immigrant”). In her autobiography, Barefoot Heart, Elva Trevino Hart speaks of her immigrant ways and how she fought to become the Mexican-American writer she is today. She speaks about the working of land, the migrant camps, plus the existence she had to deal with in both the Mexican and American worlds. Hart tells the story of her family and the trials they went through along with her physical detachment and sense of alienation at home and in the American (Anglo) society. The loneliness and deprivation was the desire that drove Hart to defy the odds and acquire the unattainable sense of belonging into American

Being an immigrant in the United States is very difficult because many people are introduced to a new language, people, etc. The poem “English Con Salsa” by Gina Valdes explains the struggle of an immigrant in the United States. Gina Valdes was born in Los Angeles, California. She grew up on both sides of the border. Her writing was affected by growing up on both sides of the border. She got a degree from the English and Spanish departments from the University of California. The poem English con Salsa explains her struggle of being introduced to a new country and how hard it was to get use to everything.

Gloria Anzaldúa writes of a Utopic frame of mind, the borderlands created in and lived in by the new mestiza. She describes the preexisting natures of the Anglos, Mexicanos, and Chicanos as seen around the southwest U.S. / Mexican border, indicative of the nations at large. She also probes the borders of language, sexuality, psychology and spirituality. Anzaldúa presents this information in various identifiable ways including the autobiography, historical/informative essay, and poetry. What is unique to Anzaldúa is her ability to weave a ‘perfect’ kind of compromised state of mind that melds together the preexisting cultures while simultaneously formulating a fusion of genres that stretches previously

For many years now people have judged one another based on characteristics and family background. Some judge based on skin color, race, where your family has come from, and how you came about. “Legal Alien/ Extranjera Legal” by Pat Mora gives a very realistic message of how it can feel to be a mexican american and to be seen as a ‘legal alien’. To feel not wanted by either side, and to be judged based on the origins of your ancestors and your race. “viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,/ perhaps inferior, definitely different,/ viewed by mexicans as alien.” This here, is a perfect example of the way Mora feels about being judged and seen as an alien and her interesting use of diction, metaphors and similes. I think the tone Mora has is one

In Pat Mora's poem, "Legal Alien," the author describes her biracial character as being "viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic, / perhaps inferior, definitely different, / viewed by Mexicans as alien," a description which highlights the situation encountered by people who strive to be prestigious individuals by floating between cultures and who consequently fail to be a part of any particular group (Mora 9-11). Often the individuals are biologically trapped between two probable lives, and they forge ahead to meet the opportunity of possibly belonging to the higher society while they degrade the small culture which has weaned them from birth. These people find themselves

First of all, the setting of this novel contributes to the Rivera family’s overall perception of what it means to be an American. To start this off, the author chooses a small American city where groups of Latino immigrants with their own language and traditions, lived together in the same apartment building. All these immigrants experienced similar problems since they moved from their countries. For example, in the novel after every other chapter the author

The poem is filled not with resentment but with optimism, the cheerfulness of that “great, silly grin" (21) that he believes will take him to a future where they will be as American as anyone else. But he also understands that people like him, mainly Mexicans who come to the United States to strive for something better in life.

During the Mexican-American War the border moved, but the people didn’t. History has shown us that no matter how thick the border might be Latino Americans have a strong connection to their culture and roots; instead of assimilating, Mexicans live between two worlds. The film, Ballad of Gregorio Cortez gave us a perspective of two cultures; “Two cultures- the Anglo and the Mexican- lived side by side in state of tension and fear” . Cortez is running for his life as he heads north, while the Anglo believe that because of his Mexican ethnicity, he would travel south to Mexico. Throughout the film there were cultural tensions and misunderstandings; language plays an important part of someone’s identity, and for many Latino Americans Spanish is their first language. The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez also shows us that language plays an important role, and can cause confusion between two different groups. For example, Anglos refer to a male

In “So Mexicans are Taking Jobs from Americans,” Jimmy Santiago Baca defends and shuts down the stereotype of Mexican workers. Many Americans hold resentment towards Mexicans presence in the work force, and believe that they are taking jobs away. However, many Americans don’t realize that these Mexican workers fill jobs that others do not want and are usually paid less than an American would be paid. In the beginning of the poem Baca addresses the American stereotype of Mexicans taking jobs from Americans in a very sarcastic manner. He then continues by telling the truth, that Mexicans are actually not taking jobs. He explains how Mexicans come to America to make a living for their family, which