Jimmy Baca’s “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans” deals with the topic of Mexicans being treated as less instead of equal as people in general, including for the work they do and for being immigrants. Immigrants are often thought to take jobs away from Americans when in fact they simply take the jobs that no one wants to do and are willing to get paid even less (Hoban). Jimmy Baca’s “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans” is a poem written in ten stanzas and a couplet. The poem is written in free-verse, meaning it does not adhere to any pattern of rhythm and contains no meter. The title of the poem, “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans” implies the author may be using sarcasm throughout the work.
The woman is writing about her despair about where she is living, bullets on the streets and hiding from macoutes. Her father doesn’t approve of the man she is writing about. In this story, women are portrayed as helpless being. They are raped and treated as a tool more than a person. One woman in this story was raped and was on a boat.
Through these women and Esperanza’s reactions to them, Cisneros’ shows not only the hardships women face, but also explores their lack of power to overcome them. Very early on in The House on Mango Street Esperanza encounters multiple women who are living in abusive relationships or are stuck raising and providing for children on their own. One example of these women is Rosa Vargas. She is a mother to one too many children, who often misbehave: “…how can they help it with only one mother who is tired all the time from buttoning and bottling and babying, and who cries every day
Lola takes advantage of her deteriorating mother whose illness represents the declining hold of the norms over Lola. Since her mom “will have trouble lifting her arms over her head for the rest of her life,” Lola is no longer afraid of the “hitting” and grabbing “by the throat” (415,419). As a child of a “Old World Dominican Mother” Lola must be surrounded by traditional values and beliefs that she does not want to claim, so “as soon as she became sick” Lola says, “I saw my chance and I’m not going to pretend or apologize; I saw my chance and I eventually took it” (416). When taking the opportunity to distinguish herself from the typical “Dominican daughter” or ‘Dominican slave,” she takes a cultural norm like long hair and decides to impulsively change it (416). Lola enjoyed the “feeling in [her] blood, the rattle” that she got when she told Karen to “cut my hair” (418).
Many people are undermined by the drawbacks of belonging to a low socioeconomic status. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is raised in a poor, Latino community, causing her to be introduced to poverty at an early age. This introduction of poverty affects Esperanza in many ways, one including that she is unable to find success. Esperanza struggles to achieve success in life because the cycle of poverty restricts her in a position in which she cannot break free from her socioeconomic status.
Alvarez and her family have a lot of trauma considering there lives in the dominican republic and living under the dictator,through it all alvarez's parents raised a daughter who would share their story in a fashionable matter that told the story how it was.
Mariam, an illegitimate child thrust into a loveless marriage with an abusive husband, refuses to succumb to the despair she consistently faces in
Immigrant from Cuba Speaks His Mind through Poetry Luis Estable’s poems are simple yet thought-provoking and fun to read. Cuban immigrant Luis Estable offers his gift of poetry to America, and what a wonderful gift it is. Over the years, he has written hundreds of pieces of poetry, in styles ranging from free verse to sonnet. Estable covers a wide range of topics and themes, and he conveys different thoughts and emotions between the lines. Such poems are found in his first published book of poetry
“No, this isn’t my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I’ve lived here (Cisneros 106).” This quote shows Esperanza’s unwillingness of accepting her poor neighbourhood because of the violence and inequality that has happened in it. In the House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, shows that there is a direct link between inequality, violence and poverty. The House on Mango Street shows women are held back by the inequalities that they face. Cisneros shows that racism prevents individuals from receiving job opportunities which leads to poverty and violence.
This shows what she had to endure to try to keep her baby healthy. It appeals to the loving protective side of the reader. It makes them think about what the baby must be going through beacuase of their economic situation. Rhetorical questions are used to directly engage the
This narrative technique creates a nuanced and complex portrayal of the family's experiences which highlights the individual struggles and reactions of each character. It is through this narrative structure that the reader witnesses the transformation of the daughter from a happy and carefree child to a deeply traumatized and withdrawn individual. The girl is forced to leave behind everything she knows and loves and is confronted with a new and unfamiliar
The Story of the Vargas Family “Rosa Vargas’ kids are too many and too much. It’s not her fault, you know, except she is their mother and only one against so many” (Cisneros 29). In the novel The House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, touches on the many negative consequences of a single, impoverished mother raising an overwhelming amount of children. Poverty, discrimination, parental and neighborly responsibility, and respect are all issues and social forces that act upon the family; their presence or lack thereof cause several grisly occurrences to take place. Poverty was almost like a curse given to Rosa Vargas by her husband, who “left without even leaving a dollar for bologna or a note explaining how come” (29).
In Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, the character of Mamacita has the strongest ties to her home she left, and perhaps the strongest desire to escape from Mango Street and return home. Mamacita is a woman with a husband and child, who moved to Chicago from a latin american country. She is somewhat overweight, doesn’t know much English, and stays mostly in her apartment for unknown reasons, singing songs from her native country and crying. Her husband fights with Mamacita, often over her desire to return, and her child is becoming assimilated into American society against her will. Because Mamacita has such strong ties to her heritage and origin, she clings to it tightly, resisting assimilation in any way possible, and highlights
These things she would have prevented to do in her homeland (2003: 241). The lack of community did affect Primo’s mother despite her success as she still desired the sense of community that she would have had if she were in Puerto
The Puerto Rico presented in this short story is a one of its class. This is the Island I was born in and the island I Love. The island home of my family, my flourished loves, mi inspirations, my poems, short stories and my life. “Susurros de Mi arrabal” is the way I feel about my own self. That little trait within me that I will never hide.
