The Power of Hope Gary Soto brings the impoverished, crime filled streets of the Mexican-American communities where he grew up to life by “evoking the harsh forces that often shape the life for Chicanos” (“‘Gary Soto’: Poetry Foundation” p. 1). He combines an archetypal young love poem with the concept of poverty to create the powerful poem: “Oranges” (1985). Soto also works with the notion of old age and the importance of life in his somber poem: “The Seventieth Year” (1986). Finally, he portrays the result of a young death through the affected family’s mourning in the solemn poem: “Avocado Lake” (1975). Through the use of powerful imagery, precise descriptions, and free verse poetry, Gary Soto’s poems evoke a sense of sympathy for the underprivileged Mexican-American community where he grew up, while telling a beautiful story. Gary Soto illustrates his unfortunate childhood realities through powerful …show more content…
Look at the back garden- Already the flower beds Brim with summer weeds And ants unravel From their dark holes in the trees (ll. 23-28) The speaker uses similes when he finally suggests that his grandpa reunite with his children who are waiting for him outside. The speaker discloses that his children have been “gathered like a small cloud [and have become] . . . steam weeping on the window” (ll. 32-35). The speaker uses this final comparison of his children to weeping clouds to convince his grandpa that his life is not irredeemable and his presence is still needed in this world. In conclusion, through Gary Soto’s usage of powerful imagery, precise descriptions, and an absence of rhythm, he evokes a sense of sympathy for the community where he grew up while telling a beautiful story. “Oranges,” “The Seventieth Year,” and “Avocado Lake,” showcase Soto’s ability to move a reader using an emotional story without the use of rhyme or rhythm. Through Soto’s poetry, he indicates the traits that define Mexican-American community
In the poem, All The Dead Boys Look Like Me, Christopher or Loma Soto uses literary devices to develop the theme of feeling hopeless because people like you are hopeless. The speaker of the poem is a queer person of color. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker states “Last time I saw myself die is when the police killed Jessie Hernandez/ A 17 year old brown queer// who was sleeping in their car.” Soto uses a metaphor comparing the speaker to Jessie Hernandez because they are a part of the same community. Jessie Hernandez was shot due to their identity, which helps illustrate how the entire community is targeted when one person is making it difficult for most to believe they have a future.
In the poem “Green Chili” by Jimmy Santiago Baca the author shows us how he uses culture, identity and family to describe the poems importance to him. The way Baca uses culture is by stating that New Mexico is full of green and red chili. He also uses culture by naming all of the foods that are most commonly eaten in New Mexico. How Baca uses identity to describe the poems importance is by describing the tanned New Mexicans and his grandmother's appearance over the stove. He als
This collection of short stories focus a lot on things like, sexuality, family, the American Dream and belonging woven together by the story of a young immigrant man and his family. The author of this book, Junot Diaz, is an important figure in the writing
The transformation of Olvera Street into a colorful tourist site attempted to hide its historical realities. When exiled Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueros was commissioned to paint a mural, expectations were of an exotic jungle scene. However, when the mural was unveiled “all anticipations of an artwork depicting Southern California as an idyllic land of perpetual sunshine, the missions, and the open shop were instantly shattered.” Ameríca Tropical instead depicted the scene of a crucified Indian amid fallen pyramids, armed revolutionaries, and a bald eagle symbolizing Yankee imperialism. Estrada points out that Ameríca Tropical serves to explain how underlying forms of protest can clarify our understanding of the Plaza as an arena for the continued fight over historical narratives.
At the very core of humanity and its behavior lies mistakes and wrongdoings. No matter how intensively they may try to stay faithful, every person occasionally betrays their moral conscience. This trespass has been interpreted in countless forms of literature and media ever since the written and verbal word has existed. Gary Soto’s A Summer Life is a powerful example, using diverse forms of rhetoric to convey his cycle of initial pleasure, guilt, and eventual remorse over the measures taken place in the autobiographical narrative.
The persona presented is one of a mother of a family who has immigrated to the United States of America, and is slowly losing the ability to talk to her children in Spanish. Pat Mora uses this in order to display the feeling of isolation among someone who can not find a way to communicate with others. So, her use of this persona can allow readers to understand exactly what is trying to be expressed. Similarly, Richard Blanco writes the speaker of his poem “Queer Theory: According to my Grandmother” as recalling the many statements that his grandma states to him.
Life is more of a story of our struggles and recollections for our past. In the midst of Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “XX,” the poem bares great significance to the imperfections of life and how our contributions to our past affect the outcome of the future. Life is a game were there is a winner and loser and to win the game one must display certain attributes in order to survive. Santiago’s poem reiterates the attributes that are being depicted through the viejos which are death, honor, and freedom.
But it is too difficult to place a poetry manuscript, and “it’s difficult to have a poetry book widely read by any age group. To be honest, it’s usually hard enough for a Latina to have a manuscript accepted without that added fiction-in-poetry hurdle. (24) Larson’s next question is “Is there a poem by someone else that you wish you had written?” Mora explains that there are many poems she wished she written her book Adobe Odes (2006) was inspired by Pablo Neruda a Chilean Poet who happened to be a Nobel Prize winner. She also explains writing for various genres makes her want to write more “Writing for children, teens, and adults and writing in various genres means I’m longing daily to write more and better in many formats.”
To many people “I am Joaquin” is more than just an epic poem, it is the anthem of the Chicano movement which embodies our peoples struggles and culture. What made the work become the Chicano Movements anthem is the fact that it is a piece that seems to evaluate the Chicanos and their history from the good to the bad. It also seems to emphasize the Chicanos search and struggle for identity starting from the beginning of the Spanish conquest to our modern times. Basically this poem has become such an iconic work because it attempts and succeeds in encompassing as much Chicano history into it and makes no bias choice as it has both positive historical moments and negative, but they all tie back to Chicanos and their history. One of the main aspect that makes “I am Joaquin” an interesting piece of work and an icon for the Chicano movement is how the work seems to
In Rodolfo Gonzales' poem “I am Joaquin”, Gonazales writes to raise awareness of the struggles of Chicano people during the Chicano movement in the 1960s. He discusses the issues that have ceased the Chicano people from earning equality in America. Throughout the poem, Gonzales’ uses the tactic of comparing opposing objects through extended metaphors to illustrate that he is both the oppressor and the oppressed. On many occasions you can see Gonzales’ using the technique of repetition and extended metaphors to solidify the fact that as a Chicano man he is both the oppressor and the oppressed.
Cofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.
Octavio Paz, a Mexican poet and essayist, is one of the many philosophers with a written piece regarding his understanding of Lo Mexicano. Paz’s “Sons of La Malinche” was first published in the Labyrinth of Solitude in 1950 and is a rather grim interpretation of the Mexican character, however, it captures the crisis of identity that Mexico was burdened with after the conquest. Paz uses the Spanish term “chingar,” (when literally translated means “to screw, to violate”) and its associated phrases to understand the conquest and the effect
Wallace Stegner composes this short story with chains of metaphors and imagery. His words paints an breathtaking image in our minds. Stegner utilizes these imageries to explain to us why this moment impacted him so much. As a prairie child his life has been filled with flatland and drylands. The narrators life correlates with where he has been raised, like a flatland his life has been plain and boring.
In the poem “To live in the Borderlands means you”, the borderlands become a place of change, such as changing from just one culture or race into a diverse culture or race and not-belonging. (Singh, A., & Schmidt, P. 2000). The poem describes how the author’s own background ethnicity people, mixicanas, identifies people like her, chicanas, as “split or mixture that means to betray your word and they deny “Anlo inside you.” (Anzaldua, F. 1987). The poem describes that the borderland is a place of contradiction, such as of home not being a home.
This poem is about a Mexican-American speaker informing the reader about the struggles in which people from different ethnic backgrounds