What Is Elsa Albo Passage To America

In Elisa Albo’s Passage to America, there are several poems that reveal Albo’s ability to vividly describe her experiences as a Cuban-American who grew up in Lakeland, Florida. Albo’s poems are predominately narratives that involve her family. Additionally, Albo provides a detailed description of her memories as a child. One example of this is found in the poem “The Raison d’Etre Sears,” where Albo shares a story of a typical trip to Sears with her family. Upon reading the first few lines of the poem, it quickly becomes apparent that Albo and her sister enjoyed going to Sears. Albo continues by recounting her satisfying car ride home while snacking on a bag of pistachios. Albo writes: “We drove home too busy to / talk, caught in the rhythm of crack shell nut...” While a significant amount of Albo’s poems narrate events from her childhood, she also writes about experiences with her daughters. In “Little Kids, Little Problems,” Albo shares a narrative of when her daughter was an infant: When she was an infant, her colicky wailing would cease once she was tucked under my arm in body-warmed sheets. Her breathing would grow steady.

Albo writes: “My father says, little kids, little problems; big kids, / big problems.” Shortly after this quote, Albo provides the fact that: “Thirteen million children in the United States live in poverty. / Across the oceans, millions more go hungry each day…” Of course, this brings the validity of the statement “little kids, little problems,” into question. Nevertheless, Albo provides humor in her poem in saying that she will remember this quote after her daughter draws on her living room walls with lipstick. Interestingly, Albo compares her feelings when her daughter climbs onto her bed during a thunderstorm, to her feelings as a child when she saw the ocean for the first