Pat Mora Essay - 1401 Words

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 â€Å"Elena†, â€Å"Sonrisas†, and â€Å"Fences†, Mora gives you a glimpse of what life as a Mexican American is; their hardships, trials, strength that make them who they are. In the poem Elena, Mora describes a woman who is dealing with the hardships of being a Spanish speaker in an English dominant country. The structure of the poem tells three stories: the way life was in†¦show more content†¦She feels ignorant in her own home because she cannot share in her children’s laughter and conversation. To try and get closer to them she buys a book to learn English but only gets ridiculed by her closed-minded husband who disapproves of her knowing anything that he doesn’t. She feels judged on her knowledge of the English language, by not only the outside world, but her family as well. Elena feels overwhelmed but knows that she needs to keep going. When Mora writes, â€Å"†¦if I stop trying, I will be deaf/when my children need my help.†(LI. 21-22), she is metaphorically showing how Elena feels â€Å"deaf†, when she cannot understand what her children are saying. Mora uses â€Å"Elena† to demonstrate the hardships and cultural battle non-English speaking Americans face while raising their children. They feel they have to compete with American customs in order to have a relationship with them. Mora gives the reader plenty of visuals and symbolic meanings that let you see into the mind of Elena and her journey on learning English. The poem â€Å"Sonrisas†, meaning smiles, tells about the many smiles that pe ople wear in their daily lives. Mora gives two parts of this poem that explain the cultural differences in Mexican American’s work life and home life. It gives an insight on how Mexican customs differ with American customs, and how these individuals adjust to living two separate lives while trying to holdShow MoreRelatedMothers and Daughters by Pat Mora614 Words   |  3 PagesThe poem â€Å"Mothers and Daughters† is written by Pat Mora. Pat Mora is a contemporary award winning writer, who writes for children, youngsters and adults. She was born in El Paso, TX in the year 1942. She attains a title of a Hispanic writer; however, the most of her poems are in English. In her literary work, one can observe the different aspects of the immigrants’ lives such as language issues, family relationships, immigrants’ experiences and cultural differences (1187). In the poem, â€Å"MothersRead MorePat Mora - Elena Essay1050 Words   |  5 Pagescapable of understanding the tone from just simply glancing at a few words. The tone is derived from several words and attitudes that the poet conveys to their reader. Poets, Pat Mora and Anthony Grooms, both use tone in their poems, but only one tone changes with the different setting, while the other tone remains constant. In Pat Moras, Elena, the speaker is a Mexican woman who explains how her life has changed due to her and her family moving to the United States. The first line in the poem bringsRead MoreTheme Of Fences By Pat Mora929 Words   |  4 PagesPat Mora’s â€Å"Fences† is a delicate poem that deals with the timely issues of class divide and privilege. She begins her poem on a positive note, saying â€Å"Mouths full of laughter,† which creates this safe and harmless tone. The next line, she uses the word â€Å"turistas,† which is interesting; Mora uses a Spanish word (tourist in English) to indicate possibly the ethnicity of the speaker. It is not until the last few lines of the poem, however, when the reader can also detect the class and likely statusRead MoreAnalysis Of Pat Mora s Fences942 Words   |  4 PagesPat Mora’s â€Å"Fences† deals with the timely issues of class division and privilege. She begins her poem on a positive note, saying â €Å"Mouths full of laughter,† which creates a safe and harmless tone; in the next line, Mora uses the Spanish word ‘turistas’ (tourist in English) to indicate possibly the ethnicity of the speaker. It is not until the last few lines of the poem, however, when the reader can also detect the class and likely status of the speaker, when the speaker’s mother says, â€Å"It’s theirRead MoreComparison Of Curanderos By Rodolfo Anaya And Pat Mora899 Words   |  4 PagesCuranderos by Rodolfo Anaya and Pat Mora A curandero is a Mexican-American folk healer that heals physical, mental, and spiritual illnesses. The folk healer uses prayer, faith, and herbal remedies to heal. People associate repeated healing with healthy relationships between people, culture, and the environment. Mora and Anaya portray the curandera in different and similar ways. The literary works consist of common characteristics and qualities that the curanderos possess irrespective of the differentRead MoreAnalysis Of Pat Mora And Loose Woman By Sandra Cisneros808 Words   |  4 Pages The two poems I chose to analyze were â€Å"Curandera† by Pat Mora and â€Å"Loose Woman† by Sandra Cisneros. They were an interesting read and made sure to reread several times to make sure I got everything I could from them. Both poems are so unique from other poems I have read; they are also unique from each other yet share similarities as well. The first poem â€Å"Curandera† by Pat Mora talks about a woman who lives in her house by herself, presumed by the rest of the town, after her husband was killedRead MoreBackground Difficulties: The Stuggles Faced by Those of Different Backgrounds in Illegal Alien by Pat Mora1154 Words   |  5 Pages â€Å"Background Difficulties† In â€Å"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 â€Å"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 throughRead MorePoems: Where You From? by Gina Valdez, Legal Alien, Elena by Pat Mora, ad Here by Sandra Maria Esteves627 Words   |  3 Pages Where you from? By Gina Valdez, Legal alien, Elena by Pat Mora, and Here by Sandra Maria Esteves are poems that have a similar meaning. This poems are connected by the same problem, can be cultural or language problems that the majority of the immigrants suffer. Every single poem have a different story and characters, but with the same problem. Those poems talked about the borders that the majority of the immigrants have, some of them do not feel identify with their new culture, however, othersRead MoreMost Satisfying Role Essay1658 Words   |  7 PagesPat Mora is a poet, a mother, a wife, a friend, a teacher, and woman who loves nature. She has many roles that fill her life. Much of her poetry addresses the effects that these positions have on her. Everyone in life has to balance the roles they play. Much of the time, these roles can jumble together. Throughout Pat Mora’s poetry, she stresses the importance of discovering one’s identity, one’s true role . Mora tends to explore fundamental questions such as â€Å"Who am I? Who are we?† (OverviewRead MoreTensions Between Mexican And American Cultures1156 Words   |  5 PagesAugust Van Patten Dr. Berglund ENG 245 10 January 2017 â€Å"American†¦But Hyphenated†: Tensions Between Mexican and American Cultures In Pat Mora’s two poems, â€Å"Legal Alien† and â€Å"Immigrants†, she is expressing the crisis of identity from which Mexican Americans suffer. On one hand, Americans view her (and Mexican Americans in general) as â€Å"perhaps exotic, / perhaps inferior, and definitely different† (9-10) while on the other Mexicans view Mexican-Americans as â€Å"alien† (11). Caught in between two cultures