Reader: Jody Newmann
Respondent: Kate Payne

 “Elena”

By Pat Mora

Unsettling America, page 11  

Background info: Pat Mora is a passionate writer who evokes a lot of emotion in her writing.  She is the mother of three children, graduated from Texas Western and got her masters from the University of El Paso, where she pursued a teaching career. She writes poetry, short stories and novels.  I did find it interesting that though she is fluent in both Spanish and English her children are only fluent in English.  Pat Mora said that even though she is fluent in both languages she could express herself better in English.  The idea of expressing yourself better in English than Spanish interested me because the  Spanish language has more emotion which would seem to give an evocative appeal for poetry.

 Objective: 3c Mexican American narrative: “ The Ambivalent Minority” because the mother is definitely having mixed feelings about her children’s assimilation into the dominant culture.  On one hand she wants them to grow up and be successful but on the other she is feeling like they are leaving her behind.

Objective 5a To discover the power of poetry and fiction to help “others” hear the minority voice and vicariously share the minority experience.  This objective is relevant because the mother’s pain is expressed to vividly you can actually get a mental picture of a mother watching her children and not being able to interact with them.

Objective 5d To regard literacy as the primary code of modern existence and a key or path to empowerment.  This objective relates to the children in the poem, the mother wants to empower her children by sending them to school to become literate within the dominant culture so they can succeed.

Interpretation: I feel that the mother in the poem can relate to the idea of the double minority ex. Minority women have the basic struggle of being a woman, and all that that in tales in society with the minority struggle.  Elena in the poem already is dealing with the typical motherly feelings of her children growing up and not needing her like they did when they were children combined with the loss of communication due to assimilation of the dominant’s language English culture into her family.

By Elena buying a book to learn English she is further isolating herself from her children, because to study she had to go to the restroom to get peace and quiet so she can learn the words when she could be interacting with her children and learning with them but she feels too embarrassed because she fumbles over words.

Claudine Favorita made an interesting observation when presenting this poem last year. She said that Mora includes the Spanish phrases in the poem to allow the English readers to feel how Elena feels when she fumbles over words.

Question 1: Why do you think she included the line about her husband frowning and drinking beer then doesn’t refer to him again?

Question 2: Is the mother a traditional mom?         

(no recorder notes provided)