LITR 4332 American Minority Literature
Poetry Presentation 2008

Tuesday, 18 November: Bless Me, Ultima

Poetry presentation(s): Pat Mora, “Senora X”

Reader / Discussion Leader: Lorraine Joseph

 

Señora X No More

by Pat Mora

Straight as a nun I sit.
My fingers foolish before paper and pen
hide in my palms. I hear the slow, accented echo
How are yu? I ahm fine. How are yu?
of the other women who clutch notebooks and blush
at their stiff lips resisting
sounds that float graceful as
bubbles from their children's mouths.

My teacher bends over me, gently squeezes
my shoulders, the squeeze I give my sons,
hands louder than words.
She slides her arms around me:
a warm shawl, lifts my left arm
onto the cold, lined paper.

"Señora, don't let it slip away," she says
and opens the ugly, soap-wrinkled fingers of my right hand
with a pen like I pry open the lips of a stubborn grandchild.
My hand cramps around the thin hardness.
"Let it breathe," says this woman who knows

my hand and tongue knot, but she guides
and I dig the tip of my pen into that white.
I carve my crooked name, and again at night
until my hand and arm are sore,
I carve my crooked name,
my name.

 

 

Cultural or Minority-Concept Objectives (1-4)

Historical foundation:

  • The dominant culture of the USA is formed by immigrants and their descendents
    who live or imagine the American Dream.
     
  • Minorities are ethnic groups that do not fit the immigrant narrative or profile,
    for whom  the American Dream has typically been an American Nightmare.
     
  • Our course traces how minority groups both express and transcend this negative definition.
     

  • The ethnic groups that inarguably fit this minority definition are African Americans and American Indians.
     

  • Mexican Americans mix immigrant and minority aspects—

 

Objective 4a. Generally speaking, minority groups place more emphasis on “traditional” or “community” aspects of human society, such as extended families or alternative families, and they mistrust “institutions.” The dominant culture celebrates individuals and nuclear families and identifies more with dominant-cultural institutions or its representatives, like law enforcement officers, teachers, bureaucrats, etc. (Much variation, though.)

 

Objective 6: Minorities and Language . . .

6a. To regard literacy as the primary code of modern existence and a key or path to empowerment.

6b. To emphasize how all speakers and writers use literary devices such as narrative and figures of speech. . . .

6e. To note variations of standard English by minority writers and speakers.

 

Questions:
 
1. In stanza two, what figurative language does the poem use and what does it mean? (Objective 6b)
 
 

2. How do you interpret this poem as either an immigrant or minority experience? (Objectives foundation + 5c)

2a. How do the women and their children resemble an immigrant culture in terms of language acquisition?

2b. What is the significance of literacy for the women in the poem?
 
 

3. How does the poem represent a Mexican American or Hispanic / Latino stepping out of its tradition concerning education? (Objective 4a)