LITR 4333 American Immigrant Literature UHCL 2006 student poetry presentation

Tuesday, 21 February

Poetry reader: Almeta Stonum

Poem: Pat Mora, “Immigrants,” UA 119

Brief Biography: Mora is a Latino native of El Paso, Texas who has written over 25 books for young readers. This award-winning author of poetry and non-fiction stories is the founder of The Family Initiative, an April 30^th celebration linking children to books, language and cultures. In 1986 she received a Kellogg National Fellowship.

Written in third person "Immigrants wrap their babies...feed them...name them..."

2b. Second generation: Viewpoint (standard: the children of immigrants learn English and explore the conflict between ethnic and mainstream identities)

"Wrap their babies in the American Flag, feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie, name the Bill and Daisy..." "Speak to them in thick English..."

Here I like to use the term "enculturation" which is the process of acquiring the characteristics of a given culture and generally becoming competent in its language and ways of behavior and knowing. Multicultural Ed. In a Pluralistic Society, Gollnick & Chinn

2c. Setting: Although they're in America, they're still caught between two worlds Often they suffer discrimination and marginalization by the dominant culture if they change their appearance, and even their names.

"Speak to them in thick English...Whisper in Spanish or Polish when the babies are asleep..."

2d. character by generation: second generation divided between traditional identities of homeland and modern identity of assimilated American.

· Stage 5: Here I think is where the parents try to hold on to or reassert their ethnic identity into the sub-consciousness of their sleeping babies by speaking to them in their native tongues. They want the American Dream, but most of all they want to be accepted as Americans. Can they have the best of both worlds?

I think this poem is about an immigrant family striving for a better future for their children. They do everything they think will make them acceptable in this new country by surrounding them with all the material and cultural traditions of America. In other words, maybe if we dress like them, and take on the same names that they use, they won't be able to weed us out so easily. Will this ensure their acceptance?

1. Is the cost of losing one's own natural heritage a fair exchange for acceptance into another culture?

2. What's the meaning of the phrase, "in a dark parent bed, that dark parent fear?"