Struggles

The poem I chose is “To Abuelita Neli.” This poem shows the difficulties immigrants have to deal with. We can see how much trouble Zamora went through crossing the borders and surviving. He explains the struggles he is having from being in the US to his Abuelita who is in Mexico. 

We know this poem is from around 2009 since he mentions in the poem that “today, this country chose its first black president,” who was Barack Obama. He starts off the poem by saying how many times he had to make fake passports to keep moving around the US and lying about his birthplace in order to hide. He does apologize for lying about his birthplace because it would seem disrespectful. In line 5, he italicized “choose” to emphasize that he doesn’t want to have a choice in marrying. I took that in two different ways: (1) he wasn’t given many opportunities so he doesn’t want to have this choice as well or (2) in the US, it is normal for people to choose who they marry and not do an arranged marriage, so he is following that tradition. He explains to his Abuelita that he can’t go back home because he can’t cross the border. He has already made so many fake passports that he won’t have the opportunity to get papers. He compares himself to a parakeet which are considered small and vulnerable birds. Zamora sees himself vulnerable in a world with so many opportunities that he isn’t allowed to have. Line 8 would be a metaphor since he is comparing himself to a parakeet but he isn’t using any similes. 

Not only does he explain his struggles, we also know that his parents were already across the border before he turned one. In line 11-12, he states how Abuelita and him both celebrated his birthday without his parents. He states that he can’t be a citizen because he can’t get papers which he stated in lines 6-7. He also states how he won’t have to be working anymore since he is hidden in the US away from border control. He ends the poem telling Abuelita that his friends don’t know the real truth about him being in the US. They see him as a traitor and he compares himself to a coconut, which is a metaphor. A coconut has two sides, brown on the outside and white inside. White would be considered as Americans and brown would be referring to the immigrants. His friends claim that he is lying about considering himself still benign one of his family, but since he left and won’t come back, they see him as an American.

Javier Zamora pointed out a lot of the struggles he went through by explaining the issues in hiding and being stuck in the US. He states that he feels vulnerable and small in a big world. He apologizes for not being able to come back and that he isn’t a traitor to his family. For the question directed to the poet: I noticed that in most of your poems, you always add spanish words/phrases in them. Why do you like to mix up the languages in your poem?

Gurranvir Kaur

The Betrayal of Mangos

Throughout this poem, there is the constant comparison between family members and the author in actions that can be done. At first I thought of these comparisons as just simple thoughts, but as I got further one question began to linger, that being is the comparison an outlet for his emotions. The manner in which the pooem is written starts off with proper grammar, but after the second stanza one can see enjambment become the main style of writing. This change in writing style can be a reflection of his emotions getting to him as no longer is there a care for rules, but rather a need to express takes over. This can be seen in how he calmly compares himself to his mother, he does so in a methodical way, in which technique is described, however the moment he compares himself to his father, the methodical nature disappears and is substituted with the actions of a child. This change in nature is what sets up for the emotional ride which this poem begins to esablish, since as the poem progresses the speed at which one reads also quickens. This increase in speed mimics the manner in which kids begin to hyperventilate right before crying. The speed is interrupted with the pause of a dash, just to deliver the line “lie to me. So I can go back” which further cemented the idea that this poem is not just simply writing, but rather a manner in which the speaker can transcend the physical distance that separates him from his motherland. However, as much as he wishes, he will never be able to stop the “mangos from falling six meters down, to where dogs lick what my aunts, Mom, Dad, and I cannot.”

Isaac Ruiz

The main question that I have about your poems would be, do the poems serve as almost like eulogies for the events that you have lived through, since many poems seem to have somber tones such as that of Second Attempt Crossing and Montage with Mangoes, Volcano, and Flooded Streets.

Dehumanizing humans

The poem “Second Attempt Crossing”, by Javier Zamora is a beautiful poem that through the use of imagery, describes a traumatic moment in his life. Javier at nine years old had to cross the border to get to his family in the U.S. Yet, this process to cross withholds so many dangers to anyone who crosses it in hopes for a better life. Throughout history in the U.S. people who have migrated here from many other countries have been subjugated to discrimination and dehumanization. They have been dehumanized all for the dream of giving their families a better life. Which in all makes no sense since these lands belong to Native Americans who lived here first, therefore why are these white people deciding who belongs where? Why do they hold the power to place immigrants where they please or deem fitting? Yet, Javier through his poems writes the truth about these “animals” that protect each other when crossing from the gringos who are trying to shoot them. La Migra for years has hunted and abused their power when trying to obey the laws and not let people cross into the states. They do this by shooting, killing, raping, and trafficking these immigrants. They feel the need to dehumanize a person because of where they come from, how they look and speak. In recent news, my blood boiled to hear that in 2023 an eight-year-old little girl was found at the border with 67 DNA inside her from being raped. Yet no further investigation has been continued or outed to the public who rages alongside me. Since most evidence points out that she was raped by border control workers, most of them are filth, scum of the earth. Just as Javier describes his personal experience of being threatened to be shot by a border control worker. He at the same time grieves for his friend Chino who protected him from that shooting.

 Chino was a man who was affiliated with a well-known gang in San Salvador that reached into the states, mainly in the Los Angeles area. Chino being labeled by the rest of the world as a criminal, still risked his life in saving a child with his body as a shield for Javier to live. Yes, he was a criminal, and who knows what he did, which is why I won’t justify or glorify his actions. Yet, Chino still risked his life for a child whom he had never known, and for that, he became a hero for Javier. Therefore, a question that I have for Javier is, who is the audience that you want to reach with your poems? Reading his bibliography, he talks about the identity struggles of being a Mexican American. Yet, these poems switch from Spanish to the English language making it difficult for non-Spanish speakers to understand. Especially when Latino Spanish is not “proper” Spanish to the rest of the world. Therefore, that makes it difficult for English speakers to try to understand the point that he is trying to get across. His point being that immigrants are no less than any other human in this world, given the label that they’ve been put under, they will still overcome any form of discrimination. They surpass this because of the camaraderie and union within our races to help one another. They are humans and even with all the oppression they face, it is up to us, their offspring, to spread awareness. To rise further than the goals that white Americans have for us, surpass them, and bring equality to ALL immigrants from ALL countries.

~ Jeshua Rocha

Shut up, Child.

The poem that I found interesting by Javier Zamora is titled “How I Learned to Walk”.
The poem begins with the Spanish word “cállate” which means shut up or be quiet. This sets the tone and establishes that the poem will be provocative for the speaker. At first, I thought the poem might be from the perspective of a dog because of the line, “I piss in the corner,” (line 4). However, the speaker then says he would, “fling rocks / at bats hanging midway up almond trees,” (lines 6-7). So, the speaker must be a young child because hitting animals with rocks and doing impulsive things is something I associate with childhood, especially boyhood. With context, I know this poem’s speaker must be the child version of the poet. I believe there is a tone shift within the poem. It begins with a child remembering their father and the childhood they had. However, it transitions into an adult speaker wondering who their father was and what he was like. The speaker says, “When I clutch my pillows, I think of him. If he sleeps / facedown like I do,” (line 13). This line struck me because clutching something in your sleep means you are stressed, scared, or angry. It is not a positive action. Therefore, the speaker must feel distressed over the questions he has about his dad. He wants to know who he was and in a way, he wants to know more about himself. It must be frustrating for the speaker to have certain traits and wonder if they are his alone or something that was passed to him by his family.

My question: You use “cállate” twice within the poem, but the second usage seemed out of place. What was the intention behind using this word? Was it meant to be an internal thought of the speaker or a way to break the 4th-wall and reach the reader beyond the poem?

By: Tierney Bowden

A great distance

When reading through the various works within Javier Zamora’s Unaccompanied poetry collection the work that held the most impact on me was his poem titled: Then, it Was So. My attention was captivated by the first stanza. “To tell you I was leaving” (Line 1) At first we wonder where it is this character is leaving to, but quickly realize with the context of his other works that this is likely someone preparing for their trip across the border. The character deals with the many anxieties that come with such a dangerous and risky trip. Within the second stanza, we see the longing that leaving your home country causes. While many do seek and receive a better life within the States, it’s hard to say if those benefits outweigh the distance one is from their family. “That dawn, I needed to say / you remind me of my father” (Lines 23-24) This stanza really shows the trend within Hispanic families and the common immigration towards the United States. Highlighting the effect it has on the family that’s left behind, but ultimately becoming a realization point when one recognizes that they too must make the same decision. Javier Zamora’s Then, it Was So showcases the story and struggle shared by many Hispanic families. Giving recognition to the often ignored heavy sacrifices made by these families. The process of immigration is often belittled, but Zamora makes sure that readers are made aware of the various aspects within. The grief and longing caused by the great separation, the danger and risk of the treacherous journey through the grueling and unforgiving desert. As well as the constant fear of having all that sacrifice and work be negated through an unfortunate encounter with I.C.E 

My question is: within the final stanza of this poem, you use an unemptied “Bucket of mosquitoes” as imagery for leaving, why this specific item?

– Eduardo Ojeda Jr

Gun Violence: A Deadly Dance

In Javier Zamora’s poem, “Dancing in Buses”, the enjambment and repetition within the lines create a rhythm fitting for a dance, but the speaker uses these poetic devices to highlight the frequent violence that surrounds them. The poem situation is a person in a bus dancing with moves that are inspired by hispanic culture. A shooting interrupts this dance, and the person hides under a bus seat for protection. Specifically, the speaker tells their audience to “Do the Pupusa- / Clap — finger dough clumps. Clap. / Do the Horchata-Scoop — / your hand’s a ladle, scoop” (lines 12-15). Enjambment connects each line to the next so they flow together the way music does. The pupusa and horchata connect the dance to El Salvador (as well as Spain and Latin America). When people do this dance, their limbs embody these hispanic experiences. The repetition of “clap” and “scoop” adds more rhythm to the lines and emphasizes the connection between the dance moves and foods. The scooping literally mimics the motion of using a ladle. 

Enjambment and repetition are absent in the second stanza. The speaker adopts a more direct, serious tone. By this point, the speaker abandons the rhythm of the previous dance and gives their audience clear instructions like “Drop down. / Look at the ground.” (lines 21-22). The periods at the end of these directions stand out due to the lack of enjambment. These lines have a staccato rhythm due to the punctuation and lack of repetition. Life is drained from this stanza because the words visually and audibly have no more movement. The directions, “Roll over. / Face the mouth of the barrel. / Do the protect-face-with-hand” (lines 23-25) are abrupt in comparison to the flow of the previous stanza. However, the speaker still connects these instructions to the previous dance with the “protect-face” move that is hyphenated as if it is the stomp-and-twist or any ordinary dance move (instead of a precaution in the face of danger). Ultimately, the second stanza is still part of the dance because these are moves that the speaker knows equally well due to their previous experiences with guns. The shooting crosses over from being a disruption to being part of life. The speaker’s fear is evident as they tell their audience “don’t breathe” and “Don’t scream” (lines 19 and 26). These directions contrast the beginning of the poem because the speaker is telling the audience not to do something for the first time. The speaker and audience must fight against natural instincts if they want to survive.

Question for Javier Zamora: How did you decide where to end the enjambment within “Dancing in Buses”? Why not stop the enjambment when the shooting first begins?

~Miki Chroust

Adopted Country

The poem that stood out to me the most was, Citizenship. Javier Zamora’s poem explores the sense of belonging as well as undocumented immigrants. Zamora starts the poem off by describing his early memories of crossing the border with his mom and siblings. As well as the sense of foreboding that accompanied their journey. The repetition of “we shook” emphasizes the physical and emotional toll of the journey and the term “dared” can imply a certain recklessness or defiance in the face of danger. 

As the poem continues Zamora reflects on the contradictory nature of his identity, he talks about the feeling between both worlds. Firstly being unable to belong in either his ancestral home or his “adopted” country. The imagery that is used is evocative as Zamora describes the way that they “see through mud and steel” and “gather food like horses”, which can suggest animalistic quality to the immigrant experience. Throughout the poem, Zamora emphasizes recurring motifs and symbols, including fences, water, and fire. These images are used to emphasize the stress in the relationship between immigrants as well as the society that they’d like to join. It appears that water signifies both the treacherous journey of migration as well as the difficult process of fully understanding the ideas. Fire can symbolize destruction and renewal, suggesting a more transformative power in the immigrant experience. 

My question for Zamora is how do you keep connecting with your culture even though you’re in America as well if it is something that you struggle with what do you do to help adjust?

Yue Wu-Jamison

The jouney has just begun

In Cassette Tape, This poem is about starting  his journey to cross Mexico to get to Oaxaca. It leads to talking about the conditions ut was ike traveling such length and how they were betrayed by a setup ambush causing them to get robbed and without money it made the journey even harder and had to search for another option until they found one. There is some sort of shift in the poem and talks about the people hes leaving behind but also the people that let him behind and saying farewells to some family members. This seems to be some sort of back and fourth in his mind based on deciding what deacisons he should take like marry for papers. This poem goes back again into the past before he had started his journey of crossing and nervous to even go but since his parents had already set it up he had to go despite just wanting to rest. The next part of this poem is him saying he knows that everyone is sayin he dosent need much but he wishes he could have things that provided him confort but hes told he needs just enough to survive. Shedding light on all the death aroind him and the way he could get killed just by having a tatoo or being percieved in a certain way but despite it all just waiting to get to his parents. The poem again fast forwards anf hes home with his parents while they apologize for leaving him behind while leading to the reuinion.

My question is do the >>> and <<< signifify gooing from the past to present and was it hard for you to forgive your parents for leaving and were you able to visit your ffamily memebers that did not travel with you?

Victoria Sasere

Conflicting Emotions

To Abuelita Neli by Javier Zamora is a poem of conflicting emotions. The poem is written as though the speaker is addressing his grandma. He tells her he is homesick. That he presses roses in “fake passports for each year [he] hasn’t climbed maranon trees” (Zamora). These trees are native to South America. It can be inferred the speaker is from South America as well. It is interesting how he connects trees to his home. But climbing trees is something a child does, so perhaps the only memories he has of home are of when he was a child. Pressing the roses into; fake passports suggest the speaker’s inability to go home; passports give one the ability to go from one place to another. The next line, the speaker apologizes to his grandma for “lying about where [he] was born” (Zamora). So, while the speaker feels homesick, he also lies about where he is from. Maybe he does it to fit in and is ashamed of his actions which explains why he feels the need to apologize. He knows it isn’t right, but he does it anyway because he is desperate to belong. It is not that he does not want to go home but that he cannot go home. He says he can’t “go back and return. There’s no path to papers” (Zamora). He is not a citizen. If he leaves, he will not be able to come back to America and as much as he is homesick, he wants to return. And despite sacrificing going home to stay in America, he knows he will “never be a citizen” (Zamora). It’s a hopeless situation and is heart-breaking too because he misses home, but he also wants to make a home in America. He expresses frustration with his friends back home who call him a coconut, because he is “brown on the outside, white inside” (Zamora). He looks the same as them, but because he has lived in America for so long, he is more similar to the white people in America, than he is to them. In the last line, the speaker says they do not know shit, and here is where his frustration seeps out. He sees himself as Latino. He is Latino. But because he has spent more time in America than in South America, his identity is being questioned. Invalidated even. Throughout the poem, the speaker expresses a mixture of emotions he feels on the daily from being away from home.

My question to Zamora is how do you stay connected to your culture while living in America? A place where many feel pressured to reject their cultures and assimilate in order to feel like they belong.

Bella Cortez

Survival Instincts

One of Javier Zamora’s poems that stood out to me was called Saguaros. Saguaros are cactus that are native to the United States and Mexico. The cactus also blossoms many white flowers and tends to only open up for pollination for 24 hours. Furthermore, I thought this poem portrayed challenges that Zamora was experiencing through his journey of crossing the US Border, most importantly survival instincts. On the first and second lines it first describes the sky in a settling night, it states, “It was dusk for kilometers and bats in the lavender sky, like spiders when a fly is caught, began to appear.” These two lines were referring to bats as being compared to spiders catching their prey. In other words, the sky was very captivating in the many shades of purple that the sky had suddenly appeared in that shade. On the third and fourth lines it states, “And there, not the promised land, but barbwire and barbwire with nothing growing under it. I tried to fly that dusk,” in which the poet is referring to the USA as the “promised land”. In addition, barbwires were used repeatedly onto the same line to add emphasis on the obstacle at hand, that is the border’s hostility. 

To add on, up to these couple of lines, I noticed the syntax the poet had used, there were many indents that indicated pausing to really grasp the reader’s attention and focusing on the poet’s challenges. For example, lines five through eight are in continuation on line four, it states “after a bat said la sangre del saguaro nos seduce. Sometimes I wake and my throat is dry, so I drive to botanical gardens to search for red fruit clutched to saguaros, the ones at dusk I threw rocks at for the sake of slashing hunger” (5-8). “La sangre del saguaro nos seduce” is translated to “The saguaro’s blood seduces us” in which this particular bat can speak such words as a predatory instinct, describing the red fruit as blood. Aside from this, I had also done some research and found out that botanical gardens are, I believe, located in Arizona which is a desert full of plants and wildlife. Furthermore, the poet is faced with an issue of extreme thirst that he admits throwing rocks at saguaros out of starvation. I certainly could not imagine how brutal the conditions of health had impacted someone, especially a nine year old boy, having to face many obstacles, risking his life to make a better one out of it. In addition it states, “for water, then spotlights drove me and thirty others dashing into palos verdes, green-striped trucks surrounded us” (13-4). Zamora, along with many others, had little to do with the consumption of water from the saguaro, spotlights had evaded, which can be symbolized as la migra. I thought that the survival instinct in these lines demonstrates that food and water became almost unimportant at that moment, running away became a necessity in order to get to the promised land. 

Question for Javier Zamora: Does the structures of your poems have a significant influence on the poems’ meanings?

Celeste Tejeda-Menera