by Andrew Perez
When Zamora performs his poetry orally, he brings home with him. The word “coyotes” in “Second Attempt Crossing” is defined and spoken differently on each side of the US-Mexican border. Coyotes could be taken as its linguistic representation of the animal, but this would be an analysis limited by a non-migrant perspective: Zamora’s pronunciation of “koi-oh-tez” and its cultural reference to border traffickers does not manifest in text like it does in oral recitation. These changes in meaning, coupled with the differing pronunciations between languages, demonstrate how performance ties poetry back to the physical and cultural experiences of the poet. The Spanish dialogue and terms in Zamora’s poem follow this same pattern: they are said in the native tongue of Zamora’s home, and thus take on an individual cadence and significance that is unique to him and his cultural experiences. Phrases like “pará por favor” cannot possess the same meaning when recited from a non-immigrant speaker.
The question of who is permitted perform and consume what in poetry is a nuanced problem in all works that cross borders. Zamora’s poetry, is not, and should not be for everyone. Chino, to whom the poem is dedicated, is an informal Spanish term of endearment for friends or children. He positions his gang-affiliated guardian against “La Migra” and their “white trucks” by manipulating pronunciation to delineate linguistic exclusion. By only writing certain portions of the poem in another language, Zamora inverts the otherness ascribed to him by American society. Key cultural information, which is familiar and easily understood by Spanish speakers, is wholly unavailable to English-only speakers which oppress and threaten the undocumented existence. For documented readers who have only known citizenship for the entirety of their lives, the Spanish portions of this poem can only be half-consumed through dictionaries and inference.
Introduction to Poetry 