“La Migra” and “Mexican American Obituary”
Jose Olivarez “Mexican American Obituary” and Pat Mora’s “La Migra” are two poems that have some similarities as well as some differences. Both poems, display law enforcement officers abusing their status in order to incite abuse which should not be the case, yet seemingly inevitable. It is also seen in Olivarez’s “Mexican American Obituary” that the government abuses the power they have versus in “La Migra,’’ it is in two different points of view, one from the Border Patrol and the other one from the Mexican woman, as this is described like a game. In the Border Patrol side, Mora goes on to write about how he is seeing himself and what he is thinking and in the Mexican woman side the attitude changes, the woman becomes strong as in the border patrol’s side she is described as weak. In “Mexican American Obituary,” the author describes how Mexican Americans and Black people end up dying at one point even if they had good lives, as we see in the poem it shows how it does not matter how hard they work for what they have, what is seen is only their race and color.
Abuse of Power and Brutality
Both poems have a similar yet different perspectives of what abusing one’s power and brutality look like. In “Mexican American Obituary,” shows the abuse of power within the government, “Juan, Lupe, Lorena dies this way, too, silently / while trump won the presidency & the police / kept killing their Black neighbors & relatives” (Olivarez 4–6), in this lines the author shows here how everyone was so focused on what was going on with the president that they turned their eyes away from what is really happening. In “La Migra,” we see more of the law enforcement abuse and brutality, “I get the badge and sunglasses. / You can hide and run, / but you can’t get away”(Mora 4–6), here the Border Patrol man is bragging how he has a badge and you can’t get away from him. The man thinks that having a badge is a way to fear him because he has greater power. In one of the poems, we see how the brutality that is shown is not as bad as the other poem, in “La Migra,” it is shown that the man with the badge is showing mild abuse towards the woman, “I can touch you wherever / I want but don’t complain / too much because I’ve got / boots and kick — if I have to” (Mora 12–15), it is not as brutal as how is described in “Mexican American Obituary” where they literally talked about people been killed.
Therefore, we can see in this article from The Atlantic that the president is approving of violence. We see how Trump uses social media to promote violence in the situation that was going on. The article states “There’s his famous ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts”-a statement so incendiary that it forced Twitter to, for the first time ever, flag the president’s tweet for “glorifying violence.”.” As a president instead of him trying to make us fear him, we supposed to be able to trust him and feel safe.
Setting
Each poem is set in a different setting which this is where we encounter a difference in the poems, in Pat’s “La Migra” takes place in the desert, meanwhile in Olivarez’s “Mexican American Obituary” takes place in a neighborhood. In “La Migra,” the author does not describe the desert in detail; rather she goes on to write “I know this desert, / where to rest, / where to drink” (Mora 9–11), it is a desert like shown in the picture above, deserts that Mexican’s become to know. Also, at the beginning of the poem it says “and you have been spotted / by the sun” (Mora4–5), there is no way to hide if everything is bright. She does not give detail of the setting but rather she gives words that help set the mood to picture the desert. In Petri’s “Mexican American Obituary,” the poem takes place in a neighborhood while trump was taking his place as the new president. Olivarez sets the mood of the poem by describing scenarios of how these people died while it is also describe that they live in a good neighborhood, “Kept killing their black neighbors & relatives. / Juan died saying it was none of his business./ Lupe died believing their degrees would save them” (Olivarez6–8), the way this was written it shows and let’s you picture how hard they worked to be something in life but at the end that does not matter.
Difference of Imagery
In both poems, we encountered a difference of imagery, which can be seen in “La Migra,” when the author writes, “You hear us singing/ and laughing in the wind,” (Mora 13–14). The way the author wrote this, lets you visualize the woman and her people happily singing regardless of the situation they are in. You can see the confidence of the people, how they know that they have each other and they are not alone. This imagery is represented by the word singing. In “Mexican American Obituary,” the way the imagery is represented is by a plea that says, “Juan, Lupe, Lorena all died yesterday today / & will die again tomorrow / asking Black people to die more quietly, / asking white people not to turn the gun on us” (Olivarez 11–14), we see here how this is also a plead to not target them, a plead for peace, and be treated as equal.
In the video below Imagery in Poetry it states that “ Writer’s use imagery to convey feelings that are often difficult to describe in mere words,” and by this we are able to understand the story better. It is also very important because we are able to connect with the feelings the writer is trying to portray and this is done in different ways, it could merely be with a word or a description.
We see that in both poems there are some similarities on how no matter what the setting is there is one thing that is presented and that is abuse of status. Instead of people feeling safe and thinking they could trust the people who are supposed to protect them, they fear them.
