Comparison and contrast “La Migra” and “Poem where no one is deported.”
Pat Mora is the author of “La Migra,” a poet from El Paso, Texas, who writes about life on the Mexican-American border. She is an advocate for multiculturality. José Olivarez is a poet from Chicago. He comes from a Mexican family and enjoys writing about Mexican-American culture in the United States. He wrote, “Poem where no one is Deported.” “La Migra” and “Poem where no one is Deported” discuss illegal migration.
“La Migra,” written in 1993, is a poem composed of two parts. The first part is about a United States Border Patrol officer. He is talking to a woman that is trying to cross the border illegally, and he is showing off his power. He talks about how he has guns and trucks. He is even talking about sexually abusing the woman. In the second part, the Mexican woman speaks. She knows she has the power because she knows the desert. She is not afraid of him!
The “Poem where no one is Deported” is about immigrant women working in a sock factory. They have a strong faith in God. That faith saves them from being deported. They were able to leave the factory before the immigrant officers arrived.
Theme
We have a similar theme in “La Migra” and “Poem where no one is Deported.” However, despite the same theme, we have some differences.
In “La Migra,” the theme is related to women facing migration officers directly. To sustain this point, we have some quotes from the poem. As Pat Mora writes, “Let’s play La Migra. I’ll be the Border Patrol. You be the Mexican maid.” In the “Poem where no one is deported,” the women never face migration officers directly. Jose Olivarez writes, “Now I like to imagine la Migra running into the sock factory where my mom & her friends worked.”
Erika Pinheiro is an attorney in San Diego, California. In her Ted Talk, she talks about how the immigration system at the border has unfair policies, for example, prolonged detention and family separation. There was a story from her talk that I can relate to “La Migra” As Erika Pinheiro states, “Most disturbingly, there is Maria, a pregnant refugee who begged for medical attention for eight hours before she miscarried in CBP custody. CBP officials held her for three more weeks before they sent her back to Mexico.” The connection I see is pain and injustice. The way Maria was treated made her lose her baby. In “La Migra,” the officer also mistreats the woman, but she can defend herself. Maria did not. That is why we need to fight for all migrants.
Conflict.
The conflict in both stories is Man vs Society. According to NowNovel, Man vs. Society conflict “explores how individual people’s deeds, beliefs and desires contradict the social mores surrounding them.”
That is why our characters dream and fight for the American Dream. In our poems, they fought to give their families a better life. However, society goes against them. That is why we see immigration officers trying to deport them.
There are some differences. In “La Migra,” women are not running away from the Border Patrol even though the Border Patrol tells them to run. However, rather than that, they decide to stay and argue with the officer. Arguing will help them achieve the main objective of staying in the country. As the Border Patrol officer states in Pat Mora’s poem, “I have handcuffs. Oh, and a gun. Get ready, get set, run. II Let’s play La Migra You be the Border Patrol. I’ll be the Mexican woman. Your jeep has a flat, and you have been spotted by the sun. All you have is heavy: hat, glasses, badge, shoes, gun.”
In the “Poem where no one is deported,” the women ran away even before the Border Patrol came. Jose Olivarez notes in his poem “so when the immigration officers arrived, they found boxes of socks & all the women absent. safe at home.”
The source I chose for this element is about the fire that killed 39 migrants in Juarez City. I chose it because it is clear evidence of the conflict between Man vs Society. Immigrants do not want to be deported, and the version is that they were protesting against deportation, and the fire started. Mexican president Lopez Obrador said: “They found out they were going to be deported and responded, in protest, by putting mattresses at the door of the shelter and setting them on fire, without imagining that it was going to cause this terrible misfortune.” Unfortunately, society was not there to save them. No one stopped the fire. Now they are not here, and we miss their existence. They wanted to stay in Mexico and protested, but they ended up dying.
Point of view
In Literature, point of view is who is telling the story to whom. There are three kinds of points of view: first person, second person, and third person.
The point of view in“La Migra” is first person. This is because it is a conversation between two persons and what is happening. “Poem where no one is deported” is first-person because the narrator tells a story that he is part of.
When reading “La Migra” and “Poem where no one is Deported.” I enjoyed seeing how women are empowered. In “La Migra,” our main character, the woman, is unafraid of the officer. She is fearless. She does not need man’s validation or protection; she has God and nature on her side. This makes me remember a song by Mon Laferte and Vivir Quintana singers. The name of this song is Canción sin Miedo. It talks about the movement that occurred after many femicides in Latin America. It represents women speaking up, but this time with no fear. Just as our main character in “La Migra” did.
Pat Mora writes, “ I know this desert, where to rest, where to drink. Oh, I am not alone. You hear us singing and laughing with the wind, Agua dulce brota aqui, aqui, aqui, but since you can’t speak Spanish, you do not understand. Get ready.”
Also, not only our main character in “La Migra” was fearless, but also all the women from the other poem. In “Poem where no one is deported,” the women bravely ran away from the border patrol to protect their families.
And as Jose Olivarez writes in his poem, “women who braided each other’s hair during breaks. women who wore rosaries, & never had a hair out of place. women who were ready for cameras or for God.”
Of course, there are some differences; in La Migra, our woman is powerful because of the power of nature, and in “Poem where no one is deported,” they are powerful because of God and because their motivation was different from connecting with nature. Their motivation was more related to being in front of cameras and beauty.
Conclusion
In conclusion, “La Migra” by Pat Mora and “Poem where no one is deported” by Jose Olivarez both have similarities in their elements and differences between them. We have the same theme in both stories, immigration and trying to provide for your family. Also, we have the same conflict Man vs Society. Furthermore, we have the same Point of View. Some of the differences we see are that in “La Migra,” the woman faces the Customs Border Patrol agents directly, as opposed to the “Poem where no one is deported,” where they never meet. Also, they have different motivations. In “La Migra,” our woman has the power of nature. In “Poem where no one is deported,” they are powerful because of God. The message I get from both poems is that we can fight to give a better life to our families. We are all-powerful. It does not matter what the circumstances are. We can fight and survive. Faith is essential to overcome obstacles. Moreover, the most important message is that all humans deserve a good life with immigration rights.
