Adela Najarro

Photo from Najarro's Blog Profile

Adela Najarro’s family emigrated from Nicaragua starting in the 1940’s and concluded in the 1980’s.  From what I understand, she is a second or third generation immigrant and was born in the United States.  Her family immigrated and settled in some settled in San Francisco and some in Los Angeles.  Najarro has a doctorate in literature and creative writing and is currently teaching at Cabrillo College.  She is also a board member of Poetry Santa Cruz.  Najarro still posts current poems on her blog.  There was not much information about Najarro outside of her blogspot profile.  However, this still gave me some insight into her connection with her poetry.

When I hear a description of the desert, of the hot sun, the cactus, and the color of the sand and rocks, I immediately go back to an experience of my own of being at the Grand Canyon.  Poetry is used to achieve a similar goal.  Poetry gives us a sketch instead of a detailed painting of a larger scene so that readers can connect to their own experiences and fill in the rest themselves.  Adela Najarro’s poems give a snapshot of an experience so that we can use our imagination and experiences to fill in the cracks.  Adela Najarro’s poems in the anthology The Wind Shifts can be appreciated by second and third generation Latino Americans because they explore the experiences of being a bicultural American in an easily accessible and descriptive way.

One of Najarro’s poems that explore bicultural American experiences is “San Francisco.”  This poem is written in first person as a very descriptive snapshot of part of her life in San Francisco.  When she says “Above a Cuban restaurant…hangs the gay pride flag alongside a Direct TV satellite dish” and “my Papi rode a bicycle delivering Lela’s nacatamales” she highlights some of experiences of being a bicultural American.  The first quote references a restaurant where she sees a Direct TV satellite Dish.  This presents the luxury of TV many Americans have, even in restaurants.  The second quote is relating a lot to the Latino culture.  Not only does it include a Spanish word, but the food itself is largely a part of the Latino culture.  These quotes by themselves are directed towards different cultures, that of Latin America and that of the American life of luxury.  However, when these quotes are used together as things she sees daily, it demonstrates the bicultural aspects of her life.  This is just one example of how Adela Najarro gives a snapshot of an experience of being a bicultural American. 

Another poem that portrays Najarro’s bicultural American experiences is “My Mother’s High Heel Shoes.”  This poem is also written in first person with a detailed description of a memory.  She says, “Saturday at three o’clock old movies re-run on KTTV” and she refers to her “Abuelita” scolding her as well as a magazine “de Los Estados Unidos.”  The first quote is portraying the common occurrence of old movies being shown on TV in the United States.  The second is again using Spanish to demonstrate the bicultural American life.  With these two quotes used together to describe the same memory, it shows how Adela Najarro explores the experiences of being a bicultural American.

With the audience being second and third generation immigrants, the poetry plays an important part in Adela Najarro’s exploration of being a bicultural American.  Poetry is a way of giving an easily accessible glimpse of a larger picture to the reader so they may relate it to their own experiences and finish the picture with their experiences and imagination.  It gives a descriptive shell that can fit over a variety of experiences rather than describe a scenario that some can relate to and some can only picture.  When she says “All holds still with permission to touch a knee, hip, shoulder, a slight seductive brushing back and forth as we sit on pre-fabricated easy-to-clean subway seats” in her poem “Throughout New York City” it allows me to picture what she is describing and fill the rest in with my experiences or imagination.  Najarro uses this to her advantage throughout her poetry.  The bicultural audience can connect to the images she describes: her descriptions become a mirror into their life.  Others who have not immigrated as recently see her descriptions through a window, as I did when I read Najarro’s poems.  The descriptive language allows me to form a picture of what she is describing but my image comes from my imagination, not from an experience of my own.  For me, the poems provide a glimpse through a window of what that experience is like whereas for the intended audience, her poetry provides a mirror to a memory with which they are more connected.

The poetry can be used to teach others about Latino culture as well.  As literature, poetry offers that glimpse or snapshot of an experience or idea so that others may fill in the rest with their own imagination or experiences.  So, to teach about Latino culture, Najarro mixes the unfamiliar Latino culture with the familiar American culture.  One simple way this is accomplished is by including some Spanish words among the English words.  For example, in her poem “San Francisco” she says “my tía Teresa double-parks in front of the mercados on 24^th street para los quesos y los chiles in the back room.”  This one sentence contains both Spanish and English to communicate what is happening.  This is just one example of how represents both cultures in her poetry.  I also believe that this is used to demonstrate the process Latino immigrants go through by being bicultural Americans.  Sometimes, Spanish is the language used in their home while English is used in most other places.  They adapt to the American culture while still preserving their Latino culture.  This is a shared experience for most immigrants and Najarro provides either a window or mirror into it in her poetry. 

Adela Najarro, a poet found in the anthology The Wind Shifts, uses easily accessible and descriptive language to explore the experiences of being a bicultural American.  She uses poetic aspects, like giving a glimpse into an experience, to her advantage for her descriptions and poems so that others can relate and picture what she is describing.  Her snapshots into the life of a bicultural American allow other second and third generation immigrants to easily connect to her experiences while providing a window into the experiences for those who have not immigrated as recently. 

My Understanding of the Border and The Devil's Highway

My understanding of the border between the United States and Mexico was very uninformed before reading some of these novels.  I knew that there was a wall but I actually thought it was across the whole border.  I knew there was a wall because I have been to the El Paso/Juarez border.  I did not expect what I saw.  There was a wall and a lot of border patrol all around it.  To get through it, there was a place to drive through that was like a toll booth.  On either side of it, there were cement barriers that created a small maze to drive through.  Someone said they change the formation at least every other month so that no one can memorize its formation and try to drive through it.  I knew that the border was an extreme place of trying to only let certain people in certain places.  But I didn’t realize the extremity until I saw it.  Then, I learned so much more from the novels.  It may have been something most people knew, but I didn’t know that there was only a physical wall on part of the border.  I didn’t know of the parts with sensors.  I also didn’t know that some people crossed more than once illegally. 

The thing that had the most impact on my view of the border was the book The Devil’s Highway. The way that Urrea describes the experience of crossing the desert, suffering and dying from the heat, and trying to find your way through it, and simply trying to survive changes a lot in how I think.  I cannot believe the things people are willing to go through to come to the United States.  People are willing to give up everything they have, try to cross a desert, to come to a place where they are judged and oppressed because of legal status and yet that is still their dream. 

The way in which Urrea describes the desert made it that much more real for me.  His use of language and descriptive words made it easy to relate to even though I have never had the experience.  I feel as though I had just a small taste of what it is like to go through that type of experience.  What I don’t understand is how nothing is being done to minimize the deaths in this desert.  Yes, I understand that technically they are people trying to come to the states illegally.  However, they are still humans.  How right is it to let them die trying to get here rather than doing something to save some lives?  Now, I understand that the wall and the sensor areas a very separating.  However, I would rather see a wall causing less people to go through the desert and die than people being stranded, having their organs harvested, being raped, or anything of the sort happen. 

The Guardians

The book The Guardians was an interesting book. It highlighted the struggles families go through when they are split up. Coming to the United States is no easy thing to do. There are so many immigration laws that cause many to be unable to come to the United States illegally. This journey is long and hard for most.

This is the basis of the story. Rafa never finds his family on "the other side" once they have arrived in the United States. The family doesn't know if he is dead, alive, in the United States, or back in Mexico. This is the main focus.

The family goes to extreme lengths to figure out what happened to Rafa. They do things like going to the coyote's house. From my impression, this house seems to be a dangerous place. However, the family is so dedicated to find Rafa, they are willing to take the risk. This is one aspect I am looking to explore for my final paper: family. Family seems to be a unifying factor throughout this book. They are constantly joining together to try and find Rafa and figure out what happened to him. They are not satisfied until they found out about what really happened.

I find this very interesting. I can't imagine being in this type of situation. It makes me think a lot about what I would do if I were. Would I have the courage to stand up to someone like a coyote for the sake of finding someone in my family? I don't know since I have never been in this type of situation.

The extreme situation pulled the family together. Would my family and I be able to unite to find my dad? The Guardians shows an interesting aspect of family that most people don't experience.

9500 Liberty

This movie was disturbing, to say the least. Throughout the movie, I was in disbelief in how much hatred people have for a certain people group: Latinos. There were so many things I felt were inaccurate claims and simply hateful. Honestly, I saw many things that seemed as if they didn't research the facts before making a ridiculous claim. One claim I found particularly interesting was when they began to discuss language as being a factor for knowing if someone is illegal. They did say it is not the only factor, but a factor nonetheless. I found this very interesting. One of the main reasons this struck me was because what constitutes as a foreign language? The United States has no official language. So, maybe some languages are foreign, but that is on a case by case basis. So, my question remains, what constitutes as a foreign language? If anything, I do not believe that Spanish is a foreign language. I partly believe this because I am in the process of learning Spanish. However, with that aside, there are many people in the United States that come from Spanish speaking families or have learned it one way or another. I would agree that there are foreign languages for most of the general population. However, I wouldn't agree that Spanish is one of them. The movie even showed one of the board members switching to Spanish as a way of relating and making the conversation more personal. This was just one of the claims I found troubling.

The movie was based on the discussion of probable cause but in this area, seeming like all they really wanted was to kick out all of the Hispanic population from that area. This concept of wanting to kick out a certain population, it seems so hateful. I found this thought of hating a people group so much as to want to kick them out very disturbing. I compared this thought process to all of the experiences I have had in a foreign country. Never once have I felt as though they wanted to kick me out of their country. The people welcomed me with open arms and loved getting to know me. The only stereotype that came with me being American was that I am rich. However, this didn't hinder the relationships I had in Mexico, Spain, Morocco, the Dominican Republic, or Venezuela. This made me question a lot about different cultures and how much more loving other cultures seem to be on certain topics.

The last thing that I will mention, even though there were many more claims I disagreed with, is when they started talking about the civil war. The claim was made that the Hispanic population should be kicked out and then they connected it somehow with the civil war and slaves. He started saying that we then learned better and that's why they had the civil war or something along those lines. For me, this DIRECTLY connected to the issue of which he was so supportive. People are being very racist and judgmental, just like in the time of slavery. Now, in present time, we don't have people as slaves obviously. But, we were then and are now repressing a people group. This is also an example of how throughout the movie, they twisted the facts to say what they wanted to say.

While this movie was very disturbing, I did find that I learned a lot about the border and the racism still happening in many places. I can only hope that there is an end in sight to this undeserved judgment.