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.