Friday, September 4, 2009
la migra la migra
in my last post i did alot of ranting a raving about how the four fathers of this country stole this land and called it free. putting aside my beliefs about how this country was formed, it was under my impression that the idea of this country was a refuge of people running away from their country to make a better life for them and their family. that is what our history books tell us. so who was it that decided to shut the gates to this land of the free and make it the land of who ever has the most money can come in and make their home. i read the peom La Migra by Pat Mora and the first part made me mad because its true our border patrol are some of the cruelest group people in our country i know i have family that do that for a living. then i read the second half and had to laugh the irony blew my mind how it switched like that. mayor giuliani of new york said in his news confance of 9 11 that we are not a country of culture but a country of multi culture living together and if that was the idea of the united states of america to begin with why does it have to change i understand the fact that we have to protect our borders from people that want to do us harm but why should we have the right to shoot on sight the people that just want to make a better life for their family.
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I enjoyed reading your post on the Pat Mora’s poem La Migra. I think your exactly right in how Pat Mora describes the border patrol as cruel and the immigrants as being taken advantage of. In the second stanza the poem completely flips around and now the border patrol are one who is helpless due to how they are unfamiliar to the environment and in a sense are the one who is on Mexican territory. I think that this poem is highlights some interesting topics about our country’s history and how we always tend to push other ethnic groups that we consider foreign out in order to settle their land. I think that this poem depicts exactly that of how at one point in its history, America drew a line across the map of where the border should be and gave people living in the southwestern region a choice of either to get out or give up their cultural values in order to become American.
ReplyDeleteI also happen to completely agree with you on choosing the Giuliani’s quote of how America is supposed to be the country of multi culture as opposed to being its own particular culture. The quote definitely suites this poem because Latin American immigrants have as much of a right to live in this country as any other ethnic group and it is definitely obvious that they are greatly discriminated against because of the few who come here illegally and try to take advantage of the things we have where as the rest intend to come here in order to make a better life for their family.
Josh I like the way you looked at the poem La Migra. The poem can be looked at, as the border patrols is bad because most of the time we only hear about the ones that have hurt or kill someone. Not all border patrols personnel are bad. You are also right in that this is a country of multi culture. However, some immigrants still had to give up some of their ways to become more American. There is no reason that we need a shot on sight order at the border. The people coming across the Mexican border are less likely to terrorists then people coming over for jobs because there are no jobs in mexico.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like we view things in very similar ways. It's hard for me to say for sure where I stand on these issues though, especially when everyone in class has such good points to make. Usually I start out being upset when I hear about the violence immigrants sometimes endure when trying to cross the border. but then I read Nikki's blog post and she did a really good job pointing it out from another perspective. I suppose that the sensitive side of me still won't let me agree with the violence though either. Maybe in the end of these 8 weeks I'll have formed a better opinion.
ReplyDeleteI really like what you said, about how we came to this country just trying to make a better life for ourselves and our families. a lot of the immigrants coming over are just trying to do the same, I can understand why people don't want them here, but it's just so sad to think about how they're just doing the same thing we did and risking there lives for there families only to be shut out or shot down. I wish there was a better way to handle it.