Delmi Rodriguez Mrs.

Hampton English October 9, 2012 Legal Alien The Contemporary Period is a time where people believe that the voices from all

cultures and nationalities should be heard. In the free verse poem Legal Alien by Pat Mora, Mora shows how cultural differences of being Mexican-American are criticized by both of the cultures. The author portrays the message that criticism has a negative affect on people since its a touchy subject; she stresses this to the prejudice Mexican and American audience by using literary devices and emotion. In the poem the author uses various literary devices like hyphen and metaphor. In lines 20- 22 Mora states, By masking the discomfort of being pre-judged bi-laterally. The speaker uses hyphen to emphasize the word bi-laterally which means being involved in two parties or government. The word bi-laterally usually isnt spelled with a hyphen in it, its spelled all together but she uses it to show that shes from two different places Mexico and America. It shows her culture and nationality. She feels insecure when people judge where she comes from so she tries to hide her discomfort. Although she cant change who she is she is really uncomfortable with her nationality that she tries to hide it from Mexicans and Americans. Furthermore, she also uses metaphor to enforce the message on her audience in lines 16-18 A handy token sliding back and forth between the fringes of both worlds. This quote demonstrates how the speaker compares herself with a token that has two sides to it. These two sides can represent both of her cultures, Mexican and American. It shows how she can switch back and forth from both cultures and language with ease. It also has the word handy in front of the word token which has a positive connotation to it and that can possibly mean that it is a good thing

for her to have both cultures incorporated in her life because it makes her stand out and unique. In this poem there is emotion that is used to make the audience, criticizing Mexicans and Americans guilty for making bi-cultural people like the speaker feel bad about their nationality. In the lines 9-11 the speaker writes Viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic, perhaps inferior, definitely different, viewed by Mexicans as alien. The speaker hopes to create guilt in her audience because it shows how these prejudice people are making these bicultural people feel like outcasts. They shouldnt criticize people that are from different cultures because you cant change who you are; it is impossible to erase what makes you up as a person. She is uncomfortable herself because both sides of her culture criticize her so shes in the middle of this conflict and even though this affects her she is determined to persevere from this pressure that both Mexicans and Americans hold over her. Although she tries to come off as a strong person underneath she hides her insecurity with a mask she intends to try to forget about all the judgments everyone makes about her culture. The audience should feel guilty because they shouldnt be criticizing people because they are aliens or different because they are still part of the culture. They should also feel guilty because youre supposed to have pride for your culture and she doesnt because she doesnt like people to judge her. The message that the speaker is trying to convey to Mexicans and Americans that criticize Mexican-Americans is that they shouldnt be prejudice to them because they still incorporate their culture into their lives. If they criticize Mexican-Americans they also criticize themselves because even though they are different they believe in some of the same things. They are still human and they still do share the same culture and represent

Delmi Rodriguez Mrs.Hampton English October 10, 2012 Legal Alien the nation. Just because a culture is different doesnt mean that it should be criticized. It is a very touchy subject for some people and criticizing it just makes people uncomfortable. People dont get anything out of judging a culture because it wont change, you cant change something that has been given to someone. In line 20 the speaker says, by masking the discomfort, this means that the speaker had to hide her own discomfort because she was insecure about being judged on her nationality. Its a shame because people usually have a lot of pride toward their nationality but shes just empathetic. Its ironic that Mexicans call her an alien when she really isnt, they treat her like if shes from a foreign country when she is from Mexico too. Americans call her exotic but she isnt from a foreign country either America. Also Mexico and America are neighbors so exotic wouldnt really apply to Mexican-American in fact some states in the America are influenced by Latin American cultures. America is a melting pot of cultures and it shows the hypocrisy in the actual country because people judge people who have different cultures. In conclusion, this is how literary devices and emotion show the audience the message of this poem. The audience is very judgmental and criticizes bicultural people because during this time period there has been a lot of controversy between Mexican immigration into the United States. When people immigrate to other places they sometimes forget about their old culture and where they came from, but in many cases its not like that. No matter if a person comes from a different place they are still human and their culture remains with them forever because thats what they were brought up on. It is no fair for people to judge because of nationality, everyone in America is an

immigrant except native people. Just because youre Mexican and moved to America doesnt mean youre different youre still the same person in the end. And just because you were born in America but have Mexican parents doesnt mean you are an alien. Sure youre a bit different but your beliefs are still the same.