poem response journal 2

Maira Navarro
AP English
Journal 2 (b)
“My People Are the Color of the Earth”-------------Alma Luz Villanueva
Literary CRITIC

S: A little girl (Latina)
O: She is visiting her auntie
A: All people
P: to let people know about the life of those who are “mixed”
S: a half Indian/Spanish (MEXICAN) woman from Sonora and her customs
TONE: simplistic and telling

Response: Villanueva was truly successful in getting her point across through her poem. It is about her culture. Her auntie is both Indian and Spanish born in the Mexican state of Sonora. The speaker reflects on her childhood and the life of her auntie. Her child hood was spent listening to her auntie’s stories. The poem does not use rhyme. In the end the poem uses a reference to the “Anglo” to add a greater emphasis on the pride that she and her auntie have in their culture. “Mi gente son el color de la tierra” is used to also add more emphasis to the auntie and the speakers’ pride in their culture. The use of the Spanish language in a poem that is almost all entirely in English is clearly very important as it is used as a way of allowing Luz’s pride in her culture to also be revealed.