La Migra Pat Mora

I read the poem “La Migra ” by Pat Mora. This poem is about two kids playing a game involving crossing the American border from Mexico. The poem started out playful as it was presented as a game and with childish language, but quickly turned into something more serious with the tone taken. One person played “La Migra” or the Border Patrol and the other played a Mexican maid/woman. The poem was split into two major parts and gave two totally different perspectives. When looking deeper into the message, the writer was trying to convey we can see that the border patrol was the United States and the Mexican woman was Mexico.

2. There are two speakers in the poem. The first stanza is from the Border Patrol’s point of view and the second stanza is from a Mexican woman. What I can tell about each speaker is that they are both confident that they possess the upper hand. “La Migra” has the badge, sunglasses, a jeep, and handcuffs and uses materialistic items as his strength. I can tell that he underestimated

I feel that this poem was fairly straightforward and easy to understand. One part that I didn’t fully understand was lines 33 and 34, which were in Spanish. “Agua dulce brota aqui, / aqui, aqui” (Mora, 700 33-34). From the Spanish that I do know, I was able to understand the message as sweet water, here, here, here. I am not familiar with the word “brota,” but was still able to understand the meaning of the message. It was used as a way to stick it to the Border patrolman. In the first stanza he told her not to ask questions because “I don’t speak Spanish” (Mora, 700 11). It almost felt like he was rubbing it in her face and that he was above her native tongue. In the second stanza, she basically painted the picture that his tire was slashed, he was alone in the desert with heavy equipment, and uneducated in her native tongue. She tells him where water is, but since he does not understand the language, he is stuck without it alone in the