English con Salsa: Add Your Own Salsa

When you read English con Salsa it can be almost impossible to imagine what its about, because how can you know how it tastes, how it looks or how it sounds. Gina Valdes author of the poem English con Salsa helps the reader what this words mean. She mixes these two words from two different languages and creates a unification for two different cultures. Throughout the poem she keeps of mixing both of the languages, mentioning important people from the American and Mexican culture. The poem is about latin people coming to the United States, who try to learn a new language and to live in a new culture. But the poem also describes how latinos latinize this new culture to feel more like home. Valdes tells the reader that latinos are going to keep their Latin culture with them although they are trying to learn the American language and customs they still embrace their Mexican traditions. This is why the poem is called English con Salsa, as Mexicans all they do when they eat something they have to add salsa to their food, it does not matter what kind of food their are eating, they just want to add their own touch, the spiciness, to taste better. The same is with English con Salsa, every person, from every other culture add their own touch. In English con Salsa, Gina Valdes uses humorous tone, image and simile to describe how latinos adapt to a new culture and keep embracing their culture.

To show a humorous tone, Valdes makes every line of the poem some how related to the latin culture and how they change it to fit with their likes. On the first line the author says “Welcome to ESL 100, English Surely Latinized…” (692), instead of saying English as a Second Language she reaffirms that English is being twisted by the latinos. She does ...

... middle of paper ...

...t their first language have, it might be a thick accent but the advantages that have been obtained from it might be sweet as mangos.

At the beginning by only reading the title of the poem everything is confusion, but after every stanza of the poem is read, everything is clear. English con Salsa is no longer words not making sense but have a more deeper meaning. It means how Mexicans when they come to America and try to learn a new language and adapt to a new culture do not leave behind where they came from and who they are, and that they keep embracing their culture.That is what the author of the poem English con Salsa by Gina Valdes does, she uses a humorous tone to make everything fun and easier to understand, imagery to be able to see and simile to be able to compare how latinos always find a way to live within a new culture without forgetting their original one.