Martín Espada’s poems “Cross Plains, Wisconsin” and “Federico’s Ghost” portray the risks that these illegal workers come across everyday and they constantly have to be on the look out to prevent any harm done to them or their families, they are constantly being threatened. In contrast, Pat Mora, in her poems “Legal Alien” and “Elena,” conveys the concept of changing cultures and being exposed to something completely different from what a person is already accustomed to. These writings express everything that an undocumented worker goes through, all the challenges and struggles to succeed and survive while constantly wondering if they are safe. Will they ever have a safe place to call home and a place that will allow them all the opportunities they are seeking without the dangers that string …show more content…
Leaving to start anew in a place where the language everyone speaks, the food people eat and the way people interact is new and different, truly a culture shock. In “Legal Alien” the speaker expresses the ability to constantly switch from one language to the other from “drafting memos in smooth English” to being able to “order in fluent Spanish at a Mexican restaurant,” although she does this with ease she stills feels as if she doesn’t belong anywhere (Mora 657). The speaker has been identified as “an American to Mexicans” and “a Mexican to Americans” (Mora 657). There is a loss of identity and no comfort in not being able to fit in anywhere, these illegal immigrants want somewhere to call home, but find it difficult when being discriminated against by the community. In Pat Mora’s second poem “Elena” a mother feels like an outcast around her own children. The difficulty was the language and “[her] Spanish was not enough” (Mora 658). When the transition of moving to another country came about, the children learned a new language and spoke that amongst themselves, mom felt left out thinking that if she doesn’t keep trying to learn English she “will be deaf when [her] children need [her] help” (Mora 658). There is the constant fear of