Legal Alien By Pat Mora Analysis

Literature throughout the world differs from culture to culture. Literature is designed to reflect one’s own experience and characteristics of their culture, often giving the audience an insight on how it was for them during a certain time. Mexican American literature is no different. Mexican American literature is very well known for its topics of hardships, migration life, assimilation into American society and the struggle of identity for Mexican Americans. In Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature we see many stories and poems discussing the many topics of Mexican American literature, the main one and the one that poets Pat Mora and Bernice Zamora discuss, is the struggle of identity. Both poets discuss that Mexican Americas struggle to find their identity because they’re not only discriminated by Anglos but also by Mexicans as well. …show more content…
The narrator first discusses the advantages of being a Mexican American such as “drafting memos in smooth English, able to order in fluent Spanish at a Mexican restaurant” stating that simply being Mexican American has its advantages (95). However, the narrator then beings to discuss the type of discrimination he/she has been through such as being seen “inferior” by the Anglos while at the same time being viewed as an “Alien” by many Mexicans (95). The narrator is viewed as a Mexican by the Anglos while being a American to the Mexicans. Being Mexican American is supposed to like a bridge, connecting two cultures into one, essentially a hybrid, but instead the narrator feels like the two worlds that he/she belongs to seem to view he/she as a mistake or an