Gary Soto
Michelle Lobatos
Mr. Blackmore
English 11
13 March 2016
Michelle Lobatos
Mr. Blackmore
Poetry Analysis
13 March 2016
Gary Soto
People should know the importance about growing up Mexican-American, Gary Soto did exactly that in his poems. He wrote novels, plays, poems, short stories, and books for young children. His poetry usually focuses on working as a child to get money, racism, poverty and crime. He is most known for writing for children and young adults. Soto always says his famous lines "As a writer my duty is not to make people perfect, particularly Mexican Americans. I'm one who provides portraits of people in the rush of
…show more content…
life." He has had so many successful collections that have been finalized for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He received Nation/Discovery Award and the Levinson Award from Poetry. He is such a successful Mexican-American poetry writer. Gary Soto was born on April 12, 1952 to Manuel and Angie Soto.
He was raised on the bad neighborhood known as barrios in Fresno, California. Soto rarely went to school and throughout his whole high school his grade average was a D. When he was 5 years old his father had a tragic accident that took his fathers life. Causing his mother to not have any income to pay for their needs. Angie then moved her family to a industrial sketchy area. Soto started working in the fields of San Joaquin and factories, so he could help his mom out. Because they where struggling for the money so everyone is the family was looking for jobs but it was not enough money to sustain them all but they had to deal with it. That's when Soto's grades started dropping because he has no motivation at all to study and no time at all because of working. He also had no books the only books he had where recipe books for menudo. Soto said he was exploring the school library when he came across Ernest Hemingway and that's when his love for poetry came to …show more content…
him. He attended college at California State University. He got his BA in English on 1974. During this time he was studying and reading lots of poems from Philip Levine, Edward Field, and Pablo Neruda. He also got his MFA from University of California-Irvine on 1974. His first book "The Elements of San Joaquin." The Elements of San Joaquin described the lives of Mexicans living in the United States on their hardships they faced. The book won lots of accolades and that's when his professional life really kicked off. He had many skills like figurative language of poetry his readers noticed this from his pieces. When Soto wrote "The Tale of Sunlight in 1978, it was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
The "Black Hair" which was written in 1985, Soto was focused on how him and his friend would talk about his daughter and his times spent together. His collection "Neighborhood Odes" (1992) and "Canto Familiar/Familiar Song" (1996) these take connections with community, place, and families. "A Fire in my Hands" (2006) has one of Soto's most famous poem. The poem is called "Oranges", oranges is a story about a guy picking up an girl and taking her out to get something at the store and him grabbing a orange knowing he didn't have enough money for the both items and the clerk knowing that he really liked her so she helped him out and covered the cost and then him walking her back home to her
house. Poems where not the only things he wrote he also wrote short stories. His first collection was "Living up the Street." Living up the street: "Narrative Recollections" (1985), "Lesser Evils: Ten Quarters" (1988), and "Small Faces" (1986). In these stores Soto used vignettes from his own childhood. Living up the streets got the American Book award. Soto wrote his own autobiography called "A Summer Life" in 1990. Soto then began starting to write books for children in 1990 his most famous novel was "Buried Onions"(1997) and that books sequel "The Afterlife"(2003). He had many more picture books for children like "Chato's Kitchen"(1995) and "My a Little Car/Mi Carrito"(2006). His books where really useful for teachers to teach childish but Spanish. His readers usually say that Soto just has a way to tell stories and recreate moments of his life and to make the reader feel like they are living his childhood. "Soto's remembrances are as sharply defined and appealing as bright new coins" said Alicia Fields in a review. He told Hector Avalos Torres for the Dictionary of Literary Biography "writing is my one talent. There are a lot of people who never discover what their talent is.... I am very lucky to have found mine." Gary Soto married Carolyn Oda in 1975. They have been married for 41 years. They had one daughter Mariko Heidi Soto. Mariko was born in 1978. He's also a professor at the University of California at Riverside. Gary and his family know reside in Berkeley, CA.
Guillermo González Camarena was a Mexican electrical engineer who was the inventor of a color-wheel type of color television, and who also introduced color television to Mexico,
“We are never more truly and profoundly human than when we dance.” Jose Arcadio Limon was a dancer and choreographer born and raised in Mexico. He was inspired to begin his studies in modern dance when he saw a performance of Harald Krutzberg and Yvone Georgi. Limon enrolled at the dance school of Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. He continued to work with Humphrey until 1946, when he founded the José Limón Dance Company. His most successful work is called The Moor's Pavane and it is based on Shakespeare's Othello. The Limón Dance Company still exists and is part of the Jose Limon Dance Foundation, an institution dedicated to preserve and disseminate his artistic dance work and technique. Jose Limon is important in the American Dance History
Who would have thought a little boy from the Dominican Republic would have so much effect on people. David Ortiz is a well known player around the Major League Baseball Association, many people know him by Big Papi. He has created foundations and many other things for all types of people. From children to adults and in between, Ortiz has been an influential individual.
The female, adolescent speaker helps the audience realize the prejudice that is present in a “melting-pot” neighborhood in Queens during the year 1983. With the setting placed in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, the poem allows the audience to examine the experience of a young immigrant girl, and the inequality that is present during this time. Julia Alvarez in “Queens, 1963” employs poetic tools such as diction, figurative language, and irony to teach the reader that even though America is a place founded upon people who were strangers to the land, it is now home to immigrants to claim intolerance for other foreigners, despite the roots of America’s founding.
Marcario Garcia was not born in Texas; rather his parents carried him across the border from Mexico to Texas as an infant. The family settled in Sugar Land, Texas, where they worked as lowpaid farm workers and raised ten children. The land was originally owned by the Mexican government and was part of the land grant to Stephen F. Austin. Very early, sugarcane stalks from Cuba were brought to the area and a
The first poem that I chose was by the poet Julia Alvarez titled “Queens, 1963” this told the story of a family that has moved into in Queens, NY. The writer and narrator of this story is from the Dominican Republic. One year has passed for the family to finally settle into the neighborhood. This time an African American family has moved right across the street. The young girl notices how her neighbors have not treated this family with kindness and respect. More police have been seen patrolling through the neighborhood. When reading this poem my initial thoughts were that “Queens, 1963” describes the American people's behavior towards foreigners and their reactions. Alvarez states, “Mr. Scott, the retired plumber, and his plump Midwestern wife, considered moving back home, where white and black got along by staying where they belonged.” (Alvarez, pp 952) It will take another year and another family that will move into their neighborhood, than once the African American family settles in another family will be placed under the same scrutiny.
Soto’s “Black Hair” is a perfect example of a poem that is effective through close analysis of certain concrete images which hold the key to the foundation of the poem and its underlying themes. In this poem, the universal themes of family and culture are hidden under the figure of Hector Moreno, the image of the narrator’s hair, as well as the extended baseball metaphor about culture. Although the title may seem ordinary at first glance, the challenge that the poem presents through its connection of concrete images and themes is very intriguing, and the themes are made clear through the effective use of certain poetic elements.
He wanted to be famous, “At ten I wanted fame” (Soto line 1) and to achieve his dreams he became rebellious, this was the only way he had to get the attention he wanted from those around him. Soto portrayed the child’s personality as a reflection of his own, he knew that he could act in similar ways to the character and had no consequences or being discipline it for it; at the end Soto’s parents were acceptable oh his behavior, as long he stayed out of prison. The fact that acting in a good way was not going to lead to receive any attention, acting rebellious is the only way the child has to be noticed. Evidently, there is a lack of respect displayed54t by the child in the poem; he images himself cursing to an imaginary priest, “I said ‘shit.’ ‘Fuck you,’ and “No way Daddy-o” (Soto lines
One thing both these characters shared was the involvement of one parent in the family significantly more than the other. In “Looking For Work”, Soto’s life seems to be revolving around his mother as she was much more present in the family than the father both physically and emotionally. At the very beginning of the narrative, Soto wants his brother Rick and sister to wear shoes at the dinner table but instead, Rick decides to wear swim trunks and Soto states “My mother didn’t notice” (Soto 22). This paraphrase immediately shows, despite both parents being present, there is a greater relationship between Soto and his mother which tends to happen with the absence of a father in a child 's life whether physically or emotionally. Correspondingly, Talent seems to have a closer relation with her father rather than mother and clearly feels the absence of her mother 's regards. When she states “My mother who didn 't like to touch me..” (Tallent 159), you can truly feel the rigid relationship between her and her mother as she uncovers her emotions of suffering a severe and damaging lack of the affection from her mother that every child needs. Soto would have been able to better relate what life was like outside the TV
8. First of all, he was born in Salinas Valley in California. Second, he was spent his whole childhood in Salina Valley, and the sense of the geography and demographics of the valley had stamped in his sensibilities. He was very enjoying the labor in farm.
Jackie Robinson once said that “"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." (Brainy Quotes). Jackie Robinson faced more abuse than any other baseball player. Jackie Robinson had his mind set on breaking the color barrier for African Americans. Jackie Robinson had the muscle strength and talent to inspire and change the color barrier in Major League baseball. Jackie Robinson was one of the most significant baseball players that America has ever known for Jackie Robinson’s bravery to stop the color barrier for, his inspiration he gave to people all around the world and for his accomplishments during baseball and outside of baseball this made him one of the most valuable players in the National League.
One of Pat Moras poems that imply blank verse is La Migra. Blank verse sounds pretty much like an everyday conversation, and propagate the reader for a heightened response to effects of language, and image in the poem. Blank verse is favored for reflective and narrative poems, and does not rhyme. Blank verse fits perfectly in La Migra, because Pat Mora is narrating the children game, what they are saying, what they are imagining, and if the reader has a good imagination, they can even imagine the setting and think about what is actually happening. Blank verse is also favored in the reflective way, because what Pat Mora is trying to express in La Migra is that everyone has feelings, it does not matter where people are from, or if they are legal or illegally in the United States, but what matters is that people is made all equaly, and all people has the same rights. Not because someone is a border patrol will have the right to kick or touch an illegal person, as the kid on the first stanza thinks, and says “I can take you wherever I want, but don’t ask questions because I don’t speak Spanish. I can touch you wherever I want but don’t complain because I ‘ve got boots and kick – if I have to”. Blank verse is completely necessary in this poem to make what the author is trying to realize possible, in this case, make people think about other people feelings and make a reflective impact on the
George Lopez was born on April 23rd in the year of 1961 in the Mission, Hills of Los Angeles, California. His father who was Anataso was a migrant worker who left his wife, Frieda for a different lifestyle. After Lopez was born, Frieda and George Moved in with his mom’s parents who tried to raise Lopez In her hometown of California. When George was a young kid his mother explained to him that his father had died. Even though, the real truth was that he was in fact alive but wanted nothing to do with his son who he had with his ex-wife. His mother soon remarried when George was only ten years of age. His mouther also left, so he had nowhere to go other than to his grandparents’ house because he figured they would take care of him. Lopez was
Lopez is a great example of a Latino that did not have an easy start. Lopez was born, and raised in Mission Hills, California. His father abandoned him when he was two years old. His father took his baby clothes, and
...new right away I could relate it since English is my second language. In this poem there is a combination of the two languages I know, English and Spanish, which then converts into a new language Spanglish. Many Latino teenagers and children, like me, speak English at work and school and speak Spanish mostly when they are at home. Therefore, the way we Latino people speak is almost like the way Ms. Valdez wrote this poem. This poem is also a reality in the lives of those who migrate to the United States. Many immigrants see that everything is different and new. They also see that they have to slowly adapt to the new environment. Through Gina’s choice of words and imagery, she makes the Latino audience feel more serene with the American Language and culture. All of the humor, imagery, and similes used in this poem made this poem much more enjoyable and relatable.