La Migra Pat Mora

Pat Mora was born on January 19, 1942 in El Paso, Texas. She is a Mexican-American poet, and writer of children’s books and non-fiction. Pat graduated with a degree from Texas Western College in the year of 1963. As a popular presenter, she was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Buffalo State and North Carolina State University, and she is also an honorary member of the American Library Association. Pat Mora is the author of the very interesting and intriguing poem “La Migra.” La Migra displays the very contrasting views of two very different people. In this poem there are two speakers in a seeming battle against each other. They are both seemingly in a struggle for power, a show of dominance, and this poem displays a serious issue that

is ongoing and described in the form of a game.
Taking a closer look at the poem reveals that both speakers believe they are dominant but in their own sort of way it is a real life game of the hunter and the hunted.

In the first stanza, the speaker says to the other that “you can hide and run, but you cannot get away,” he is saying that because he believes that since he is the border patrol, he is automatically tougher and better than the Mexican maid (Line 5-6). Another way the border patrol speaker believes he is more dominant and has an advantage is when he says “I can touch you wherever I want/I’ve got boots and kick” (12 and 15). He is saying this because he believes he has much more power over the maid and he is trying to be very assertive with her in the fact that he can do many wrong things to her, even assault and sexual assault. The next speaker who also believes she has more power is the Mexican Maid. In the second stanza the Mexican maid tries to show her dominance by saying “I know this desert, where to rest, where to drink. Oh I am not alone” (27-30). She says this because while she does not have the strength and the tools that the border patrol speaker has, she has another way of having power over him and that is by knowing the land and how to survive on it while she runs and hides from the other speaker playing the game, and instead of her being hunted she has not become the hunter because of the tools she

possess.
In the faceoff between the border patrol and the Mexican maid speaker, they both struggle for their own show of power.

In reality, the Mexican maid does have more power because while she does not have his jeep, handcuffs, or gun, she “knows where to rest, where to drink” (28-29). Also in the second stanza she says that “your jeep has a flat and you have been spotted by the sun”, so the Mexican maid will most likely be better off than the border patrol because she knows the land and how to use it, as well as the ability to speak Spanish (22-24). The border patrol sees it as a disadvantage because she cannot speak his language, but speaking Spanish is a benefit actually because of where they are and it would probably be crucial in that type of setting. In this poem there is a playful tone presented although the underlying issue in these stanzas is a very serious and controversial one that is going on right now. The idea of writing this poem in the form of children playing a silly game is to simplify and make clear of the point of views of the border patrol and illegal immigrants and the type of things that go on every day at the border. This poem expresses what usually happens at with illegal immigrants and what they call La

Migra.
The border patrol officers are sometimes rough and use violence against the immigrants by using their jeeps, badges, boots and guns like in the poem because they sometimes see them as inferior. While the immigrants typically use the land, what they know about it and how to use it to their advantage so they can survive and hide from the border patrol. “La Migra” comes off as a very simple and straightforward poem, but after a dig beneath the surface it is trying to convey a message of the life that people on both sides live every dingle day.