AT THE WALL

Paola Gonzalez (left) and Karla Gutierrez (right)

Image Source:https://m.facebook.com/PaolaGonzalez555, https://bibliophiliablogs.wordpress.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    17-year-old Paola Gonzales, and 18-year-old Karla Gutierrez, both Hispanic, wrote the poem “At the Wall”.  As a response to the classic poetry "At the Cemetery, Walnut Grove Plantation," they recited their original poem, "At the Wall, US/Mexican Border, Texas 2020." during the biggest youth classic poetry festival – the Get Lit Classic Slam in Los Angeles, CA in 2016.  Paola, now 21, is pursuing a degree in Women's and Gender Studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, while Karla, 22, is a student at San Francisco State University in California.

    In an interview, Paola and Karla saw “At the Wall” as an opportunity to voice out the challenges of immigrants and those who have been vilified in the media by a presidential candidate. They also expressed how it is a way for them to show all the hard work immigrants, like their parents, uncles, aunts, and relatives, have put in, as they believe it is something that not many people are aware of.  

    Relatives of Paola and Karla have had to deal with the borders between US and Mexico. Paola's father was an undocumented immigrant when he was only 17 years old, while Karla's grandfather was a bracero – a Mexican seasonal agricultural worker in the US during the 1940s. Paola and Karla were able to make their voices heard as they spoke about this contentious topic through their original poem "At the Wall," especially that the country was founded on many immigrants, African-American slaves, and various cultures.

Screencap from the Get Lit Classic Slam; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loHz2oQhLEI

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

“At the Wall” addresses the American-Mexican experience of today and is entitled so as it focuses on the struggles of a nation divided by a wall. In a campaign launched by Trump as a presidential candidate, a wall was planned to be built along the 2000-mile border between the United States and Mexico while making the latter pay for it. Trump also planned on sending National Guard troops to patrol the border. 

US President Donald Trump in the US-Mexico Border
Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images obtained from vox.com

Trump was promoting a policy approach that focuses on tracking undocumented immigrants/workers and a law was signed to punish police officials who will not act on immigration enforcement. Although the campaign claims that it will only target those who commit violent crimes, Trump’s administration was preparing for mass deportations of undocumented residents in the country. This is very unfortunate as the majority of the vicious crimes in the US are committed by native-born Americans rather than the foreign-born or the undocumented residents. Moreover, Trump's disregard for the immigration enforcement of former President Barack Obama results in a punitive system that treats immigrants as criminals detained for long periods even if they do not pose any threat. 

Even before the campaign of the Trump administration regarding the construction of the US-Mexican border wall, conflict between these nations started years ago. After the Mexican-American war, an international border between the two nations was made, thus dividing the 35000 members of the Tohono O’ Odham tribe. After the wall’s construction, it has been a battle between America trying to protect its people and the tribe members practicing their sovereign right to navigate and find their way home through their own land. The militarization of the border is attributed for a large number of deaths.

As of January 8, 2021, the Trump administration completed 453 miles of the US-Mexico border. Joe Biden, the current US president, has no plans of continuing the border’s construction. As of recent, bright pink seesaws were made on the borders that allowed for people of the two nations to interact. The seesaws on the walls were granted the Design of the Year Award 2020 and the creators hoped that the seesaw would “help people reassess the effectiveness of borders and encourage dialogue rather than division”

American and Mexican Families enjoying the seesaws at the US-Mexico Border
Photograph: Luis Torres/AFP/Getty Images obtained from theguardian.com

SUMMARY

The poem "At the wall" talks about the hardships experienced by the Mexicans and Africans in the hands of their oppressors. How the act of abuse, slavery, and injustices were never recognized. How Americans became hateful of immigrants as if they weren't human beings and deserving of their respect. How former President Trump's racist and xenophobic policies resulted to the construction of the deadly wall and stricter militarization in the Southern border. It also talks about how the inhumane policies they have today are rooted in Operation Gatekeeper: the disregard for life, human rights, the environment and relationship of Americans with Mexicans. The authors' words powerfully capture the cruelty of the immigration system and its impact on the people.

LITERARY CONVENTIONS / ELEMENTS

• Type of poem: Spoken Word Poetry
• Rhyme: No rhyme
• Figures of speech: Hyperbole,
• Tone: Sympathetic, provoked, pleasing
• Mood: Pitiful
• Theme: The theme presented in the poem is all about isolation. It is because of the wall built between the two involved countries.

LITERARY CRITIQUE

Image Source: https://images.app.goo.gl/WoG7u9oEx5PLX5XZ8 The chaos behind the border wall of America-Mexico

A  Marxist Criticism of

Paola Gonzalez and Karla Gutierrez’s At the Wall

The poem, written by Gonzales and Gutierrez, addresses the social and economic revolution of the American-Mexican experience. As a result, using Marxism Theory, the literary work will be analyzed and critiqued. Since the role of politics, money, and power are shown in the literature, Americans are presented as the bourgeoisie, and the proletariat are the Mexicans in the poetry.

The literary piece voices the struggles and hardships of the immigrants as they face America and its citizens.

    In the first stanza of the poem, it shows the lifeless view of the Spanish border (la Frontera) between America and Mexico. It illustrates the reality of the place in the past, when it was a deserted place and the only thing that kept people from entering the territory was the barbed wire fence, made from two poles of sticks that formed a cross shape. The concrete wall extending from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico has been the barrier that hinders immigrants from returning to their homes. The sorrow and cries of the people are loud enough to be heard as they travel around the border under the heat and rage of nature, hoping that someday they can return to their homeland.

Americans won’t stop unless their country is separated by a great barrier from the outlanders in their nation.

    "A nation without a wall is not a nation." Donald Trump’s campaign promises in 2015 were to put an end to illegal immigration. He promised Americans that he would build a wall along the entire U.S. border and that Mexico would pay for it. The U.S. government believes that securing a wall is something they need to do to keep the country safe and secure from illegal smugglers and immigrants trying to enter across the border. Despite implanting more than hundreds of border patrols, technological towers that can detect any warm bodies, ground sensors, patrolling helicopters and drones, and daily inspections of dogs in the parameter, it is not enough to satisfy their desires, as the repetition of the word "are not enough" in the poem. The U.S. government wants to build a billion-dollar wall extending to the Gulf of Mexico from the Pacific Ocean. According to an American sociologist, Douglas Massey, the fascination of the U.S. government with the border wall goes like this: "In the American imagination, the border between Mexico and the United States is a symbolic boundary between the United States and a threatening world. It is not just a border but the border. "

The hard-earned fruits signify the laborers' efforts, while the mahogany table depicts prosperity and wealth.

    The trials of those who were obliged to work for the requirements of American industry are depicted in the poem's concluding part. The tribe members depicted in the character 'tíos' (uncles) are said to be engaged in the picking of fruits or doing other job that is exposed to the toxic DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) spray. In the last 20 years, DDT has had a possible impact on public health in Mexico. It's a pesticide that's used in the fruit industry, but it's dangerous to humans if they're exposed to too much of it. Symptoms include nausea, tremors, and seizures. The poem emphasizes the struggles of those who have to cross the border of the United States in order to meet their basic requirements. A hundred people are suffering and working for the advantage of a few people, as evidenced by the statement "fruit that sat on your mahogany tables as a centerpiece." Faceless crosses erased from its gleaming surface replaced with hues of red white and blue 55 feet of cold concrete that runs from the Pacific to the Gulf.

    The poem comes to a close with a picture of a finished wall that replaces barbed-wire cross fences and has the colors of the American flag on it, implying that the US got what they wanted, and the tribes got nothing. While the people on the other side of the border scream for joy, thanksgiving, and peace, the people on the other side of the wall are murmuring day and night as they are imprisoned as illegal criminals in their own country. As the poem echoes the term "Aqui descansa," (here rests) the poem finishes with a strong cry for the people behind the wall to demand justice for what they have been taken from them, and only then will they be able to rest.

CONNECTOR (REFLECTION)

AT THE WALL'S ARTWORK

REFERENCE

G., & Posts, V. A. (2021, January 20). Literary Criticisms/Theories. Bibliophilia. https://bibliophiliablogs.wordpress.com/2021/01/20/literary-criticisms-theories/

Budd, J. (2019, Sept. 30). Commentary: 25 years later, my work with Border Patrol and Operation Gatekeeper still haunts me. The San Diego Union Tribune. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2019-09-30/how-operation-gatekeeper-led-to-cruel-policies-utak

Cayacap, S. J., Ropa, M., Abrea, M. J., Santos, M. D., Tadem, G. M., & Dardo, R. B. (2021, January 20). At the Wall –. Bibliophilia. https://bibliophiliablogs.wordpress.com/tag/at-the-wall/

Literary Riot: Giving a Voice to Immigrants’ Struggles. (2021, January 19). KCET. https://www.kcet.org/youth-voices/literary-riot-giving-a-voice-to-immigrants-struggles

Bakare, L. (2021, January 19). Pink seesaws across US-Mexico border named Design of the Year 2020. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jan/19/pink-seesaws-across-us-mexico-border-named-design-of-the-year-2020

Jones, R. (2017, November 25). Death in the sands: the horror of the US-Mexico border. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/04/us-mexico-border-patrol-trump-beautiful-wall

Narea, N. (2020, February 11). Trump’s 2021 budget proposal boosts funding for immigration enforcement. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2020/2/10/21131788/trump-2021-budget-proposal-border-wall-immigration

Paola Gonzalez & Karla Gutierrez - At The Wall, US/Mexican Border, Texas, 2020. (2016, September 20). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loHz2oQhLEI