The Plight of the Undocumented Immigrants

There are people in this world who can work miracles with rhymes, but rhythmic presentation of ideas is not an ability that everybody possesses. Zamora is one of the few people who can poetically express their massages. Unaccompanied is a collection of poems written by the poet to tell a continuous tale from his childhood in El Salvador to his life after crossing the border into the United States as an undocumented immigrant.
During the battle, Zamora was born in the coastal fishing town of La Herradurain in El Salvador. His grandmother raised him as his parents fled off to American due to the civil war and its effects. In the book he lays down vividly how dangerous the civil war was in the 1980s, how his aunt protected him, he remembers an aunt comforting him while bombs rained down nearby, and in Aftermath, he writes that since then little has changed.

The author Zamora, looking at the poems based on his work, it portrays him looking into the world in relation to the civil war time of the 1980s, for example the comparisons between the old America he came in and the new America. He is cultivated and motivated by the civil war experiences of the El Salvador 1980s; his writing and the voice is full of fear and the pain he went through during the war time and the undocumented immigration process he went through just to get to the land he believed was not the promised land but barbwire and barbwire .

In the book unaccompanied, Javier Zamora uses all forms of poetic elements and styles of poems including the vivid presentation to explain the kind of experience he had crossing to the united states Mexico border, for example the thin white man let us drink from a hose/while pointing his shotgun. Other than vivid, he also uses styles such as imagery and emphasis on convey his massages. The use of persona, speaking from different eyes and voices, he speaks from his father’s perspective, where he tries to imagine how hard it must have been for his father crossing the border knowing he has left family back home. At some point, he also spoke through his grandfather point of view, and his neighbor in the El Salvador, all these styles gives the reader a wide range of feel and connections. Not just from the author, the book is not only sharing the life experience of Zamora childhood and his perception to the current united states compared to the one he came in while he was nine, but it’s also educative.

In this book, Zamora addresses a wide range of issues. This includes the borderland political issues, the differences in races in the United States; he also shares his immigration experience at a personal level and the feeling of family reunions and bonding. The author also gives his opinion in some of these matters. He tries to compare the currently world we are evolving to and the world he experience at the age below nine.

in the unaccompanied book, in the poems, he compare the America he came in and the American now and he feels that the America he ran for is a different countries to the one he came for. Since the time he came to American at the age of nine until now, he believes that American has evolved and changed, however, not to the best.

He also uses some location in his poem like the desert to show the hardship figuratively and literally, the use of desert presents to the reader the symbolism of hardship. The book is relatable as it tackles the life that many people have gone through.

In the poem, he also focuses on the family. Not only did he come to the United States to look for a better life, but he also came to be reunited with his family. He shares to the world this feeling through different perspectives, trying to put himself to his father’s shoes explaining how he felt trying to cross the border from Mexico to the United States. How hard it must have been to his father, living his family behind. He explores vividly the importance and strength in family and for family. He shares to the world the importance of family. He shares with the world how, despite being in the united states as an immigrant, he never had it easy coming to the United States.

The book shares the story of the authors’ journey experiences and the different kinds of people they met on their way with different attitude and helps from stranger, stating that the thin white man let us drink from a hose while pointing his shotgun at us. He continues stating that, at one point, another passenger jumped overboard to help himself in the water, then panicked when he thought he might drown. He grabbed the side of the boat and nearly capsized it.

In the book, it’s clear that not only is the author clearly pointing out that the memories of the hardship, he also shares his memories and his grandfather who took a bus with him to the Guatemalan Mexico and left him to continue with his journey to the United State. This memories of the past hardship and pain gave him the muse to write the poem. The author talks about the book stating that the memories got sparser at that point; I have not been able to write that part in prose. From Guatemala on, everything turned into poems.”

Moreover, through what he undergoes, expresses the very saying that states, east west home is the best. Despite the dangers and the troubles the author went through in El Salvador, he still remembers his childhood in El Salvador and the friends he had. The kind of games he played and through these memories, he remembers how his mother used to take care of him, he gives the readers a vivid explanation of mother child love. The author wishes to go back to have that feeling again but despite all those wishes, he still cannot go back home. The author states that for the longest time I wanted to go back, but going back will not wake Mom’s hand slapping my butt when I’d run out the kitchen.

He also lives on the fear of deportation; he believes that America is a better country by far compared to other countries. He however stresses on the changes that American has gone through, free the nation of freedom to the nation of spotlight pointed to the undocumented immigrants. He states clearly that in this tenuous time of attention to immigration when so many of us yearn for the new residents of this country to find promise and a happy life instead of the constant over-the-shoulder shudder of being watched. The current America has its focus deeply on the issue of immigrants and the deportation. The American native’s believes that the immigrants have taken all there opportunity. They express there hate and anger to the immigrants stating that they are opportunist, and how they need to be deported back to their homelands, they however do not understand the other side of the story; they have no idea of the immigrants reasons for immigrating to the USA.

The author of this book also addresses the political issues in the United States. He shares fate of the undocumented immigrants in the United States under the leadership of President Donald trump. He responds to the presidents retracting the temporary given status for the children who came in the united states as children to as a pass that allows them to work and educated, in his poems, he asks , Is fleeing from danger a crime? Is being driven by spotlights and vans into desert trees and into hiding a crime? The government says yes. Unaccompanied begs to differ. The book is a voice for the suppressed and oppressed citizens of the America. The writer advocates for rights and unity amongst the American citizens.

However, the author of the book unaccompanied used these poems as an opportunity to give their side of the story. Perhaps if the natives read these poems before executing the immigrants, they would comprehend the difficulties that the undocumented immigrants undergo with the immigration being the front-page story in every news avenue nowadays.

Moreover, the author also emphasizes on the art of poem writing, sharing his opinion stating that, the art of poem writing has been forgotten In the United States. It’s an art for those who are willing to go above and beyond despite the circumstances, he states that , I think in the United States we forget that writing and carrying the banner of ‘being a poet’ is tied into a long history of people who have literally risked and died to write these words. He believes that poetry is a platform to convey messages despite of how the community takes it, or how they are going to judge you and your work.

In addition to that, the author also believes that through poems the truth ought to be said and heard. He emphasizes on how American is growing but not unified. There is little to no love for each other in the United States.

Considering the kind of life that Zamora has gone through, the collection of poems making the unaccompanied book explains the trauma the author went through. He shares with the world the messed up life that he had and trying to make the best of what he has right now to make sure that never happens again.

In conclusion, the writer of the poetic book unaccompanied had a lot to share. He used the platform not only to share his passion for poem but also to remind people the importance of poems, conveying the massages to the community, letting out what is on the writes mind. Not only that, but also to lighten the American natives of the plight the undocumented go through to come to America, and how despites the fact that some people come from bad countries, they always still wish to go back, despite of how the countries might be. Lastly, to remind America that it has lost its ways and that it is turning to one of those countries people are running away from.