Biligual Poem Analysis

Poetry plays with your mind and feelings at the same time. I identified myself with these two poems and clearly I will say the reason of that. I am Latina and English is my second language. In order for have a brief summary of these poems I would say that “Biligual/Bilingue” by Rhina Espaillat tells us the consequences of blending languages. The author explains the difficulties of have a father that did not allow her to speak both English and Spanish in their house. Her father strongly decided that English had to be the official language outside but Spanish had to be the official language inside their home. Evidently, Espaillat shows her fights between these two cultures in her poem. On the other hand, “English con Salsa” by Gina Valdés states

Both demonstrates that it is significant to succeed in the process of learning the new language but it is also important never abandon our own culture. In the poem “English con Salsa” Valdés makes more emphasis on Mexican’s words which might be difficult to understand for people that are not from Mexico but, I think that she chose the perfect tittle for her poem. The word “Salsa” is a strong pointer of what expect after read the poem. It is a word that can be defined as a representation for the Latino culture. Might be interpret by, either Salsa as a music or Salsa as a condiment for cooking. Valdés said “in this class we speak English refrito, English con sal y limón, English thick as mango juice”, reading this, we can make an imagination of an exquisite plate of English and Spanish sazón (seasoning). On the contrary, in the poem “Bilingual/Bilingue” Espaillat wrote a poem using common Spanish’s words and she was straight choosing the tittle of her poem, very general. There was nothing to infer from the tittle, she directly told us what her poem will talking about. Espaillat said “But who can divide the world, the word (mundo y palabra) from any child?” I can see reading this, as the tittle, her poem was conclude using translations of some of the words she used, just straight with the same word but in Spanish. Different worlds and different words as her father wanted to her to