17 pages • 34 minutes read
Pat MoraLa Migra
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Badge and Gun
Like any law enforcement agency, the Border Patrol issues a badge and a gun to its agents. The badge signifies the agents’ office and thus their authority. By that same token, the badge also symbolizes the agents’ responsibility to uphold the agency’s ethics and code of conduct. The gun has similarly twofold implications: While it stands for the agents’ right to use force to carry out their duties, it also entails restraint and responsibility in the use of that force—especially lethal force. “La Migra” describes the Border Patrol (whether the agency itself or an individual agent) as enjoying the power embodied in these objects but violating the accompanying obligations. They bring up “the badge and sunglasses” (Line 4) to intimidate border crossers. The Border Patrol first threatens to kick anyone who complains (Lines 13-15), but then the threat becomes more serious: “I have handcuffs. / Oh, and a gun” (Lines 16-17). Thus, these objects, which in normal circumstances symbolize lawful authority, here become symbols of unlawful exercise of arbitrary power.
Speaking Spanish
The poem’s Border Patrol is a symbolic agent who is intent upon capturing border crossers, with little or no desire to understand the migrants’ motivations. When the agent tells the Mexican woman not to ask questions because he “[doesn’t] speak Spanish” (Line 11), his statement oozes disdain and disrespect. It implies that he does not want to speak Spanish. Nothing undocumented migrants might say matters, since the Border Patrol intrinsically defines them as reprehensible criminals rather than people with legitimate motivations. Silencing or ignoring the words of subjugated individuals is an essential component of arbitrary power. However, in the second part of the poem, the Border Patrol’s linguistic ignorance and his underlying arrogance are turned against him. As the woman tells him:
You hear us singing
and laughing with the wind
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[…] but since you
can’t speak Spanish, you do not understand (Lines 31-32, 34-36).
As is often the case, arrogance masks incompetence.
Desert
The desert, as a location and as a symbol, plays an important role in many Mora’s poems. She often describes the desert as a nurturing force for people of Mexican origin who live near the US border or must cross it by foot. In “La Migra,” the desert appears hospitable to border crossers. The Mexican woman says, “I know this desert, / where to rest, / where to drink” (Lines 27-29). There is a sense of familiarity and connection between them, as if they were old friends. Other natural elements also seem to be on the migrants’ side. The sun makes the Border Patrol, with all his equipment, hot and sluggish (Lines 23-26), and the terrain makes his jeep blow a tire (Lines 22). Meanwhile, the migrants are “laughing with the wind” (Line 32), as if the wind were a friendly companion on their journey. Nature protects and sympathizes with border crossers because they respect and love it. Mora’s poems often emphasize the connection between humans and the natural world, which is an important indigenous belief in Mexico. In this poem, border crossers’ respect for nature starkly contrasts with the Border Patrol’s disrespect for both the migrants and the legal limits of his own authority.
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By Pat Mora
