Gary Soto

Gary Soto's 1981 poem "Mexicans Begin Jogging" is both technically and emotionally skillful, a story that applies both at some level to all Americans and one that is in other ways unique to the Latino experience. Speaking as it does of freedom and the desire of all people to have self-determination, Soto's poem connects to broad American mythical themes of liberty and the fight for freedom. But in focusing on the ways that minority workers are exploited by other Americans as well as the ways in which all Americans with darker skins are conflated with each other, Soto presents a compelling argument that the stories about American freedom remain, in fact, simply myths for many people.

During the first several readings of this poem the most striking element of it is Soto's meter and word choice because both of these - and especially the meter - violate our expectations of how it is that a poem "should" sound. The tone and the rhythm are conversational, as if rather than serving as a poet Soto were being a reporter, simply writing down dialogue that he is actually hearing someone else speak. This sense of anti-poetical language provides the poem with an overall sense of realism that helps us to understand that he is describing things that have really happened. This realistic meter and rhythm are supported by the language choice as well as the imagery and what we might call the "plot" of the poem. In no case do we have any sense that what we are reading is anything but the authen

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Category: Arts - G