Citizen’s IIlegal

Begin by highlighting and analyzing the poems in
both collections
and attempt to tease out any common themes and/or concepts that
emerge related to immigrants and immigration in the United States. Then, consider the contexts for Latinx literature provided by
Frederick Luis Aldama and Ilan Stavans.
When you have come up with an appropriate set of examples and ideas about the first and second generation immigrants/Americans in
their respective texts, respond to the following writing prompt in a 4-5-page essay:
How and why are these poets responding to each other as first and second generation Americans? And, how and why
are they framing their experience(s) in the United States?
Notes:
1. You must use the two (2) academic sources (Aldama and Stavans) to provide context for these poems.
2.
In formulating your thesis, think about how and why these writers contextualize their experiences differently

For this essay, you will need to pay special attention to the ways in which you use evidence to support and develop (through critical
analysis) your thesis-driven argument. Most importantly, you will need to develop a provocative, sophisticated thesis that both keeps
your argument focused, and forces you to consider some of the underlying issues that will help you to achieve a nuanced
understanding of the topic and issue.
Topic:
So much of the Latina/o/x experience in the United States is shaped by the first generation immigrant’s experience. This first
generation is defined as those people who immigrate into the U.S. The second generation (or the American-born children of these
immigrants) experience is, as a result, shaped by both their parents experience immigrating into the U.S. but also by an American
society that views them as “not fully belonging” to the United States. As such, second generation Americans must navigate the
experience and cultural framework of their parents and of their American peers.
In the assigned readings for this week, we have the opportunity to read the words and experience of both generations. The excerpts
from Seth Michelson’s
Dreaming America
poetry collection are the edited and translated poems of immigrant children detained in a
maximum security detention center in the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Detention Center in Virginia. The poetry excerpts from José
Olivarez’s
Citizen Illegal
are written by Olivarez as a response to growing up as the child of Mexican immigrants in Chicago, IL. Both
excerpts, therefore, speak to the experience of being in the United States as a first generation immigrant and as an American child of
immigrants. They offer differing views of the United States and different aspirations.
The Writing Task:
Begin by highlighting and analyzing the poems in
both collections
and attempt to tease out any common themes and/or concepts that
emerge related to immigrants and immigration in the United States. Then, consider the contexts for Latinx literature provided by
Frederick Luis Aldama and Ilan Stavans.
When you have come up with an appropriate set of examples and ideas about the first and second generation immigrants/Americans in
their respective texts, respond to the following writing prompt in a 4-5-page essay:
How and why are these poets responding to each other as first and second generation Americans? And, how and why
are they framing their experience(s) in the United States?
Notes:
1. You must use the two (2) academic sources (Aldama and Stavans) to provide context for these poems.
2.
In formulating your thesis, think about how and why these writers contextualize their experiences differently? How might their
concerns and issues be “universal”? Finally, think about what Olivarez, as an American, might be saying/doing/etc. in his poems about
the immigrant generation (or, specifically, about how that first generation might experience the U.S.)?
3
. JUST FOR REFERENCE: The poem “Mexican Heaven” is a series of poems under the same title that are scattered throughout José
Olivarez’s collection of poems in
Citizen Illegal
.
Also Please Consider:
In planning and developing your paper, be sure to organize your paper conceptually, so that your main purpose (a.k.a. thesis, main
point, main claim) is advanced through the unfolding of subsidiary concepts and claims developed in the body of your paper.
Scrupulously
avoid
(1) merely listing points in a manner that does not advance some main purpose; (2)
merely repeating a single
point using a different set of examples or evidence
in each paragraph and, therefore, remaining in the false haven of the five-
paragraph essay.
if more is needed please let me know I believe the readings are from two different collections
Seth Michelson’s
Dreaming America
poetry collection are the edited and translated poems of immigrant children detained in a
maximum security detention center in the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Detention Center in Virginia. The poetry excerpts from José
Olivarez’s
Citizen Illegal
are written by Olivarez as a response to growing up as the child of Mexican immigrants in Chicago, IL.
don’t mind the last part sorry about that