Poetry- The Undocumented History (Second Out-of-Class Essay)

As we live our day-to-day lives, we often forget that a dormant history rests beneath our paved asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks. We have learned our general history from classroom textbooks, but this is not enough to fully comprehend the reasoning of becoming well-versed in our history. History is written and archived for us to not only memorize by rote, it is also for us to recognize that there are often heavy consequences that follow our actions and that it can affect the generations after us. Textbooks are objective, it merely states names, dates, facts and statistics but that alone cannot fully portray our past. Classroom texts tend to gloss over the explicit details of atrocities, especially ones that are shameful reminders of injustices instigated by our government. To fully understand and empathize with our ancestors, we must look somewhere besides scholarly texts; we must look at art, songs, poems, and stories. These are either written by authors who have a personal connection with certain parts of history. Poems, such as Deborah Miranda’s “Indian Cartography” and Wendy Rose’s “Itch Like Crazy: Resistance”, are densely rich narratives that gives us better insight to the personal ramifications of California’s history through different portrayals of the Native experience. These contrasted experiences are emoted by themes that are adeptly supported with various elements of poetry. No matter if it were written from first-hand experience or just an artistic expression of an event,  it documents the human connection with factual dates and provides a well-rounded story.  The principle difference between Miranda’s poem and Rose’s poem is the theme. While both works summon the identical topic of the Native American experience, Miranda encircles around themes of reminiscent sorrow while Rose seethes with resentment and rebellion.

When it comes to California history, many people forget that our nation’s land, or in particular, California’s land, doesn’t truly belong to us. The original Californians, or rather the native Californians, lived a simple, prosperous life that was in harmony with the bountiful nature of California. When the English began to colonize America, they had tried to convert the natives to Christianity, believing that the natives were uneducated savages that needed to be saved and that it was the settlers duty to save them. From then on, futile attempts of assimilating the natives to the new ‘American’ culture led to government-sanction massacres of the native people. The following poems are the effects on human life when people are murdered and displaced .

Miranda’s poem, “Itch Like Crazy: Resistance”, shows us the aggressiveness, anger and resentment that the original native people still feel to this very day. We can infer from the line, “The voices beyond my office door”, that this story is set in modern-day times; and no matter if it is 2012 or 1612, people have always tried to conquer and expand land territories. As this person sits behind their office door and they hear about surveying land and destruction, and memories of their ancestors and their heritage come rushing back. This person could be overhearing talk of trying to conquer a new land or they could be hearing something as innocent as a conversation about tearing down a side wall in the kitchen,  but instead they hear “selling [of] the natives. . [for] kinship with the Crown.” All they can think about are the “Ghosts [that are] so old - they weep for release”, they will be forever haunted by their ancestors unrest because like “burrs and ticks” they are constantly on you, “climb[ing], burrow[ing], and stick[ing].”

Miranda’s poem on the other hand, sings a mournful and lyrical song that describes the displacement natives feel when they no longer have their people or their culture. As her “father opens a map of California- - [he] traces ranges, rivers, county borders, like family bloodlines.” This line describes how the native people feel when they look at a map of their land, a map that has been drawn up by foreigners. The natives did not have written language or maps but the land was their language, their spirituality, but worse of it all, it held memories of times that their people and culture were happy and prosperous. To be ripped away from your home and have someone else move in to sleep in your bed and play with your belongings is a terrible thing. There are no words for an equal comparison of what these people dealt with. Another issue Miranda deals with is the stigmatism that Native Americans are uneducated and lazy. In the beginning of the last stanza, her father can only find “solace [in] a six-pack” and his dreams. For those looking from the outside, all they can see are people sleeping, daydreaming and drinking during the day, and they’ll misappropriately judge. However, looking deeper at the root cause, one will realize that the alcohol is a way of coping to a life that will never be yours and that dreaming is the only way to see and visit the places you did when you were a happy child, surrounded by a happy and prosperous family and community.

These works of art provide us better insight, humanizing the effects of what has been done in the past. These experiences aren’t presented in textbooks because they are subjective opinion, but if we continue to read objective factual data, we will never be able to get in touch with the human experience. The human experience teaches us much more about history because it is the fact of being able to connect with our fellow human beings that will push us to strive for change in healthier way. Both authors show us that no matter where you are and how long it’s been that all actions in life have long-lasting consequences that will follow centuries after we are gone. What you may think is good and beneficial today could end up being a number in a history book, tolling the numbers of deaths.


Response:
I've never really read into depth about the natives of this land. Growing up, we were always told about Native Americans but all I can remember is the Thanksgiving story where the pilgrims and the natives shared a dinner together. I remember that there were little tidbits here and there about the two fighting but it wasn't until this section that I learned the truth. It was amazing to learn about how the natives lived their lives and how prosperous and happy they were before they were colonized by the Spanish before the English. I never would have known had I not read the sections from "An Interpretive History".

In terms of my own reading, writing, and critical thinking skills, I learned a lot about identifying the correlations between poetry and history. Until this section, poetry felt too ambiguous for me; it was too short, unfinished lines would jump to the next line, and it just felt like a bunch of randomness put together. I've had to analyze poetry in previous English classes but I was never given as much background as I have in this class. The reading sections set me in being able to understand what I was looking for. I think what was difficult for me was trying to figure out how to organize an essay by taking two poems and comparing and contrasting them. It was pretty hard for me to understand poetry for the first time and try to put it all together at the same time, however I am glad to have had the experience so that I have an idea of what I am doing next time.