Isabel’s poem, “El Drama de la Domestica,” is a persona poem echoing the voice of a Mexican woman who serves as a maid to a rude family in America. The title tells all, translating to the drama of the domestic, she works under the wealthy family to send back the little money she can save to her impoverished family still stuck in Mexico.
Isabel incorporates the english and spanish translations of almost all of the lines, or important phrases. This makes it seems as if the Spanish is truly telling her story, and explaining it to Spanish and English peoples. In doing so, Isabel gives the speaker a genuine voice. A genuine voice which tells the sad sad story of a struggling woman. The parallel use of phrases beginning with “like” make her story more relatable because the voice seems more contemporary.
I love the mixture of language and the blend of a struggling woman’s negative and positive thoughts on her situation. I truly feel bad for her at the end of the poem. The last statement hits hard; “I must send a dollar to Mexico. And not, … my body in a box.” The break of lines puts a large emphasis on the last line “my body in a box,” which just imprints the vision into the readers mind that the woman’s life is not stable and America doesn’t always provide a free refuge.
Great work Isabel, I love to read your strong-voiced poems, so the persona is a great form for you!!