Benjamin Garcia Event

After attending the Benjamin Garcia event this afternoon, I noticed many similarities from what we learn in class. All of his poems have a different meaning to them and have some personal connection. Watching him read them, it was apparent that he devoted a lot of himself into creating each poem in the book. He read the poems confidently while showing a lot of emotion. At times he even had to take a second to compose himself by drinking water. He even shared an emotional moment he had with his partner about writing a poem about tacos. I liked how he confronted the areas that society is weird to accept like using swear words and talking about sex. While listening to his poems, I tried to make connections with the two books we read. As an immigrant, he was also told by everyone that if he worked hard then he would get rich. I related this to A Raisin in the Sun. The main theme of the play was the American Theme. The Youngers were a hardworking family but no matter how hard they worked they were never able to get enough to live comfortably. They even struggled to be able to own their own house. Garcia also shared in his poem about the glass closet that he lived with eleven family members including his grandparents and aunts. This reminded me of the Younger apartment since the entire family lived with each other. Garcia reminded me of Travis and Beneatha. They both grew up with everyone under the same roof but also had different dreams. When Walter asks what Travis wants to be, he says a bus driver but Walter said he needs to be something more in order to make money. Beneatha wants to marry someone she actually likes and not because he has money. Garcia was told to work hard in order to get rich but decided to major in poetry even though he knew it would be hard to make money in. He chose his passion just like Beneatha chooses her passion of trying to become a doctor. All of his poems were about some personal experiences. He talked a lot about his family which reminded me of The Woman Warrior. He talked about his mother’s village and her being poor. He explained how she was lucky enough to be able to eat this certain food that he does not even like. This reminded me of Kingston since she wrote a book to expose her village after coming to America. Garcia and Kingston show the difference in connection to the culture after moving to a new country. One of his poems “The Great Glass Closet” talks about his uncle being on crutches and still crossing the border. I connected this instantly with Kingston starting her book about the story of her aunt. Garcia wrote about his uncle while sharing his story of literally living in the/a closet. It showed that the story of his uncle influenced him in the way that Kingston was influenced by her aunt. Overall, Garcia is a talented poet and I enjoyed listening to his work!