Lorna Dee Cervantes

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Lorna Dee Cervantes was born in San Francisco, California, on August 6 1954. Of both Native American and Mexican heritage, Cervantes belongs to her family’s fifth generation and has always been proud oh her ancestry. After she graduated from California State University at Santa Cruz she published Emplumada, where Freeway 280 appears. Cervantes’s Freeway 280 portrays her life as a Chicana; it shows the things she does to survive in this concrete freeway she once called home. This poem symbolizes her life and the life of many Mexican Americans and other Latinos that life in the United States. Being Mexican American and Native American is a big deal to Cervantes and many others who share these roots. She clearly represents this in the poem. “Viejitas come here with paper bags to gather greens.” (Cervantes 12) These lines show how her language, knowledge, and care are visibly noted in a daily basis. “The women know the worth of this rich source of nutrition and they happily collect the food in their bags.”(Constantakis 63) These vegetables are a big deal to these families’ everyday cooking. Since they do not have money purchase or to take their families out to eat they are grateful and they see these greens as a blessing. Unfortunately people like Lorna learn to live a humble life due to their jobs and low incomes. “Las casitas near the gray cannery” (Cervantes 1) or little houses help the reader picture how they live. “The neighborhood is not a place where well-to-do families live. They have little wealth.” (Constantakis 63) The images she gives her audience symbolize all the good and bad memories she had of her childhood. Cervantes tries to survive but it seems hard. “But under the fake wind sounds of the open lanes in the abandoned lots below, new grasses sprout.” (Cervantes 6-7) The second stanza suggests hope, but at the same time disillusionment. “It

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