Post 6: Para Teresa
This is a poem means ‘For Teresa’, this is a poem dedicated to the authors friend, Teresa who she remembers and wants to tell her how she understands her view on life after all these years. Ines Hernandez Avila, the author of this poem is an assistant professor in Native American studies at the University of California, Davis.
This poem starts with the author dedicating her poem to her friend. She talks about the first meeting she had with Teresa and how her and her friends teased her. They asked her why did she always try to be so smart, assumed that she was trying to be a teacher’s pet. The author at this point in the poem shows that she was not trying to work hard for the teachers, but she was actually doing it for her parents and her grandparents. These she explains are people who have worked hard in order for her to be able to study and she wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity. She explains how her parents did not have what she could get in life and she wanted to prove to them that she could do something in life for them.
Avila understands however, as she has grown up how Teresa must have felt. She knew that the only reason Teresa may have mocked her was because she was scared by her power of knowledge. She felt inferior to Avila and the only reason she needed to tease her was because she felt better by putting Avila down. Avila, on the other hand, talks about how she felt that everyone was equal and her only motive was to show her family that she could study and make something of her life. Avila also strongly believed that if she could study, so could all the others.
She felt that even though she could not say anything to Teresa, even though they were two completely different people with different views, they were still together; “ Pero Fuimos Juntas”.
In the end Avila names Teresa her sister, she understands how Teresa felt and what she went through. She respects the way Teresa handled her situation and was on top of everyone else even though she felt insecure. She was able to mark her position.
This article gives a great insight to how two completely diverse students could be, someone who is focused to someone who seems to be careless and the school bully. They both have the same motives as well as the same fears in life, just every different ways of approaching the same situation. This is something every person should consider before blaming others for not seeing things their way.
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