Sonrisas

Sonrisas 

When first reading Pat Mora’s poem, I scored myself a 4 on my comprehension. From the start I felt a little intimidated since I saw that there were Spanish words sprinkled throughout the poem. I had studied French and was completely clueless when it came to another language. The title being “Sonrisas” was the first thing I looked at, and wanted to know what it meant so that I could indeed know what this was actually about. My first reading I was trying to figure out where this was taking place. I saw that there were only women, and noticed all the details from the start. I did not really get what this poem was about at all the first reading, so I went on and read it a few more times. After re-reading this poem I broke it down line by line. I wrote next to each line what I thought the author was trying to say and it seemed to work for me as I went on. When Mora says, “I live in a doorway between two rooms,” I figured that she was stuck between two things. Maybe not even physically, but mentally she may have felt this way. The constant noise with that sounds of coffee cups and serious faces led me to believe that they had to be in some work setting. Yet the second set of the poem brought confusion because I saw the Spanish words begin to sink in. When the narrator looks into another room, she sees these women all in the same beige color dresses and none of them really seem to be happy, in my opinion, yet concealing their happiness (if they even were happy). My questions at this point were they being forced under some conditions to hide back any emotions and simply work? I decided I would score myself a 5-6. The third time I read it I scored myself a 7. I admit, I did cheat and look up what the title meant which turned out to be “Smile.” After this, it made a little more sense to me. With the title being smile it seemed to be the exact opposite with how these women were really feeling. What I got from the poem was that these Mexican women were put to work. I’m still not sure where this takes place, yet to me it seems that they are forced in a way. They seldom sneak smiles and their “dark eyes” seem to always be serious. The narrator seems to be stuck in a situation where she may not want to be, but possibly does not have a choice. The only sounds seem to be the noise of objects, coffee cups and the constant busy workplace sounds. Although the last time I did read it I saw the word laughter which I did not notice before, for some reason I did not feel that it meant happiness since right after it they talk about how they scold one another. As far as morals go, I still think that is up in the air. I did not really get a moral out of this poem like a lot of poems provide but I think it is more supposed to be story and showing of an event more than anything.