Gary Soto And His Poem A Red Palm

Famous Greek philosopher Plato once said, “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. ''In other words, Plato says that Poetry tells a more truthful story than history. Gary Soto was a poet who used his craft to express the Latino experience in America with more detail and color than history text. Gary Sotoand his family lived in southern california in the 1960’s, this was the time of the civil rights movement in America. Soto was of Latino descent and faced descrimination when finding work and in school. While Gary Soto was Living in California, his Latino Parents endured many adversities while working as migrant workers. Soto’s Poetry tells the story of the hardships faced by Mexican-American workers and their deprivation which is reflected in his poem A Red Palm. 

Gary Soto was born on April 12, 1952 to his Mexican-American parents in southern California. Soto’s Father died when he was five years old so his mother had to support the entire family and lived in poverty. During Soto’s childhood he lived in poverty and struggled to survive, this limited his early learning because he had to work to support himself and his family. Gary Soto got himself low paying jobs to support his family “Soto went to school in the Fresno area, and he worked in the fields as an agricultural laborer and as a low-paid factory worker, the inevitable lot of so many in his situation. ” Following this event Soto’s life was led into college and was allowed to study poetry. Soto’s education allowed him to become a teacher and work on his poetry more than ever. While Soto attended college his mentor Philip Levine a famous poet inspired him to tell the story of his childhood and growing up with a family of migrant workers living in poverty. Soto grew up during the height of the civil rights movement, this allowed him to pull himself out of poverty and become an educated individual. Soto’s early struggles due to the death of his father and his race influenced the rest of his life and can be seen in his poetry. 

During Soto’s life he witnessed racism, prejudice, and descrimination solely due to the fact he was hispanic. The event that impacted Gary Soto and his family the most was the beginning of the civil rights movement. While people were fighting for equality in Washington, Soto was working as farm and factory worker to support his family. Living in southern California, Soto as a Hispanic American forced Soto and his family to be low paid migrant workers similar to almost all in his situation. Soto was barely able to afford school without working on a farm “Striving for a better life, they have often faced discrimination and difficult working conditions”. Soto faced Descrimination and prejudice in school and in society solely due to the fact that he is Hispanic. 

The title of Gary Soto’s poem “A Red Palm,” describes the hardship and injury due to the tireless and unforgiving task of being a migrant worker. The poem is told in the first person view of a wandering laborer. due to the fact that Gary Soto was a farm worker during his life, we can infer that the roaming worker in the poem is referring to himself. “A Red Palm,” is focused toward anyone with the power to change the way Mexican-Americans are treated. The purpose of “A Red Palm,” is to bring the struggle of migrant workers to light. 

“A Red Palm,” by Gary Soto showcases the struggle of a migrant worker by implementing literary devices such as repetition and metaphors to enhance the theme that education is of high value. Repetition is used by Gary Soto when he writes “by the end of the first row, you can buy one splendid fish for wife and three sons. Another row, another fish, until you have enough and move on to milk, bread, meat. Ten hours and the cupboards creak. ” This shows the monotonous and grueling work these laborers endured. The repetition helps to illustrate the monotony while also supporting Soto’s theme that education is valuable to achieving a better life. Soto uses a metaphor when he writes “In an abandoned school of dry spiders. ” This is a metaphor for the fathers regret for not working to get an education so he could have a better life. Soto, born to Mexican-American laborers, wasn't pushed in school by his parents and did not work hard in school until he learned poetry. In his poetry, Soto captures the experience of an uneducated field worker using literary devices such as metaphors and repetition to enhance the importance of education as a theme.