Chris's+Analysis

=Freeway 280 =  Las casitas near the gray cannery, nestled amid wild abrazos of climbing roses and man-held red geraniums are gone now. The freeway conceals it all beneath a raised scar.

But under the fake windsounds of the open lanes, in the abandoned lots below, new grasses sprout, wild mustard remembers, old gardens come back stronger than they were, trees have been left standing in their yards. Albaricoqueros, cerezos, nogales... Viejitas come here with paper bags to gather greens. Espinaca, verdolagas, verbabuena...

I scramble over the wire fence that would have kept me out. Once, I wanted out, wanted the rigid lanes to take me to a place without sun, without the smell of tomatoes burning on swing shift in the greasy summer air.

Maybe it's here en los campos extranos de esta ciudad where I'll find it, that part of me mown under like a corpse or a loose seed.

Analysis
Lorna Dee Cervantes’ poem //Freeway 280// can be seen as a possible problem to her life that needs to be solved. //Freeway 280// has many meanings beneath the words as well as the poem itself. This story told through a poem could not only be one of her problems, but could be one of many others too as well. //Freeway 280//'s story is emphasized by the way Cervantes has written the poem.

The speaker of //Freeway 280// seems to be Cervantes. The words "I' and "me" are used several times, indicating that the poem is told by the author, Cervantes.

Beneath the title, //Freeway 280//, there is already a meaning. Freeway 280 is a North-South bound highway near San Jose, California. San Jose, California is also where Cervantes is from. When Cervantes refers to “The freeway conceals it / all beneath a raised scar.” (lines 4-5), it portrayed in image that seemed like it was a highway that had something underneath, something that was a big part of her life.

In the poem, Cervantes uses something that makes her poem unique: using Spanish and English. Cervantes uses English for the most part, but uses Spanish to start sentences and for complete lines. Examples of each would be the very beginning, where Cervantes presents the reader with “Las casitas near the gray cannery,” (line 1), and “Albaricoqueros, cerezos, nogales…” (line 11). There was more Spanish in the poem which needed translations which are vital for the poem. In line 1 quoted above, “Las casitas” literally means little house. In line 11 also quoted above, it means “Apricot tree, cherry tree, walnut tree…” In a complete translation of all the Spanish words, the poem starts to make sense.

Also in the lines containing the use of Spanish, is the use of ellipses. The ellipses are only used twice throughout the entire poem and are only used on the two lines in the second stanza containing only Spanish. Those two lines are “Albaricoqueros, cerezos, nogales…” (line 11) and “Espinaca, verdolagas, yerbabuena…” (line 13) and are referring to food that can be grown in ones backyard in California. Line 13 above translates to “Spinach, purslane, mint…”

Cervantes uses free verse to convey her story with no particular pentameter or rhyme scheme. This could help in her story, and what Cervantes does use, is a metaphor and simile. The metaphor used is “The freeway conceals it / all beneath a raised scar.” (lines 4-5). The freeway is being compared to a scar on the body, raised and covering something up. The simile used in //Freeway 280// is

That part of me Mown under Like a corpse Or a loose seed. (lines 22-25)

clearly comparing a part of her to a corpse or a loose seed. The simile is also in short lines where it seems very choppy; possibly implying that that part of her is dead. These comparisons play a big part in the understanding of the poem.

The comparisons alone already tell a big part of the poem: a part of her is missing under the freeway. The little house and all the climbing roses and man-high red geraniums that Cervantes grew up with are no longer there. Instead, where her house used to be, now stands a highway. Cervantes believes there are still plants that are growing under the freeway, and implies that they are stronger than before, replacing the old homegrown foods that were there once before. When Cervantes was younger, she dreamed of exploring outside her home via highways that could take her somewhere else, but now she wants to revisit her house, but cannot because of the highway that stands. Cervantes suggests that a piece of her is still with that house, the house that was demolished and had a highway built on it in “the strange fields of the city.” This piece of her is important to Cervantes, and this piece is missing with the house, which is the problem that she can't solve.

Cervantes’ //Freeway 280// is a poem that seems to tell part of her life. It uses both Spanish and English to tell part of a story in Cervantes’ life. It not only is her story, but many others for her friends and family.

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