Borders

by Pat Mora

In Borders , Mora explores the political, cultural, social, and emotional borders that divide people, forming their individual identities.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1986

About the author

Pat Mora (born 1942) is a female Mexican-American author and poet. Pat Mora was born in El Paso, Texas. She is married and has 3 grown children.

Reviews

[Shelby Adcock]

This book is meant for a 6th grade audience and it falls underneath the poetry category of books. This book is one of my absolute favorites that I have ever read. There is a lot of deep meaning in this book because it explores many different social, cultural and political "borders" that we share as a country and as a world. These differences are usually what divides people and creates their individual identities within their home and their society. This book is written in many, many different poems that are written about multiple different perspectives. She wrote a poem about immigrants, her own son, borders across the world, and even generalized poems about stereotypical names that people are given or expressed as names of the group. This was such a WOW book for me just because this category is such a sensitive topic and Pat Mora wrote multiple ways of poetry to express the different things that divide people and allow them to create their individual identities.

I could use this book in the classroom to help demonstrate a very important idea of cultural competency in the social studies classroom and in the classroom in general. This type of book would definitely need to be read as a read aloud in the classroom because of the detailed and complicated nature of this specific poetry. As I am reading through the book with students, we could stop after every poem and have a classroom discussion about what it meant why that specific "border" is important to someone's social or cultural identity. Due to this topic being so sensitive in nature, I would be okay with student's voicing that they are not comfortable participating in that type of discussion. Another activity I would like to use in the classroom would be to have the students pick their favorite poem throughout the whole book and figure out which pattern of poetry it was written with. Then, if students are comfortable, I would ask them to write a poem about themself and what made their individual identity. Afterwards, we could share the poems with the whole class or in small groups. This would promote cultural competency in the classroom and would likely allow students to feel more comfortable within the classroom.

[Justin]

“If some day in a dark church I wait for a nod, smile, wink, will you just smash your foot into my mouth?”

[Diana]

Read this collection after Chants - simple yet profound poems that speak of the "borders" in such a variety of way - physical, metaphorical, psychological, spiritual. My favorite poem by Mora is in this collection: "Sonrisas." I am continuously awed by Mora's style and musicality.

[Rachel]

This is my favorite book of poetry by Pat Mora. The poems are simpler, more vulnerable. Very touching.

[Gayla]

What a beautiful view into what it means to live on the border between cultures.