A Study Guide for Juan Felipe Herrera's "Everyday We Get More Illegal"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Juan Felipe Herrera's "Everyday We Get More Illegal", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Studentsfor all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jan 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781535845915

Book preview

17

Everyday We Get More Illegal

Juan Felipe Herrera

2011

Introduction

Chicano poet Juan Felipe Herrera, son of immigrant Mexican migrant workers, was the poet laureate of the United States from 2015 to 2017 and frequently deals with the timely issues of immigration and living on the border of two cultures as a Mexican American. His poem Everyday We Get More Illegal was published in print and online in 2011 in two different formats. The Platte Valley Review of the University of Nebraska at Kearney is a journal that printed the poem in long lines of free verse in its online Fall 2011–2012 issue, Weathering. The Academy of American Poets (poets.org), a nonprofit organization promoting poetry as a form of freedom and a lifeline for the human spirit, of which Herrera is a past chancellor, printed the poem in its oral form as Herrera performs it (seen on You-Tube). Herrera has many volumes of poetry printed by presses but also publishes online for poets.org and for poetry journals like the Platte Valley Review. The poem summary presents the free-verse form from Platte Valley Review, as that is often used by schools for study.

Herrera is known for his experimentation with poetic form and his embrace of subject matter that includes Chicano life and human rights. Many of his recent poems have been for the victims of gun violence, for Herrera has used his voice as poet laureate to comment on matters of American social justice. The many sides of the artist and man can be appreciated in Everyday We Get More Illegal. Herrera's life as a campesino or immigrant farmworker, as well as his parents' immigrant origin are reflected here. He also presents an image of the impoverished life of the Mexican American barrio, or slum, that he knew in San Diego. Alberto in the poem is the name of an illegal immigrant friend, whose case he highlights and champions. Alberto is a real person, not a stereotype of the Mexican as a criminal trying to invade the country. He is constantly on the move, looking for work to support his family and keeping away from authorities so he will not be deported or put in jail.

Herrera presents the point of view of the Mexican American and not the current government position on Mexican immigration. His