Reflection on "Prospectus" (poem by Joe Nieto)

Joe Nieto’s Prospectus on page 22 of Tongue Tied, provides a vivid description of the simplicity of life. Though simple, life was beautiful, original, untouched and unscathed, free of the pressures of a modern world and language.
According to the text he ate with his fingers, he went barefoot most times, he washed his hair with yucca roots and most importantly he only spoke his language. To me, this is a true reflection of what life was like for many immigrants until they were coerced into modernization and monolingualism. No doubt, these (modernization and monolingualism) come at a cost because their freedom, culture, their basic way of life will be stripped in acquiring the new language and way of life. I like the last part of the poem where he said “Someday I’ll learn to speak English”. This signifies the lack of urgency which for me is a good thing. If learning Standard English means that you must be stripped of your heritage and culture then let there be no urgency!!

Source: Santa Ana, Otto (2004) Tongue Tied: The lives of multilingual children in public education.