Essay Sample on Odyssey to the North: An Allegorical Reflection on Immigrant Experiences

Introduction

The novel Odyssey to the North offers an allegorical interpretation of the experiences that refugees have within their new places of residents. The author demonstrates the refugees' experiences by examining the lessons that the immigrants that occupied Mexican and Central American had between the twentieth and the start of the twenty-first century (Bencastro 116). The novel provides comprehensive explanations of the actual occasions and ordeal that the immigrants underwent by delivering a myriad of testimonials from various theoretical lenses alongside fictional narratives that explain the immigrants' encounters in the two regions of Central America and Mexico. Therefore, the multi-genre alongside cultural studies outlook that the novel gives the refugees develops a clear narration of how the writer tells their immigrant tales while creating a practical experience-based story.The description would lend an attentive ear to the subaltern along with increasingly challenging conical frameworks of interpretation. The imagery behind the experiences is more apparent from the empathy and clear illustration that the author gives regarding the experiences of the refugees.

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The novel contains multiple dialogues with Latin America's testimonials on the experiences they had while taking refuge in other parts of the country. The experiences are expressed on accounts of eye-witnesses to ascertain their validity since they also explore multiple aspects of socio-political along with varying facets of becoming an immigrant (Millar 7). The author offers many angles from which the interpretive fields can be viewed. It takes into account the aspects of transnationalism, border studies and mobility. Therefore, the experiences portrayed are more practical just from the point the interpretive angles are presented.

The insights of transnationalism are essential in foregrounding the theme of refuge since it explains multiple processes involved in changing of individual geographical locations. The author has used numerous discursive strategies that apply the use of oral explanation to demonstrate the power of voices. Therefore, the novel has showcased the views of immigrants, and their lamentations, which have, in turn, created more social space that would foresee the impending instances of community exposure to regions that were known as contact zones in the country.

Similarly, the novel depicts the experienced that the refugees had in the regions of Mexican and Central Americans through presenting the sequential occasions during the decades of civil war in Central America (Millar 7). The event reveals that the need for human resources within the United States was among the primary cause that made the Hispanic migrants become stock characters in the life of urban Americans. The Hispanics were regarded as inferior and had to follow the instruction given by the Americans within urban. For example, in Calixto's statements in the book expressed hoe, the immigrants were controlled. For instance, he said, "That with his stomach empty but his soul full of hope," the author explains the practical experiences within the regions (Bencastro 112). The statement is explicit imagery that means that the immigrants' effort was never appreciated regardless of their contribution towards the countries. Therefore, it is clear that the immigrants faced several problems that entailed working.

The author explains the feelings of the immigrants by creating a more sensitive, along with a more substantial portrait of Calixto, who was among the immigrants. Therefore, he indirectly condemns the ongoing political persecution that the immigrants faced in foreign homelands. The novel creates both heartbreak and humour by explaining the misunderstanding that both the natives and immigrants had while in a foreign land. The author aims at creating more instances of the theme. The revelation gets clear on the explanation of literary mosaic conversations along with newspaper clippings through the survival stories that the immigrants try to keep to the standards of the new rules in the foreign land. The increasing number of immigrants resulted from crowded tenements. Therefore, the center has become a proving ground for individual parents. The author presents how Calixto, alongside the personal family, present mage.

The novel presents the primary reason that facilitated immigration into the regions of Mexican and Central America. The Mexican Americans .have triggered the aspect of refugees as they are the most individuals with illustrative instincts regarding various border crossers rules in the regions. The immigrants incepted various forms of dinner by revealing that the Puerto- Ricans (Bencastro 112). They are the citizens with fluctuating independence since their average economy. After the encounters while in the society, the author concludes how immigrants were treated in the remote region. The military forces within the American were set to complete lost practices that oppressed typical refugees' orders. Within the area, Cuban-Americans became the only refugee.

The novel also foregrounds the communists' regime that was established within Latin America who were immigrants in the United States. The former group became refugees in the country after extreme political persecution that was fueled by Castro's revolution. Therefore, their state implies the kind of life that the community lived before seeking refuge in the United States. The communities were vulnerable and were ready to perform every requirement prompted by the Americans as they were refugees in their country and had no apparent place that they could be better than the United States.

However, the refugees felt more pressure from American citizens. In 2006, millions of people decided to protest in major cities of the United States to uphold the rights and freedom of refugees since they felt extreme oppressions from them (Millar 7). Cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago were the major hot spots where the immigrants' activists staged their demonstrations to express their discontent ion with the newly proposed legislation on immigrants (Bencastro 117). (HR 4437), which was the proposal aimed at increasing the fines that were levied on any instance of illegal migration into the country (Millar 7). Besides, the bill aimed at prosecuting any undocumented immigrants along with their families and felons. The refugees felt the rule as more oppressive and took to the streets of the major cities to stop the bill from being passed by the government so that they could remain safe.

Even though the legislation failed after the immigrants' activists tabled substantial arguments, it signified the rate at which the debates regarding immigration were becoming an issue within the United States. The Latin/o American immigrants have been the primary targets on the discussions since they constitute the most significant part of immigrant society within the US. Besides, they had undesirable experiences having passed made illegal moves in crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, which is conventionally regarded as most internationalized global borders (Millar 7). Only the Mexicans and Central Americans, in particular, had the chance to cross the border to pursue the "American Dream" to evade any impending political turmoil alongside economic challenges faced within their regions from the influx of immigrants (Bencastro 122). The immigrants were restricted from using the borders hence signifying the nature of the relationship that the residents had with the refugees.

Mexico and Central America did express any indicative signs to the Salvadoran refugees because of the presence of diverse linguistic along with inconsistent socio-political signs (Millar 7). Instead, Bencastro holds that the duo represents the multiple tensions within the region resulting from various historical patterns and economic events that had taken place in the country. Besides, the two areas have deeper links from the existing geographical ties, agricultural production, as well as the ongoing civil wars that have significantly perpetuated the migration patterns within the regions. The models have been increasingly used to set the new rules that guide refugees in the country. Such regulations have not always been fair to the victims, as can be concluded from the testimonials lenses of written work along with fictional narratives. Also, documentary films and popular music have been used as the determinants of how the refugees would be controlled, making them feel oppressed.

Generally, Bencastro's work, Odyssey, to the North is a valid representation of how cultural activities lead to the development of distinction space regarding human experiences of migration by foregrounding the unique dynamics of the process along with the individual and collective trademarks. The texts comprehensively present the immigrant communities and their fluctuating experiences and feelings that result from changing the environment. The novels make the immigrants' situations more visible through sharing them with the audience in a more practical way that creates the actual pictures of the scenarios in the readers' minds. Besides, the assertion on rights and belongings that Bencastro gives to the refugees' situation reinstates the need for cracks of political representations in the host communities. Therefore, the refugees' experiences presented by the author invite various readers and listeners to participate in different creative processes and qualitative analysis that appeal to individual imagination alongside critical thinking.

Works Cited

Bencastro, Mario. Odyssey to the North. Arte Publico Press, 1998. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IC9rG6XvDXcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Mario+Bencastro%E2%80%99s+Odyssey+to+the+North&ots=yuM7sFtEgm&sig=bLOCk79wmI2aIeJeUYb8IHyBz1g

Millar, Michael. "Odyssey to the north: Salvadoran identities-American lives." Dialogo 8.1 (2004): 7. https://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1117&context=dialogo