Elena

Pat Mora’s “Elena” is a persona poem, which means that the perspective and the words in the poem belong to the character, not the poet (for more, see Literary Context). In such a poem, the reader is rarely given any background knowledge about the speaker, whose personality and motivation gradually emerge through her own words. The first piece of information the reader learns is that Elena believes that her “Spanish isn’t enough” (Line 1). Several lines that follow clarify that Elena’s feeling of inadequacy relates to her relationship with her children. In the past, she was able to understand “every word they’d say, / Their jokes, their songs, their plots” (Lines 4-5). This list reveals that she knew them intimately, including their sense of humor and their childlike schemes and fibs. She shared the emotions they expressed in their songs. Elena remembers how she would “smile / listening to [her] little ones” (Lines 2-3), basking in their mutual affection. She recalls them saying “Vamos a pedirle dulces a mamá. Vamos” (Line 6)—“Let’s ask mom for some sweets, c’mon.” She was confident that she would understand their explicit and implicit desires and be able to help them with their needs.