Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry

“Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry” is a standard argumentative essay attempting to persuade readers that censorship, specifically of diverse voices, hinders the growth of both a reader and the United States as a nation full of multicultural communities. In addition to the personal anecdotes he weaves into his arguments, Anaya relies on binaries and symbolism to make an abstract concept like censorship more tangible.

To draw the reader into his argument, Anaya starts his essay by reflecting on his childhood experiences of feeling enchanted by his local library’s array of books. This appeal to nostalgia might compel readers who share similar memories. At the same time, he slyly integrates Rushdie into the conversation by comparing his own childhood in Eastern New Mexico to Rushdie’s in India—a parallel suggesting that reading is a universal pathway to knowledge. Moreover, at the time of the essay’s publication, news media had publicized the banning of Rushdie’s books in various countries around the world. The reference to Rushdie therefore sets the stage for the essay’s larger argument, that against censorship.

Anaya’s commentary arrives through personal anecdotes. According to Anaya, his friend’s inability to procure a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts evinces the publishing industry’s suppression of Chicano writing that incorporates certain cultural elements, such as bilingualism and local folklore and history.