In this literacy narrative essay, I chose to write about a parallel experience I share with a character. Uniquely, I wrote about a speaker in the poem, Latino-Americanos: The Children of an Oscuro Pasado, by Xochitl Morales. My experiences were detailed chronologically, from the age of eight until high school, deciphering the important moments in my life regarding my ethnicity. Arriving at my final draft was a productive process and after feedback from my peers and teacher, I was able to write a strong final draft and aim for the course learning outcome goal.

Before even writing, I struggled to find a character I connected with. I began to search online and ultimately found a poem that conveys the message I want portrayed to my audience, especially to Latin-Americans/Hispanics. My ideas were organized into an outline and rough draft that were each peer reviewed. As a result, the feedback guided me find more significant details, such as when I realized that my ethnicity is the incentive that induces me to strive high, and allowed me to improve my grammar and punctuation.

In my literacy narrative, I employed rhetorical strategies learned in class to strengthen my writing and its exigence. I aimed to inform the reader about my experiences growing up as a Hispanic female and the responsibilities I had to perform, like cooking and laundry, at such a young age. At the end, I took on a persuasive tone, to voice how being Hispanic should motivate one to do better and not fall under the stereotypes of not being scholarly enough. A humorous tone was also incorporated a couple of times when stating how as the older sibling, I made my brother help me with my chores as to appeal and relate to the reader. Furthermore, cultural vocabulary was integrated, such as “machistas” and “habichuelas”, in order to find a commonality with the audience and add meaning to my purpose.

The poem used was cited within my essay with quotes and line numbers, to provide examples on how I relate to the speaker, by quoting her struggles dealing with her Mexican identity. I briefly summarized the poem in the introduction, which could have been more detailed in order to give a better idea as to what the poem is portraying and how that connects to me. The essay itself was well organized but slightly long since it did pass the preferred page limit.

All in all, the task itself helped and taught me to organize my thoughts into a literacy narrative while integrating another piece of literature. It encouraged me to dig into my memories, some of which I didn’t realize until now, defined my identity as a Latin-American. As a result of the feedback and revision, my essay was improved and for next time, I know to focus on summarizing the text better, improving my grammar, and giving more vivid and concise details.   

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