Judith Ortiz Cofer begins by flashbacking the past experience before she made an attempt to immigrate to America. From the short poem, the author notes that it is not easy to let go of the past life even though she is miles away from her cradle land. For instance, she can no longer see fishermen dragging their nets at the bay (Mendoza and Shankar 112).
Rob Nixon also notes that he immigrated to America at the age of 25. The author observes that his departure to America was mainly occasioned by politics. Nonetheless, he had also emotionally prepared himself to reside overseas at some point in his life (Mendoza and Shankar 69). Apartheid was apparently one of the most annoying experiences in South Africa before Rob Nixon eventually opted to seek refuge elsewhere. By the time Nixon was immigrating to America, he had already decided to abandon all the childhood thoughts and experiences that he was extremely used to while in South Africa. He eventually found himself living beyond memory. The past had to be forgotten completely.
In the first two years, while in America, Nixon lived in Lowa state. However, the place was overwhelmingly strange to him. Worse still, the “crossing fee” burial ritual had been haunting Nixon for a long time. The latter is a culture practiced in some west African countries. The grave of the dead person is covered with a sacrificial bird. This was apparently a mandatory practice among those practicing it.
Nixon took yet another two years to obtain his route to New York City (Mendoza and Shankar 70). Even after acquiring a doctorate in literature several years later, living as an immigrant was the toughest experience he had ever experienced in his entire life.
Works Cited
Mendoza, Louis and Subramanian Shankar (eds). Crossing Into America: The New Literature Of Immigration. New York: New pages, 2005. Print.