https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/90979/el-salvador

==Biography and content ==

• To begin this interpretation, it is important to know the background of the poet, Javier Zamora is a Salvadoran immigrant who came to the U.S when he was 9 years to join his parents that left their country due to political conflicts and the war.

• Javier Zamora’s “El Salvador”  is about his love-hate relationship with the country he was forced to leave, is the struggle of loving El Salvador even when it has taken away many things and made it impossible for him to stay and have a life there.

• The author makes a contrast between the beautiful things he appreciates about his home and the things that made him doubt staying. Zamora uses personification, imagery, and repetitive contradiction, to state how his relationship with El Salvador is complicated, and even though he despises many aspects of it he will always love his home.

Analysis of the poem

• Zamora starts the poem by personifying his country by calling it Salvador, as he says “my thumb will clean your beard of salt, and if I touch your volcanic face, kiss your pumice breath…” (Zamora) he establishes a more intimate connection as if it were a person he can interact with.

• Throughout the poem, he refers to El Salvador as he, this to me means the narrator's need to express his feelings, he doesn't address it as if it was a lifeless place but as a person who also has emotional conflicts, as if he is arguing with another human being to whom he wants to ask for explanations of why he is treating him this way and is forcing him to leave everything he loves.

• Zamora uses contrast throughout the poem and states: “Grandparents say: nothing happens here. Cousin says: here, it’s worse.  Don’t come ”(Zamora) to describe the conflict of deciding what are his true feelings towards Salvador.

• Zamora represents the conflict between the good and bad things with more imagery and metaphor, such as black bags referring to death since these kinds of bags are used to keep dead bodies, pollen representing blood, and the high amount of violence occurring in the streets as he says “Your barrios stain you with pollen, red liquid pollen”(Zamora), and brushing Abuelita’s hair, the pots, and pans symbolizing the lovable assets of El Salvador: the innocent things that keep Zamora loving El Salvador despite the war, government, and other negative issues.

Conclusion

• He finalizes with “Tonight, how I wish you made it easier to love you, Salvador” (Zamora), which represents the emotional battle of many immigrants, and that I also feel every time when I think of my country, it hasn’t been easy at all to move to a completely different place because the “home” where you grew up couldn’t offer you what you expected and has threatened the integrity of your family.

• This poem caught my attention because it represents exactly what I’ve been feeling during this adventure, it means for me the painful struggle of missing my country every day because all the things I love are there, but having a hard time loving it as a whole thanks to the armed conflict, the corruption, violence, and all the issues that affected my own identity and the way I see my environment.