Almost 43 million immigrants from Mexico currently reside in the United States. David Hernandez’s poem, “Pigeons”, metaphorically uses pigeons in Birdland to represent the Latinos in America. Although created 7 years earlier, the breathtaking painting created by Sardar Mohammed, named “Pigeon Beauty”, supports Hernandez’s art by visually enhancing his work. Through use of this metaphor, they also bring awareness to the values, politics involved, and stereotypes given to Latin Americans.
To begin, Hernandez discusses the value of pigeons in the bird world, or lack of. While attempting to figure out a solution to make pigeon’s coloring stand out, he simply explains, “they are too bright to be dull, and too dull to be bright” (David Hernandez).…show more content… While talks about their unique movements and how they “seem to be dancing like young street thugs” (Hernandez). The stereotype that all Mexicans are affiliated with gangs and crime is what Hernandez is comparing these pigeons to. He does not stop there, he then proceeds to describe a “10-speaker Sanyo book box radio on a 2-foot red shoulder strap” (Hernandez) that the pigeons carry around. This is an obvious metaphor to the same type of stereotype previously mentioned. Box radios being carried in the streets by a brightly colored strap on a Latino’s shoulder is highly stereotypical. Again, we see stereotypes in Mohammed’s painting, however targeted at a different type of person. In this painting the pigeon lady is draped in beautiful wraps worn primarily by older generations. Her dress also resembles innocence and grace. Bird ladies are perceived stereotypically as innocent, compassionate women and that is exactly what Mohammed accomplished in his work.
David Hernandez’s metaphor of pigeons as Latinos in America as well as Sardar Mohammed’s painting, titled ‘Pigeon Beauty’, can be broadened to an entire society. The ethical values, stereotypes, and stereotypes discussed are relatable to all ethnicities at one point or another. As Dr. Steve Maraboli once said, “you were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously” regardless of society’s
