Sophie Lock

ENGL 525
28 October 2014



Both Junot Diaz and Eduardo C. Corral use humour within colloquial language in
order to convey serious issues of race and otherness in their works. In his poem In
Colorado My Father Scoured and Stacked Dishes Corral is emphasising the plight of
the Mexican immigrant, he highlights serious issues such as illegal immigration and
alienation through a humorous lens. The first lines of the poem state His co-
workers,/ unable to utter his name, renamed him Jalapeo, while this is amusing it is
also serious as it is showing the alienation of Corrals father in a new country, where
people cannot even pronounce his name and substitute it with a Mexican stereotype:
Jalapeo. Diaz also uses this method, when Oscar is insulted he decides not to
retort as his cool-index already low, couldnt have survived that kind of paliza,
would have put him on par withJoe Locorotundo, who was famous for
masturbating in public while this statement exhibits a dark humour that Diaz
continues throughout his novel, it is also highlighting the sense of loneliness Oscar
feels. He is not able to defend himself when insulted for fear of becoming more of a
pariah than he already is. This can be compared with Corral as on the surface both
writers statements are humorous but when looking beneath the surface the humour is
dark and shows serious issues such as alienation, loneliness and race.
The colloquial language used by both authors is interwoven into the humour
giving their work a casual, conversational tone. Combined with the humour this
allows for the reader to connect with their works easily and therefore take more
interest in the serious subtext of the writings. This colloquial language is often written
in Spanish, in Corrals poem he states, I woke with his thumb in my mouth. No qu
no/ tronabas, pistolita? The use of Spanish is deliberate as it will either alienate those
who cannot speak Spanish, therefore giving them an idea of how his father may have
felt, or allow a Spanish speaker to feel a sense of togetherness with his father. Diaz,
uses this same technique as shown in this statement His abuela, La Inca? Hijo,
youre the most buenmoso man I know! The effect of this technique in both authors
works is that they show the sense of community these individual groups share through
a common language and how, although this may alienate them, it also brings them
closer together. Corral also emphasises this idea of language, again with humour,
when saying He learned English/ by listening to the radio. The first four words/he
memorized: In God We Trust. The fifth:/Percolate. This shows the difficultly of
learning a second language as an illegal immigrant and highlights the barrier that
language can construct. This barrier is also felt by a non-Spanish speaking reader in
both texts, which emphasises the alienation felt by the subject/characters, when there
is a lack of understanding.
In total both authors use a combination of colloquial language and humour in
order to make their writing easily understandable and enjoyable. They do this in order
to highlight the more serious themes of alienation and otherness certain races feel
when in another country.