Title: The Intersection of Poetry and U.S.-Mexican Border Affairs in Natalie Scenters-Zapico’s “Lima :: Limón”
The Poet
Natalie Scenters-Zapico is a poet from the United States-Mexico border towns of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Her work, like her origin, is about borders. In her debut collection, The Verging Cities, Scenters-Zapico explores immigration, marriage, and femicide in the realm of border culture and identity [1]. She expands these themes in her second collection, Lima :: Limón, where she creates a scathing depiction of the brutal machismo that conditions a Mexican woman’s experience. Lima :: Limon is especially personal to Scenters-Zapico. Her lyrical passages draw from the music of her childhood. In an age where distorted narratives about immigration lead to family separation and threaten asylum seekers, Lima :: Limon’s intimacy is especially critical. Unlike the efficacy of border policy or trade negotiations, Scenters-Zapico’s personal narrative is undeniable—as are the harrowing experiences of millions of Mexican women.
Natalie Scenters-Zapico writes about her recounts. In a 2015 interview with Blue Mesa Review, when asked if she thinks of an ideal reader while writing, Scenters-Zapico responded, “Never, [because] it’s helpful … to develop your craft purely for yourself and for your art” (O’Connor 2015). And, when asked about her follow up to The Verging Cities, she shared that she was “interested in violence, depictions of violence, and the way that we commodify violence … on the border” (O’Connor 2015). It is therefore necessary to consider Lima :: Limon as Scenters-Zapico’s personal depiction of the brutality women experience daily at the United States-Mexico border.
Lima :: Limón
Lima :: Limón arrives at a time when Mexican women are largely forgotten as policymakers discuss increased border security over fears of narco-violence. In the poem “Notes on my Present: A Counter Punctual,” Scenters-Zapico suggests U.S. border policy enables the machismo that harms Mexican women. She writes, “Macho, you/ breathe bright in the neocolony/ a problem of Empire pulling/ the capitalist threads of my border” (Scenters-Zapico 45). Here, “Empire” is the United States, whose leaders implement border policy for supposed economic gain. This policy creates walls that avert Mexican women from fleeing the brutality they face. As she brings this to light, Scenters-Zapico makes reference to Donald Trump’s infamous 2015 presidential campaign announcement, in which he asserted that Mexican immigrants are drug dealers, rapists, and criminals. This rhetoric is complicit in the suffering of Mexican women on the border. It creates the idea that, when they find refuge in the United States, the violence Mexican women suffer from follows them. Nevertheless, this association of Mexican women and suffering is not unique to the United States.
The Duality of Man and Woman
On the other side of the border, in Mexico, suffering also seems inherent to a Mexican woman’s experience. This is understood through the duality of macho and hembra (man and woman) of which Scenters-Zapico writes. Throughout Lima :: Limón, Scenters-Zapico includes a series of anecdotes entitled “Macho :: Hembra.” These short recounts depict the relationship between men and women in traditional Mexican culture. Man is dominant, always right, and uses force if he has to. Woman is submissive, never right, and “never speaks of the violence of men” (Scenters-Zapico 25). This relationship between man and woman makes men—and their violence—necessary to counteract women’s frailty. Scenters-Zapico presents “Macho :: Hembra” sporadically throughout her collection to suggest that this dichotomy is ever present, as it has become mundane in the Mexican woman’s experience.
Commodified Violence
Through fluid prose, Lima :: Limón reveals the commodification of femicide in Mexican border cities. In “The Women Wear Surgical Masks,” Scenters-Zapico writes of the funeral-like anti-femicide protests women hold in Mexican border towns. She calls this piece “an unbeautiful poem—uncrafted/ with sterile diction” (Scenters-Zapico 39). Her mournful tercets here are a departure from her otherwise songlike poems. Unlike the rest of her pieces, this one is blunt and lacks overt artistic flair. It is a candid representation of the everyday mourning of these women. This contrasts with the portrayals found in the news and “glossy magazines” that draw revenue from melodramatic depictions (Scenters-Zapico 30). Scenters-Zapico’s decision to not “turn these women into an aesthetic” is a form of resistance against lucrative representations of these women’s daily agony (Scenters-Zapico 39).
The Power of Personal Narrative
As the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) comes to fruition, pundits across North America stand divided. They either villify or commend this replacement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and its efficacy will be disputed for years after its inception. This is where personal narratives supersede international affairs. One cannot deny a personal recount of suffering at the border the way one can deny the efficacy of policy. When Scenters-Zapico shares her experiences, readers cannot deny their legitimacy, nor should they. It is easy to make sweeping statements about violence at the border, but it is also important to remember that there are countless women who cannot share their narratives the way Scenters-Zapico does. Lima :: Limón is a reminder of this reality.
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Gabriel Panuco-Mercado is an undergraduate in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
[1] In “When Culture Matters: Frame Resonance and Protests against Femicide in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico,” Chelsea Starr defines femicide as “killing women because they are women, and for no other reason.”
Work Cited
O’Connor, DM. “An Interview With Natalie Scenters-Zapico.” Blue Mesa Review, 2015.
Scenters-Zapico, Natalie. Lima:: Limón. Copper Canyon Press, 2019.
Starr, C. “When Culture Matters: Frame Resonance and Protests Against Femicide in Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico.” Qualitative Report 22.5 (2017): 1359–1378. Print.