Depression Days by Pat Mora
"Depression Days" by Pat Mora is a poignant free verse poem that captures the struggles faced by individuals during the Great Depression, specifically from 1929 to 1939. The poem revolves around a character, referred to as Delgado, who grapples with economic hardship and racial discrimination. Set against the backdrop of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal program aimed at providing relief through outdoor employment, the poem explores themes of poverty, identity, and escapism. Delgado's journey begins in a dark movie theater where he spends his last fifteen cents on a ticket, seeking temporary reprieve from his harsh realities.
As he watches films, he embarks on a metaphorical voyage that juxtaposes the fantasies of cinema with the stark realities of his life, including the loss of his father and the struggles of fellow Mexican workers. The character's internal conflicts are further emphasized by interactions with a sergeant who challenges his identity, presenting a choice between assimilation and self-acceptance. Through imagery of hunger, despair, and the longing for a better life, Mora's poem poignantly reflects the human experience of suffering, resilience, and the costs associated with one's identity amid a backdrop of societal challenges.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Depression Days by Pat Mora
First published: 1995, in Agua Santa/Holy Water
Type of poem: Lyric
The Poem
“Depression Days” is a short poem in free verse, consisting of thirty-five lines divided into seven stanzas. The title suggests not only a mood but also a specific historical period, 1929-1939. The Depression evokes a time of hardship and suffering because of a shortage of provisions and work. The poem, dedicated to Eduardo Delgado, focuses on the challenges presented to the main character by economic misery and racial discrimination. Pat Mora refers to him in the third person and does not specifically identify him by name until the fifth stanza, when she calls him her “uncle.”
The historical context is important to an understanding of “Depression Days.” The poem emphasizes the economic impact of the Great Depression and the involvement of Mora’s uncle with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), mentioned in line 8. The CCC, one of the most popular relief agencies of the New Deal, provided outdoor employment for numerous young men from 1933 to 1942. Many of the jobs were in conservation, usually in the nation’s parks and forests. The enrollees lived in campsites set up in different states participating in the relief program. One of those work camps is the specific setting for the poem.
The poem begins by projecting the character into darkness as he spends “his last fifteen cents” to purchase a movie ticket. With the last coins in his pocket, he buys a ticket to forget the harsh realities of his personal life. Literally and figuratively, “He buys the dark.” He escapes the light and reality by hiding in the darkness of a theater. As the film begins, he joins its seafaring men on the deck of the ship as their voices sing out, “Red Sails in the Sunset,” a popular English song of the mid 1930’s. Once on board the ship, the character embarks on a metaphoric voyage of self-discovery.
The next five stanzas begin exactly the same, with “He tries not to think,” and then catalog life’s harsh realities, which the man tries to obliterate from his mind as he adventures in the films. His first memory focuses on the previous night, presumably in the campsite, as he lay on his cot. This frame begins another movie, starring himself in the private role of “border kid playing CCC lumberjack.” The dark continues in the second stanza, but here it is a darkness left by the death of his father. The death has obligated the young man to work with the CCC, a work program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide financial assistance to needy families.
The poem then describes the natural elements with which the workers must contend. The character tries not to think of the other Mexican workers who joined him in the truck in the cold morning as they rode to work. The only Spanish line in the poem is their own comment to each other regarding the weather: “¡Caramba, qué frío!” The workers’ growling stomachs, which sound like the grinding gears in a truck, reveal their need to earn paychecks to buy food. Later, the “desert wind” makes its way into “the barracks” where the young workers reside, “herding” them like animals to gather near the warm stove. Delgado jokingly questions the reality of his own life as he asks, “Am I alive, doc?”
The fifth stanza introduces a disturbing conflict involving the sergeant. Because the Army directed the CCC work camps, a sergeant supervises this group. The young man, now identified as Delgado, tries to forget the sergeant’s voice “spitting” out his name and his own voice confirming that he indeed is Delgado. The stern frown and twitch of lips describe the sergeant’s attitude. The sixth stanza continues with Delgado trying to forget the sergeant’s words: “You don’t look Mexican, Delgado. Just change your name . . ./…and you’ve got a job.” Having the power to select those who get jobs, the sergeant offers Delgado an opportunity and a solution if only the latter will abandon his name and identity.
The seventh stanza concludes the poem by repeating the opening line: Delgado “buys the dark/ with his last fifteen cents” and returns to the darkness, where he began. The stanza indirectly reveals Delgado’s rejection of the sergeant’s proposition and recalls those affected by his decision.
Forms and Devices
Cinematic images structure “Depression Days.” Mora effectively contrasts the fantasy of films with the reality of Delgado’s life. They provide a means to escape and a chance to assume romanticized roles in several different films. The poem begins with the character watching “Reel after reel,” but the second stanza intrudes with a very personal projection of scenes that Delgado “tries not to think of.” The following five stanzas list experiences that he would prefer to forget but cannot. Those scenes are private, but they also apply to many others who found themselves in the same predicament during the Great Depression. The darkness of the theater functions as a framing device for the poem. Within the frame, Mora unravels a very disturbing experience.
The imagery of money and hunger in the poem is particularly relevant to the Great Depression. In both the first and last stanzas Delgado “buys the dark” with fifteen cents. References to “hungry for paychecks,” the offer of a job, “the bare icebox,” and “the price of eggs and names and skin” remind readers of Delgado’s hunger and desperate need for a job. The young men’s extreme hunger becomes more evident through their growling stomachs, “screechy as gears.” Their hunger is further emphasized by references to “bare flesh” and the question involving being alive. In the last line Mora juxtaposes “the price of eggs” with the price of the last two items, “names and skin”—the price to be paid for having a Mexican name or dark-complected skin.
Mora uses repetition as a technique to remind the readers of the reason Delgado seeks the darkness. The first two lines in stanza 1 are repeated in stanza 7: “He buys the dark/ with his last fifteen cents.” Enclosed within these two stanzas, the other five stanzas begin by repeating the refrain: “He tries not to think,” followed by those scenes Delgado wishes to forget. The repetition reinforces the fact that he does think about them.