In Colorado My Father Scoured and Stacked Dishes

At the emotional core of Corral’s poem is the revelation in the closing lines that the son, who has been sharing fragments of memories of his father, now wears his father’s work shirt, its buttons shining in the moonlight of his desert walk. He has metaphorically become his father. The speaker focuses on his perception of his father and his father’s struggle to maintain dignity in a strange land where his strength, courage, and devotion to his son are tested. 

Latino cultures, including Mexico, traditionally place a strong emphasis on the role of the father. As the central figure, the father provides guidance and emotional discipline, commanding the family’s respect. However, the father in the poem faces challenges as an unauthorized immigrant, working menial jobs across the West and enduring daily indignities while raising his son. These hardships affect his sense of self-worth, leading him to cope with alcohol and grapple with feelings of inadequacy. 

He understands the weight of his poverty—unable even to provide his son with a simple goldfish for company. His spirit is broken, like the window he talks about one night after he had been drinking that can only be broken once (Lines 26-27). The advice he offers to his son as the two sleep, homeless, under the Arizona night sky, suggests the wisdom of surrender, of not fighting for one’s beliefs, of abandoning ideals and compromising values just to survive.