A Mexican American Stuck in Egypt: Poems about everyday Chicano expatriate life in the Cradle of Civilization
Abstract
My thesis is a collection of forty-eight poems divided into five sections. The first section is one poem that chronicles my departure from Atlanta, Georgia to Shibeen al-Kowm, Egpyt. The second section contains two poems describing the arrival process and culture shock. The third section is twenty-eight poems describing the people, places, and incidents in Shibeen al-Kowm. The fourth section is ten poems dedicated to my visits in Cairo. And the fifth section covers seven poems of my final weeks in Egypt. Overall, these poems explore my travels in Egypt, culture shock that I experienced, reflections on being an unemployed expatriate, grappling with my identity as a Mexican American, Muslim and follower of the Salafi sect of Islam, the religious indoctrination and hypocrisy I became aware of while in Egypt, my struggles with love and polygyny, the beginning states of losing faith, isolation from my family and relatives, the discrimination I felt by Egyptians towards non-Egyptians, the bureaucracy of visas and paperwork, Middle Eastern politics, the misogyny I witnessed and practiced, and the instances of the Orientalism-Occidentalism spectrum that occur while I waited for my entry visa into Saudi Arabia.
Advisor
Michael Torres
Committee Member
Edward Avila
Date of Degree
2023
Language
english
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Program of Study
Creative Writing
Department
English
College
Humanities and Social Sciences
Recommended Citation
Maldonado, Thomas. (2023).A Mexican American Stuck in Egypt: Poems about everyday Chicano expatriate life in the Cradle of Civilization [Master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/1363/
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