A widely published poet, fiction writer, and critic, Semansky teaches literature and writing at Portland Community College. In the following essay Semansky examines Cruz's poem "Business" in relation to the other poems which accompany it and in relation to the poem's speaker, Don Arturo.

Victor Hernandez Cruz's poem "Business" is the third poem in a suite of poems in his collection entitled Mainland. The other poems in the suite are "Atmosphere," "Love," "Memory," and "Music." All of these poems are both descriptive and didactic, that is, they both portray and instruct. This makes sense for a book which takes as its theme life in the United States from the perspective of someone who was born on the small island of Puerto Rico. As a group, then, these poems can be seen as a primer meant to educate readers on what to keep and think about when making...