ABSTRACT
Chitra Divakaruni's familiarity and skill with the classical Indian form of the poetic narrative, the telling of a story using poetic language and imagery, as well as her interest in the early South Asian immigrants to the United States are revealed in a series of five poems and poetic narratives, titled "The Yuba City Poems". Yuba City, settled by Punjab farmers around 1910, is now a thriving Indian community in northern California. Until the 1940s the Alien Land Laws largely precluded nonwhite immigrants from owning land, and immigration restrictions prevented their families from joining them. A number of the original settlers were never reunited with their families. The two selections in this anthology, "The Founding of Yuba City" and "Yuba City Wedding", portray men from the Punjab who came to California to farm, to settle a city, and to set up new families.
