Famous poet Martin Espada has written many poems in his lifetime. They are usually about fairly heavy and deep issues. His connection to his heritage is common in his poems. They show examples of personal experience and different things that he can connect to that are geared towards immigrants and natives. In every single poem, Espada shows a common theme. This theme is the discrimination towards hispanics. In all of his examples of discrimination, he also shows an abuse of power. In the poems “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”, and “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877”, this common theme is shown. In Espada’s poems he shows a connection to discrimination.
In the poem “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877”, Espada talks about history and events that he can connect to. In this poem, he says “More than the moment/ when forty gringo vigilantes/ cheered the rope/ that snapped two Mexicanos/ into the grimacing sleep of broken necks,”. This already shows hate for the whites from 1877 because of how he referred to them as “gringos”. It is already easy to see that he has a connection to these poor Mexican men. Even though this was over 100 years ago, he still sees the discrimination that may have changed hispanics forever and the abuse of power that the whites had used on the Mexicans who were lynched. This shows how Espada shows discrimination because his personal connection hints that he has experienced similar things.
In another one of his poems, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”, Espada talks about a modern day issue that actually took place. For example, he writes “The only word he recognizes/ is his own name/ and this constipates him/ So he decides/ to ban Spanish/ in the bathrooms/ Now he can relax”. This shows that the man in the stall (the principal) is abusing his power by pretty much taking away the students’ basic rights. This is clearly an act of discrimination that is highly unfair. The principal thought to quickly and made a bad decision because of his feeling of discomfort or said constipation. This poem shows discrimination and the abuse of power because of the principal’s actions and the outcome of them.
Espada has poems that have to do with personal experience. For example in Espada’s poem “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, he writes “Whenever my name/ is mispronounced,/ I want to buy a toy pistol,/ put on dark sunglasses,/ push my beret to an angle,” This way that people mispronounce his name constantly annoys him. Later in the poem he writes “hijack a busload/ of Republican tourists/ from Wisconsin,/ force them to chant/ anti-American slogans/ in Spanish,” This shows how much anger is inside of him that he wants to let out whenever republican rich white men go against immigrants and discriminate against them. All of this pent up anger is just an everyday feeling that he gets from this group of people. This poem shows discrimination in the abuse of power because it refers to rich Republicans with power usually exploiting hispanics and not caring at all.
In conclusion, Espadas poems whether they are about personal experience, historic events he can connect to, or just stories that he has heard, they all show the common themes of discrimination and the abuse of power. The reason he does this is that as a hispanic immigrant, he understands the terrible feeling of not being treated fairly and so by writing about it, he is able to release his anger and show his true feelings about what he believes is the justice that must be done. His “Revolutionary” poems go to show how non-hipanics or just Americans can feel his pain.
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