Martin Espada

Martin Espada

Martin Espada is a Brooklyn born poet, who's written 8 books and many poems. Among those 3 are about his Latino cultures, "The New Bathroom Policy at English High School", "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson" and "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877".  All these poems focus on Spanish, it's culture, history, and power being abused.

 One of his poems, "The News Bathroom Policy at English High School". This short poem shows boys talking Spanish in a school  bathroom. The principal is bothered when he hears his name, so he decides to ban Spanish speaking in the bathroom.  "The only word he recognizes/ is his own name... So he decides/ to ban Spanish/ in the bathrooms/ now he can relax." Just because he was uncomfortable with the Spanish in the bathroom, he made it a rule that they couldn't. That's an abuse of power, because the Spanish boys didn't do anything wrong; the principal just used his power to make his life easier and ride them of their language- something they're entitled to.

Although not as obvious as in the other two poems, "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson" also displays the same main ideas as others. This poem talks about unfairness and anise of power on two sides. First is the speaker talking about how he would hijack a bus. "I want to buy a toy pistol... Hijack a bus load/ of republican tourists... Force them to chant/ anti-American slogans." Although he has reasons to be mad (never having his name pronounced correctly) which is frustrating, it isn't right to do anything so extreme. The SWAT team also abused their power by being overly aggressive. The speaker was acting rashly but didn't hurt anyone, but the SWAT people were quick to threaten him, and that was unnecessary.

 A third poem by Martin Espada with misused control is "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877". Unlike the first two which are concerning more current times, this poem goes back to lynchings of Mexicans in the 1870s. Although African American lynchings are something taught in school, it did happen to many Latinos, and almost anyone who wasn't white. Espada brings that back to attention through his work.  "...forty gringo vigilantes/ cheered the rope/ that snapped two Mexicanos/ into the grimacing sleep of broken necks." That specific talked about two Mexicans, but it applied to many during that time period. Solely for the amusing of whites and because of racism, innocent people were hung; a complete abuse of power.

From the 1870s to current time, Martin Espada portrayed people taking advantage of Latinos. 

He showed this problem in a way that wasn't textbook dreary, but through more captivating 

poems. So a common theme in "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 

1877", "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson", and "The New Bathroom Policy at English High 

School" is how authors is being used in wrongful ways.