Martín
Espada, a famous poet, has brought upon his Spanish heritage and roots and
tried to relay different lessons of discrimination to his readers. Espada has
always been active in trying to give Hispanics, and people with Spanish
backgrounds more rights in the U.S. and for them to be treated equally. He
tries to send messages in his poems, without directly attacking any particular
group of people, to be aware of these discriminations made against the Latinos.
Espada seems to be someone who will go after an issue, like discrimination, and
bring a peaceful approach in ways of stopping it such as small lines in his
poems that can target specific groups to stop discrimination. He uses poetry as
a way to express himself with certain issues.
In
the poem “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, he writes “hijack a busload of
Republican tourists from Wisconsin” this quote can be interpreted in many ways.
But as it seems to me is that he’s aiming this at Republicans. Republicans are
known for not being in favor of immigration and letting illegal Latinos get
citizenship, which is against Espada’s beliefs. He wants for Hispanics and
Latinos to be able to have the right to one day become American Citizens. So by
saying “hijack” it sounds like he wants to show those Republicans his
frustration through somewhat of a metaphor, or something we know he wouldn’t
physically do, and show it through his writing in his poem. He also writes
“whenever my name is mispronounced” which is interesting because his name is
Spanish and when Americans say it wrong, it seems to be one of those things
that upsets him because it seems to them as his name isn’t normal or it doesn’t
sound right like they would pronounce it in America. This can be easily related
with Latinos being treated as minorities and not as Americans.
Also,
in his poem “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California” it speaks about
Mexicans that were lynched. “when forty gringo vigilantes, that cheered the
rope, that snapped two Mexicanos” this line is a literal reference to when
Mexicans had been lynched. But I think he more so writes this maybe to show
some of the current day discriminations against Latinos. The lynchings could
symbolize how they are treated in modern day. Issues such as immigration is a
way of saying they aren’t citizens and aren’t regular people which in some ways
is taking away their humanity and their lives.
In
another poem “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” is a more direct
ay he shows how Latinos are discriminated. It’s simply how the school principal
hears Spanish in the bathroom and it obviously bothers him, making him
“constipated” which is just a symbol to show that the Spanish bothers him, and
bans it. This is more directly saying how Mexcians and Latinos are
discriminated against and that it could reach points where American schools and
people with more power, would be bothered by kids speaking Spanish. Also, the
kids went to the Bathroom to speak Spanish, because they felt uncomfortable
speaking Spanish in class, which can show how Latinos are treated by the rest
of the people. And that they are the clear minorities who aren’t treated like
everyone else.
In
conclusion, Espada shows different levels of discrimination in different ways
in a lot of his poems. He tries to peacefully send a message to his readers,
and maybe politicians about the on-going problems of immigration and Latinos
being accepted in society. Some of his poems are more direct and the message is
more clear, and some you need to think about, and really try to see what message
Espada is trying to get across.
