Martin
Espada Essay
Naomi
Giancola 802
In this countries school
system, there is a lot of abuse of power that Martin Espada writes about. In
the three poems, “Two Mexicans lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3rd
1877,” “Revolutionary Spanish lesson,” and “The new bathroom policy at English
high school,” by Martin Espada, he explores the theme, abuse of power in all
three of these poems. In each poem, there is an authority figure that takes
advantage of their power and takes something away from speaker or subject of
the poem.
In the poem, “The new bathroom policy at English high school,” there are
some boys in a bathroom who are talking in Spanish, and the principle overhears
them speaking, and hears his name, “The only word he recognizes/ Is his own
name/ And this constipates him.” This would probably make him uncomfortable
because he doesn’t know they are saying about him. He then uses his power to
ban Spanish from the bathrooms, “So he decides/ To ban Spanish/ From the
bathrooms.” Just because some boys were talking and the principal herd his
name, he decides to ban Spanish and violate the boys’ civil rights. This is a
way that an authority figure uses their power in an unfair and abusive way.
In the poem, “Two Mexicans lynched in Santa Cruz, California, may 3rd
1877,” Espada talks about how people killed these two men just after they were
let out of jail, “When 40 gringo vigilantes/ Cheered the rope/ That snapped two
Mexicanos/ Into the grimacing sleep of broken necks.” When the two men were
being lynched, people from around the town gathered to see and cheered when the
lyncher was pulling the rope. Its really awful how people could have fun while
watching two others be killed, “A high collar boy smirking, some peering/ From
the shade of their bowler hats, but all/ Crowding into the photograph.” This
shows how even though some people couldn’t watch what happened; they still
wanted to be remembered in whatever way they can. This also shows abuse of
power because they used the fact that they were white and the two men were
Hispanic to validate the killing of them being okay.
In the poem, “Revolutionary Spanish lesson,” the speaker say how his/her
name is constantly mispronounced and how angry it makes them feel, “Hijack a
busload/ of republican tourists.” I think that the speaker feels that the
person who is mispronouncing their name is, in a way, mispronouncing their
culture. The speaker has a valid opinion but I think that they take it to far, “Force
them to chant/ Anti-American slogans/ In Spanish/” I think that even though
that the whole poem is just a day dream, some people who are from minorities feel
like they have the right to lash out against people who are not from minorities
and then feel like their actions are okay because they are a minority. So in a
way, the speaker is using the fact that he is a minority to say mean things and
then be okay with it. I think that this is a different kind of abuse of power.
To conclude, all of the poems share the same idea, abuse of power. Although
each poem portrays the main idea a little differently, they all have the same
overall message to say. The message is hat abuse of power is not okay, no
matter what form it may take.
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