Martin Espada Essay by Mohammed Abed

     Martin Espada is the Latino poet of the poems " Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877; Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, and  The New Bathroom Policy at English High School." In these poems Martin Espada uses his poems to show the world how people with power abuses it. Espada shows the abuse of power in many different ways. In one of the poem he describes how he would abuse his power if he gets it. 

    The poem "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877" shows the abuse of power. Espada shows the abuse of power by stating "when forty gringo vigilantes/ cheered the rope/ that snapped two Mexicanos/ into the grimacing sleep of broken necks," shows how whites had the power in that time period. They abused it by doing bad things. In this case they abused their power by lynching Mexicanos and getting away with it. 

    Martin Espada shows how he would abuse power in the poem "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson." Espada states    "Whenever my name/ is mispronounced/I want to buy a toy pistol ... hijack a busload/ of Republican tourists/ from Wisconsin/... for the bilingual SWAT team/...begging me/to be reasonable." This shows that Espada will use his power poorly. Espada wants people to feel how he feels when his name is mispronounced. He wants them to feel the pain everyone has when their name is misprounced. 

    Martin Espada uses the principal of a high school as the power figure in his poem "The Bathroom Policy at English High School."In this poem the principal hears two boys talking Spanish so he bans Spanish. Espada states, "The boys chatter Spanish/in the bathroom/... The only word he recognizes/ is his own name/ and this constipates him/...bans Spanish/ in the bathrooms/Now he can relax." This shows that he doesn't even know what the boys said, he did it because he was mad that they said his name. Espada shows the abuse of power by using the principal and how he didn't want people to speak a language he didn't understand so he banned it. 

     Martin Espada uses his poems to show different messages that happens in the world. Espada shows the different ways power can be abused. In the poems " Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877; Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, and  The New Bathroom Policy at English High School," power was abused by people. Espada abused the power he had in the poem. The gringos abused the power they had. The principal also abusedthe  power he had. Espada uses power as a theme in these three poems.