Martin Espada

In class we have recently read the poems "The New Bathroom Policy at English High School," "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson," and "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877," by Martin Espada. They all share a central theme—discrimination, prejudice, and ignorance towards another culture.

In "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson," a principal overhears a group of boys conversing in Spanish. He doesn't understand the language but recognizes his own name. He shows prejudice by making the assumption that the boys were speaking negatively about him, and banning Spanish in the bathrooms. He didn't bother to talk to the boys about what they had said. This is discriminatory towards all Spanish-speakers in the school, not just the boys in the bathroom, as he generalized the entire Latino/Hispanic population in the building instead of focusing on the boys. He assumed that all Spanish-speakers were in the wrong when it was only a few boys who may not have been speaking negatively about him in the first place. The discriminatory connotation of the principal's actions are central to the text.

In  "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson," The narrator says "whenever my name is mispronounced" implying that it is mispronounced often. While it is understandable that a name, especially if it is uncommon to the person saying it, will be mispronounced, continuing to mispronounce it after being corrected a number of times shows disrespect and flippancy towards the culture of that person. this is an example of discrimination, because it shows the unjust and prejudicial actions of not bothering to pronounce the name of an individual of a foreign culture. My name, Selena-Alicia Martínez, is often pronounced 'Sah-lee-na Ah-lee-sha Mart-in-ez' rather than 'Sah-lay-na Ah-lee-see-a Mart-een-ez.' While I know that usually it is purely accidental, I can understand the feelings of exasperation in Espada's poem. Continued mispronunciation is a form of disrespect, which is a form of discrimination, which can inspire the angry emotions present in this particular poem. The common mispronunciation of the narrator's name is a major theme in the poem.

The poem "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877," is about a group of men who lynched two people for the 'crime' of being native to another country. The "gringo vigilantes cheered the rope that snapped [the necks of] two Mexicanos," states the poem. This is a huge example of discrimination because it shows people judging others by ethnicity, something that no one can control about themselves and no one should be persecuted for, to an extent where they go so far as to kill them for their race. The abhorrence towards a person based on their origin is a huge main idea in this poem.

In conclusion, unjust and prejudicial treatment of people based on their ethnicity is a theme in all of the Martin Espada poems we read in class. Whether clearly stated or underlying, it is always evident.