In
the three Martín Espada poems, “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz,
California, May 3, 1877,” The New Bathroom Policy at English High School,” and
“Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” Espada makes the reader think about people with
authority and how they use it. Overall, in all three of these poems, one of the
main themes is about how people sometimes take advantage of the amount of power
that they have, and often abuse it.
In
the first poem, “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877,”
the people in authority are the ‘forty gringo vigilantes.’ A gringo vigilante is usually referred to
as a non-Hispanic member
of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community
without legal authority. In this text, these people with the power took
advantage of their power and abused it. For example, in the first stanza of the
poem it says, “More than the moment/when forty gringo vigilantes/cheered the
rope/that snapped two Mexicanos/into the grimacing sleep of broken necks….” The
gringo vigilantes took advantage of the fact that they had authority over the
Mexicanos and lynched them because of their discriminatory thoughts and
beliefs.
In the
next poem, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School,” the person with
the authority is a non-Hispanic principal. This Espada poem is about a school
principal banning Spanish from the school bathrooms because he doesn’t
understand his Hispanic students when they speak it. He takes advantage of the
fact that he has power over them. For example, in the poem it says, “ The boys
chatter Spanish/in the bathroom/while the principal/listens from his stall/The
only word he recognizes/ is his own name…/So he decides/ to ban Spanish/in the
bathrooms.” The principal decided to ban Spanish and discriminate against the
boys’ culture because of his ignorance. He exploited his power.
Lastly,
in the poem, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” Espada makes his poem from his
point of view. He expresses his anger towards people that are ignorant on the
topic of Hispanic culture. For example, in the poem, Espada says,
“Whenever my name/is mispronounced, /I want to…/hijack
a busload/of Republican tourists/from Wisconsin, /force them to chant anti-American
slogans/in Spanish, /and wait/for the bilingual S W A T team/ to helicopter
overhead, /begging me/to be reasonable.” Espada is basically implying that if
he had the power over the Republicans, he would make them suffer. Even though
Espada is making a point and expressing his anger towards discriminatory
people, he is still suggesting that he would misuse his power and use it to his
advantage.
In
conclusion, in all of these three Martín Espada poems, Espada shows (not
necessarily intentionally) that many people use being in authority to their
advantage and that power is often misused. People that misuse their authority
often think that they’re superior to everyone else. These pieces of poetry
helped to show the reader that it is wrong to take advantage of authority.
