Martin Espada’s
poems, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” “Two Mexicanos Lynched, May 3,1877,” and
“The New Bathroom Policy at an English High School,” make us think about the
different levels of power each group/person have and how they use their power.
The poem “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” is
about when the speaker’s name is mispronounced, he thinks about what he would
do if he had the power to do it. In the first stanza, the speaker says, “Whenever
my name is mispronounced/ I want to buy a toy pistol.” This makes you think
about how the people who mispronounce his name have the power to upset him so
much, possibly without realizing it. They don’t notice that they have this
power, or they would make an effort to pronounce his name correctly. And it’s
not just others mispronouncing his name, but also that they do not care enough about the speaker’s
feelings and culture. In the fourth stanza, the speaker says, “hijack a busload
of Republican tourists/ from Wisconsin/ force them to chant anti- American
slogans/ in Spanish.” The speaker is fantasizing about having power because he
feels powerless.
Also,
in the poem, “Two Mexicanos Lynched, May 3,1877,” which is about two Mexicanos
who were hung by 40 white vigilantes and then the 40 men taking a picture with
the Mexicanos bodies, a crowd can create a power of its own. In the first
stanza the speaker says, “Forty gringo vigilantes/ cheered the rope/ that
snapped two Mexicanos.” This line shows that the people who hung the Mexicanos
have the power because there are forty of them and only two Mexicanos, so they
couldn’t fight back. They abuse this power by hanging them and killing them.
And, vigilantes are people who take the law into their own hands, so these men
thought that the law against killing didn’t apply to them and that it was okay.
In the last stanza of this poem the speaker says, “from the shade of bowler
hats/ but all crowding in to the photograph.” This line shows that the crowd
around them has the power, because they are all watching this and if they all
stood up, they could stop this horrible thing they’re doing to the Mexicanos.
They do not use this power, instead they all crowd around to take a picture
with the bodies, as if it is a trophy and they’re extremely proud of what they’ve
done.
In
the last poem, “The New Bathroom Policy at an English School,” which is a poem
about boys who talk Spanish and the principal doesn’t understand them so he
decides to ban Spanish, the power moves between the characters and ends up
strongly with one. In the second stanza, the speaker says, “listens from the
stall/ the only word he recognizes/ is his own name/ and this constipates him.”
This shows that while boys are speaking Spanish, the principal can’t understand
them, which upsets him, showing that the boys have a power over him yet they
don’t understand they do. They are just talking in their language, that’s
normal to them; they don’t realize they have a power over their principal. In
the last stanza, the speaker says, “So he decides to ban Spanish/ in the
bathrooms/ now he can relax.” This line shows that the principal has the power
because he runs the school, and if something upsets him, he can end it. The
principal abuses this power by stopping the use of Spanish in bathrooms, which
is taking away someone’s right, because he can’t understand something and he
feels that that is taking away his power in the school.
To
conclude, all of Martin Espada’s poems, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” “Two
Mexicanos Lynched, May 3,1877,” and “The New Bathroom Policy at an English High
School,” all share a theme, of teaching the reader who has the power in the
poem and how they are using this power. It makes you think about how you use
the power you have even if you don’t realize you have the power you do. These
poems want to show the reader that you have to be careful with what you say and
do and how it affects others, and to pay attention to the power that you have.
