The Transfer of Power.
an essay by Tabo Čeman about the movement of power in poet Martin Espada’s poems.
Martín Espada a very renown latino poet, writes many works about the mistreatment of latinos through time. In the poems Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877 and The New Bathroom Policy at English High School a message that; power is a vicious being that is often taken with exertion.
The poem The New Bathroom Policy at English High School is a perfect example of this moral theme Espada wishes to convey. The poem about two boys who speak spanish in the bathroom while their principal is in the stall, shows how power is taken with force. In the beginning of the poem the boys are in power when they speak about the principal in spanish. They use the power of language to hide what they say and this constipates the principal; he cannot understand and they have power over him because of this. The principal takes this capacity away by banning their power, or language in the bathroom and as Espada writes “ now he can relax”. Showing that the principal felt threatened, that he might loose power , so he stole it back. Power is vicious because it stabs the children who were using it, right in the back, by making them lose it through the new policy.
Another example of this lesson Espada wants to teach, is in the poem Revolutionary Spanish Lesson. This poem illustriously depicts what Espada feels like when his name is mispronounced. Espada writes that he would “buy a toy pistol, put on dark eyeglasses, push my beret at an angle, comb my beard to a point, hijack a busload of Republican tourists from Wisconsin,”. In this poem Espada takes power from Republican tourists from Wisconsin. Espada uses this very descriptive sentence to show the original source of power. The power is originally with these tourists because they are the classic anti latino depiction in our country. They hold power over latinos because they make them work low wages and have to fret over immigration; because it is they who vote against latino rights and increase the difficulty of getting into this country. The power is taken when he dresses up in a way that scares the republicans and hijacks their bus. He uses fright as his power; he scares them, and takes their power. Espada again show how power has a devious bite in the way it bites the republicans in the rear end, betraying them for Espada.
Lastly, the poem Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877, also shows the ferocious moral. The poem tells of a mob of 40 Gringos that hanged two Mexicans. This poems power has no original source but just the one that is taken from the Mexicanos as they are hanged. Espada oozes the power out of them as their necks bow in the humility of death. He lets us understand that the power was also taken away from the Gringos when they died. Death took their power and made them as insignificant as “pennies”. He shows how the gringos who crowded into a photograph wanted credit for taking power from the Mexicanos. He shows how as usual power stabs them in the back giving itself to Death and Espada, as they ruin these people; through words and history and make them as negligible as pennies.
In termination Power and it’s abilities are a reappearing moral in Espada’s poems; as it appears in three poems Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877 and The New Bathroom Policy at English High School. He shows how abusing power will always cause power to stab you in the back no matter what shape or size of power you abuse. He teaches that power has to be used for good and not for one groups needs but everyones needs; not just the kids in the bathroom, not just the republicans, or Espada himself or even the Gringos and lynched Mexicans but everyone, or else power might turn on you.
