Roman Mueller 802
In the world recently, many people have been manipulated and been victims of the idea of power. The author Martin Espada exploits these ideas through his poems “The New Bathroom Policy,” “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” and “Two Mexicanos Lynched In Santa Cruz, California.” In these poems he shows many ideas about power and how power affects people and how people with power make decisions. Martin Espada explores the theme of abuse of power and connects it to racism which is often something that comes up when looking at power. Overall, throughout these three poems by Martin Espada, he shows how racism and unethical ideas can be a cause of abuse of power and how its effect is negative towards others.
First off, Espada illustrates abuse of power for not only him, but others too. For example, in The New Bathroom Policy, he writes “The boys chatter spanish/in the bathroom/...The only words he recognizes is his own name/and this constipates him/so he decides to ban spanish/from the bathrooms.” This proves that because the principal has power means he can take anything away from someone. This principal thinks these students are gossiping about him and takes away something that is probably important to them because he has more power which is unfair. Another example is from the second poem Revolutionary Spanish Lesson where Martin Espada is talking about how his name is mispronounce and how he doesn’t like it. His name is something that represents him and is something he values and he feels like it defines him. For example, he writes “Whenever my name is mispronounced/...I want to...hijack a busload of Republican tourists from Wisconsin.” This shows how Martin Espada feels like he is being forced on a name. Espada doesn’t want to be conformed into others standards and wants to be someone he can be without judgement.
Lastly, Espada shows how people in the late 1800’s were abused of their power in his poems. Two mexicanos were lynched unfairly after no trial. These mexicanos were not treated fairly because of peoples abuse of power and that was most likely a cause of prejudice. For example, in Espada’s poem Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California he writes “when forty gringo vigilantes/cheered the rope/that snapped two mexicanos.” This shows that these mexicanos were cheered as they died and how they have little power against others. Also, Espada writes “...two mexicanos...remain the faces of the lynching party faded as pennies from 1877.” This illustrates how these people were treated unfairly because of abuse of power. They could have had a trial but they were hung and they did not have enough power to do anything about it.
Overall, Martin Espada exploits the ideas of power and abuse of power. Also, how that power can be taken away or used against you unfairly. These simple things can become very problematic and can be effects of racial issues and unethical people.
