Martin
Espada is a poet that can teach clear and meaningful lessons in his poems. He
teaches the reader one similar lesson in the poems Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877, Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, and The New Bathroom Policy at English High
School. The lesson that Espada teaches is to not discriminate against
anybody. He also shows the reader the different levels of discrimination.
The poem Revolutionary Spanish Lesson displays the lowest level of
discrimination. The speaker of the poem is having his name mispronounced. After
hearing this the speaker wants to, “…hijack a busload of Republican tourists
from Wisconsin, force them to chant anti-American slogans in Spanish, and wait
for the bilingual SWAT team to helicopter overhead, begging me to be
reasonable.” It can be inferred that the person who has mispronounced the
speaker’s name doesn’t take him seriously because he is different. The speaker
feels like that he isn’t being respected like he should so he wants to do all
the things such as hijacking a bus.
The next level of discrimination is portrayed
in The New Bathroom Policy at English
High School. The principal of English High School is sitting in a stall and
overhears a group of Latino students talking in Spanish. He doesn’t understand
what they are saying but he does hear his name in their discussion. Inferences
can be made that the principal thinks that they are talking badly about him.
Due to this he bans Spanish in the bathrooms. Espada wrights the poem so
greatly that he leaves the reader thinking. The principal is discriminating
against those kids and the school’s Spanish community by banning Spanish. He
doesn’t take time to try to learn the language or even try to ask the boys what
they were saying. He doesn’t have any patience with the boys and their
language. The principal in this case is violating the U.S Constitution by not
letting them speak Spanish. The boys were talking in the bathrooms, not in the
classrooms when a class is in session. They had full rights to speak Spanish,
the principal took away their freedom of speech and thought it didn’t matter
because they were Latino. He didn’t give them the respect that they deserved
and in turn lost the respect of those students.
Out
of all the three poems, Espada displays the highest level of discrimination in Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz,
California, May 3, 1877. After the two Mexicanos were hung, the speaker
says, “…a high-collar boy smirking, some peering from the shade of bowler hats,
but all crowding into the photograph.” This line of the poem can make the reader
think about how much the vigilantes hate the two Mexicanos. It can also make
them think about why the vigilantes killed the Mexicanos. The discrimination
can be understood by the reaction of the vigilantes. If a person were to read
this poem, they would need to know a little background information on that time
period. During the mid to late 1800’s, African Americans and many different
races of people were being discriminated against and lynched. Many of these
people committed small mistakes. Unfortunately, the white people used these
mistakes as an excuse to hang them. Those people killed two men for committing
a microscopic crime. This is the biggest level of discrimination.
In
conclusion, the reader can understand the different ways of discrimination. The
levels of discrimination can be something as simple as mispronouncing someone’s
name to killing someone because they are a different race, or religion. Discrimination
is still a big issue today. People terrorize other people just because of their
race, religion, or sexuality. This needs to come to an end quickly. Everyone in
this planet is the same, no matter how different they may be.
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