In Martin Espada’s three poems “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”,” Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877”. He shows discrimination of his culture. These poems show many ways that Latino Americans have their culture denied whether it be not allowing them to speak their Native language, or going as far as to killing them just because of one's selfish sense of justice. Martin Espada uses his poems to show how unnoticed discrimination against Latino Americans is as well as the levels of unjust persecution his culture faces.
In”Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” two Mexicans were lynched for unjust and despicable reasons. Martin Espada uses the unjustified murder and absence of this news to the public to show how nobody noticed this and also to show the denial of his culture. They deny showing this or remotely making it noticeable despite the fact that it is murder. During the time period of the lynching many did not accept the idea of Mexicans and many tried to put law into their hands. This led to the murder of Latin Americans which shows the unwillingness to accept of his culture. This also shows how far others will go to misuse their power for their own ideals, and show their disapproval of another race.
In “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” the author shows that just because of the children making fun of him a principal tries to deny their culture and native language to feel unthreatened by his lack of understanding. Martin Espada shows how petty discrimination can be and the lengths that some go to feel safe. He also shows how many abuse their power. He shows the complete irony of the situation and how discrimination was brought through and one of the reasons for discrimination. He also reveals to us that just because one wants to control they will misuse power just like the principal. The principal banns Spanish in the bathrooms and does this so he can know everything that goes on .This completely shows denial of one’s culture just for the sake of control and a sense of security
Finally in his poem "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson “Martin Espada uses many metaphors. The mispronunciation that he mentions is a metaphor for those who deny his culture for example kind of like how they don’t try to pronounce it correctly as in denying that he is Spanish in the first place. The bilingual swat team is also another detail that shows that they only recognize his Latino culture until he is a threat. There was also another detail although unintentional applies to today the republicans from Wisconsin, currently the Republicans are against immigration and against support illegal immigrants.
Martin Espada uses these three poems to show the different levels of discrimination. He also shows us the abuse of power. The many white people using their power persecute and murder people just because they didn’t have the most favorable of opinions of them. These three poems show the levels of discrimination it could be denying their language, denying the fact that they are Black, White, or Latino, and go as far as murder. He shows how whether small or large how pointless and unreasonable the “reasons” for discrimination are.
