Jackie Carrera                                                                                            July 28, 2014

E.L.A- Mrs. Cunningham                                                                                               803

             Martin Espada's poems " The New Bathroom Policy at English High School," " Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, " and " Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California May 3, 1877, "  make readers think about racism and injustice and  how  white and other people abuse their power over Latinos. In all three poems he showed us examples of Latinos being treated like they are worthless. This makes the reader feel that they need to see this and do something about it.

            The poem "The New Bathroom Policy at English High School" makes me think about how people respond to their own fear. An example from the text that makes me thinks this is that the principal "decides to ban Spanish from the bathroom."  He's assuming that the boys in the bathroom are speaking badly about him although he doesn't understand what they are saying and the only thing he recognizes is his name.   In the poem it says that hearing his name in the stall constipates him but after he bans Spanish he can relax.  This is upsetting to me because this isn't fair and also racist. This isn't fair because he's only thinking about himself. Additionally he is taking away the boys voice. He didn't stop to think about if that was the only language the boys knew. He just cared about himself.    

     In Espadas poem "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson," he makes people think how others feel when they're being disrespected. An example from the text that make me think this is that he has a fantasy of kidnapping people who mispronounced his name he says, "I want to buy a toy pistol, / put on dark eyeglasses, /push my beret to an angle, / comb my beard to a point, / highjack a busload of Republican tourists/from Wisconsin, /force them to chant/anti-American slogans/in Spanish." He says this to bring attention to how this makes him feel. We don't really except him to do these things he just has this fantasy because of the way they make him feel. This teaches the reader that little things such as mispronouncing someone's name can be very upsetting.  Also this makes us think that they didn't take time to know their name so this can be taken as disrespecting not only the person but their culture too.

            Espada's poem "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California May 3, 1877" makes people think about abuse of power. An example is that at the time Santa Cruz was extremely racist toward Mexicans. Also the gringo vigilantes in the poem decided to lynch them instead of giving them a trial that the constitution requires. What bothers me the most is that the gringo vigilantes took a birthday- like picture with the Mexicans while they were lynched. This proves that they didn't feel bad. We know this because in the begging of all the stanzas he begins as "more than" but in the last stanza he begins as "remain." This shows that "more than" all the terrible things that happened to those Mexicans, what bothered him the most is what "remains,"  "the faces of the lynching party."   This teaches the readers that it's unfair to take law into your own hands and that minorities were often victims of this injustice.

            In all three poems by martin Espada, he contributes the same theme throughout. People abuse of power over Latinos. The Latinos in the three poems have no voice. Espada is trying to say that we should stand up for those who don't have a voice. The people in the poem go to extreme measures to gain power over the Latinos, but we should all be treated equally so no one should face this type of discrimination.