Martin Espada has made a lot of great poems in his day with a lot of very meaningful themes but the poems I am going to focus on today are, “New Bathroom Policy at English High School” and, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” and also, “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California May 3, 1877”. A common theme through all of these poems is ignorance . This is because all of the poems deal with some one ignorant of another persons race or culture.
In “New Bathroom Policy at English High School” the poem talks about boys speaking Spanish in the bathroom and the principal hears his name but can’t understand the rest. The principal is ignorant of the other culture and doesn’t know or try to understand what the kids are actually saying so he bands Spanish from the bathroom. The principal doesn’t even try to understand or ask what their saying he just doesn’t understand what the kids are saying so he bands Spanish in the bathrooms.
In, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” the narrator of the story talks about how much he hates when his name is pronounced wrong and how he would highjack a bus full of republican, Wisconsin tourists and make them sing anti-american slogans in spanish. I think that this shows ignorance in the people who miss pronounce his name. For him to get this mad they must’ve done it many times, maybe not on purpose, but that still made him very mad. This shows the ignorance of people (Americans Especially) of other cultures. They just keep pronouncing his name wrong.
Finally in “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California May 3, 1877” 40 “Gringo Vigilantes” hung two Mexicans and then in the end they all crowded in for a picture. I think the people there were ignorant of what was really happening. Some were shocked afterward but most of them thought they did something good and were happy about it. But in reality they hung someone and nothing’s ever good about that so they were ignorant about what was really going on.
In conclusion, I think that a common theme of these poems is ignorance. This is because all of the poems deal with some one ignorant of another persons race or culture. In “New Bathroom Policy at English High School” the principal is ignorant of the culture of other students. In “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” the people are ignorant of how to pronounce the narrators name. FInally in “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California May 3, 1877” the vigilante were ignorant of what they were really doing and what was actually happening.
