Ignorance

          Ignorance, or the lack of knowledge about a subject, can be associated with many things.  People may call you ignorant if you don’t know about the history of your own country, or not knowing about the holidays that other cultures celebrate.  They may call you ignorant for never going out of your neighborhood and exploring places, or not knowing what crisis is currently happening in the world such as an earthquake in Haiti or Japan.  There are many forms of ignorance that are talked about, written about, sung about, etc.  Although Martin Espada’s poems speak of many themes, I believe that his poems, The New Bathroom Policy at English High School, Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, and Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877 mainly circle around the theme of ignorance.  I think this because in each poem, there is a victim or some victims that are targeted by people who just don’t seem to care about their culture or other parts of their lives.

            In Espada’s poem The New Bathroom Policy at English High School, the group targeted is Spanish students.  The poem describes that a group of boys were talking in Spanish in the school bathroom.  As the principal listens in, “The only word he recognizes/is his own name.”  After that, the principal of the school banned speaking Spanish in the bathrooms.  I think he did this because he was worried that they were talking poorly of him, just because he heard his name. Since the poem never mentions that the principal asked the boys what they were talking about, I feel that the principal was being ignorant and made no effort to solve the problem differently because he didn’t care to know what they were talking about.  Or maybe if the principal had cared to learn the language that some children spoke in his school, he wouldn’t have banned it. Maybe he also would have been able to know if the boys were talking about what a wonderful school it was and how they really admired the principal or the other way around.  However, because he was ignorant, the principal did expel Spanish so that, “Now he can relax,” as the poem says in the last line.  The principal was also being ignorant because it seemed as though he didn’t care how the Spanish children would be affected by this decision and the poem does not describe him asking them at all.  Although the boys’ opinions were not written in the poem, I can only imagine what it would be like not to be able to speak their own language.  Language is part of everyone’s culture and to ban it seems very disrespectful.  The principal was ignorant not to realize how important one’s culture, or way of life can be.  Maybe before, the bathroom was a safe place to socialize and be one’s self with other people who spoke the same language, but after the language was banned, Spanish kids felt separated and unwelcome.  Because the principal was being ignorant of their culture, their feelings, and their language, the effect had a negative impact on the students.  By using this poem, Martin Espada exposed examples of ignorance.

            In the poem Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, Espada once again unearths examples of ignorance.  In this poem, the narrator speaks of how his name is often mispronounced.  The reason for this could be because others don’t care to learn how his name is pronounced, or that they know but say it incorrectly anyway.  Either way, they are being ignorant of the narrator’s culture and feelings.  For example, the narrator is obviously hurt when this happens to him because the poem says, “Whenever my name/is mispronounced/I want to…hijack a busload/of Republican tourists/from Wisconsin/force them to chant/anti-American Slogans/in Spanish…”  People who mispronounce his name should be considered ignorant because they should realize that he is angered by it.   I bet that they probably wouldn’t appreciate it if people always ignored how strongly they felt about something.  Also, different cultures and languages pronounce words and names differently, and it can be very ignorant not to know or care about that.  The narrator is most likely not just American, but maybe Spanish as well.  I interpret this because the narrator emphasizes that when they mispronounce his name, he wants to put on an outfit described as resembling that of a Spanish Revolutionary and wants the Republicans to chant “in Spanish/and wait/for the bilingual SWAT team.” Spanish and bilingual are the key words there.  And yet, the people who say his name incorrectly choose to disrespect his culture and his feelings out of ignorance that he is of a different descent and his people may say things differently. Overall, the theme of this poem is also ignorance.

            Finally, in Espada’s poem Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877, he described an actual historical event where two were hung because they were Mexican.  The author stresses how the vigilantes didn’t even care because even though the event was horrible, more than anything else, they were, “all crowding into the photograph.”  This makes me think that in some way, all of them wanted to be remembered as part of this event. Because of this, they were being ignorant and rude about the affect it would have on the two lynched.  I think this because the poem describes the two men as, “trussed like cousins of the slaughterhouse/dangling in the bowed mute humility/of the condemned.” I think this quote means that the men will forever be humiliated.  The vigilantes involved also were ignorant of their culture because they didn’t seem to care about how the men will become, “Guitar-plucking skeletons/…on the Dia de los Muertos.”   Because they all crowded into the photograph shows that they had no respect for the culture, affects, or family of the two men hung.  Maybe if they had cared to know about those things, they would have had more of a conscience over whether it was such a just thing to do.  The main idea in this poem is ignorance, which is expressed through the vigilantes in the photograph.

            In conclusion, the poems The New Bathroom Policy at English High School, Revolutionary Spanish Lesson and Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877 clearly show the affects of ignorance by using ignorance as the main theme.  These poems demonstrate ignorance of personal feelings, culture, language, the affects on the victim and their families, etc.  I think that Martin Espada wants to let us know that this type of ignorance does occur and that we should be wary of if we ever do it or see others disrespecting people through it.  Maybe he is also telling us to open their minds to the idea of how being ignorant, even in small ways can make someone feel bad or how it can be disrespectful and harmful.  I hope that more people will want to know about other cultures or things going on outside of their life and try to prevent this type of social injustice.