Martin Espada Essay

Discrimination and stereotypes prevent many people from receiving opportunities for advancement. We see evidence of this type of discrimination towards different cultures in three different poems written by Martin Espada: “The New Bathroom Policy at English High school”, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, and “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz California, May 3, 1877”. Many people make racist remarks about other cultures out of sheer ignorance.

For instance, in the “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” the narrator explains how he feels when his name is mispronounced. The people states how when the author’s name is mispronounced, he gets very angry and fantasizes about doing things that are against the law. Some of these things include, hijacking a bus full of people and intimating them with a toy pistol. I think the reason why Martin Espada wrote the poem this way was to show that you should not make assumptions about people’s race, color, or creed. When he starts the poem, “Whenever my name is pronounced,” he states the premise that he takes it personally when people mispronounce his name. In the poem, Espada says he would like to hijack a bus load of Republicans and make them chant anti- American slogans in Spanish. It is perceived that Republicans are the anti- immigration party and by forcing them to speak against their country in a foreign tongue, he wants them to feel as uncomfortable as he felt.

Another example of Martin Espada teaching his readers about discrimination towards cultures is in his poem, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”. The principal, while in one of the bathroom stalls, over hears some students speaking Spanish. He cannot understand anything they are saying except he could understand when they mentioned his name  This makes him believe that the students were talking about him and this intimates him because he cannot understand what they are saying. He then abuses his power as the principal to “ban Spanish from the bathrooms” because he now realizes how uncomfortable it is when you don’t understand what people are saying. Further, this act takes away the basic right of freedom of speech for the students.

 

Lastly, the poem “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877,” describes how two Hispanic people were lynched while forty Gringos (Spanish slang, term meaning white people), stood there and cheered. The thought of people pulling on the rope until their necks snapped and did not do anything to improve the situation make me realize how inconsiderate and selfish people are. Espada also indicates the lack of human sorrow for the “floating corpses” that are before “a high – collar boy smirking, some peering from the shade of the bowler hats, but all crowding into the photograph.” What this statement shows is that, forty people would rather fight to be in the photograph with 2 lynched people rather than show them any human decency. We don’t even know the reason why the two Mexicanos were lynched in the first place or whether they had any legal trial. In any case, the forty Gringo Vigilantes should have extended some type of human concern and empathy toward these men.

            Martin Espada writes three very compelling poems about how people discriminate against one another because of their race and culture. Espada shows his readers how disrespectful and judgmental people can truly be. In these poems, Espada highlights an example of abuse of power, turning the tables on individuals to make them aware of being uncomfortable and a lack of basic human decency towards others. He uses these scenarios to show how discrimination and stereotypes prevent people from receiving opportunities for advancement.

 

The unfairness of the Gaokao test in China

           How would you feel if you had to wake up at 6:20 in the morning for school and leave at 10:50 at night because you were studying for this one test that decides your future? For Chinese students, this is their life. For them, everything is riding on one test, the Gaokao. This problem is also complicated by whether you live in a large city or in a rural area. Further, social class injustice can affect the ability for students to preform while preparing for this test. Preparing for the Gaokao test is very stressful for most Chinese students.

            The Gaokao test is similar to the SAT and ACT college entrance exams that are given here in the United States. However, the over emphasis on studying for the Gaokao has led to an increase in the suicide rate. Also, there are specific high schools, known as “cram schools,” which do nothing other than to prepare students for the Gaokao entrance examination. It is common for students to begin school at 6:20 in the morning and to end their day at 10:50 at night. In order to keep up with the high demand of test prep, some students are connected to IV drips in order to stay awake.

            As China is still evolving as a modern nation, there is much inequality between educational opportunities between cities and those in rural areas. Because schools in rural areas do not receive adequate funding from the government, they do not have adequate resources, such as computers, internet access and state of the art laboratories. These schools are poorly rated and do not offer proper programming to prepare students for the Gaokao. Further, they are fewer well- trained teachers on their staffs of these schools. These situations put many rural students at a disadvantage compared to their more affluent city peers.

            Even though China has come a long way from its communist past, there are still basically two classes of Chinese society, the very rich and the working poor. Rich families can hire private tutors and pay for test prep courses to give their child a better advantage for preparing for the Gaokao. It is also not uncommon for rich families to bribe their child’s way into prestigious Chinese universities. If all else fails, wealthy parents still have the opportunity to send their students abroad to study at foreign universities. These are advantages that most students from poorer families do not have.

            For the Chinese student the problem is not so much how much is riding on a single test, but rather what has his or her life been like up to this point to prepare him or her for the Gaokao. The school he or she attended was either a well-equipped city school or a school in a rural area that had poorly trained teachers and inadequate resources. It also depends on which social class he or she was born, since rich families can better prepare their students or offer them an opportunity to study abroad. So yes, it is very unfair for a Chinese student to have his or her future decided on by one test- a test that will decide whether he or she has a comfortable life in Chinese society or whether, he or she will be a migrant worker with a dismal future.