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Portada / Front Page
El Sol Latino January 2022
Martín Espada: Poetry as Protest and Political Activism by MANUEL FRAU RAMOS In 2021 Martín Espada finished the year with two important literary recognitions. On November 16, 2021, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyán Foundation’s Arts Fund announced the inaugural cohort of Letras Boricuas Fellows. Letras Boricuas was created to recognize the voices of emerging and established Puerto Rican writers on the island and across the United States diaspora. Espada, a western Massachusetts longtime resident, was among this year’s 20 honorees whose dynamic work spans genres including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and children’s literature. On November 17, 2021, his latest book of poems, Floaters (2021), was awarded the National Book Award for Poetry during the 72nd National Book Awards online ceremony. The National Book Foundation strives “to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.” Martín Espada Martín Espada, labeled “the Latino poet of his generation,” and considered by Sandra Cisneros as “the Pablo Neruda of North American authors,” was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957. He often points out that his greatest influence was his father, Frank Espada, a community organizer, civil rights activist, and documentary photographer who created the Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project.
He has a BA in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and earned his JD from Northeastern University School of Law. For many years he worked as a tenant lawyer at a legal-aid office, Su Clínica Legal, located in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 1993, Espada has been an English professor at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst where he has taught courses of Creative Writing: Poetry, Neruda in Translation and Poetry of the Political Imagination, among others. Espada has published more than 20 books, including essays, poetry in addition to editing and translating several works. The Poetry Foundation highlights that Espada … “has dedicated much of his career to the pursuit of social justice, including fighting for human rights and reclaiming the historical record. His critically acclaimed collections of poetry celebrate— and lament—the working class experience.” One of Espada’s greatest literary influences has been Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who wrote political poetry that spoke for the downtrodden. The Foundation adds that, “Espada wanted to write poems that challenged the reader as well as himself. For him, though, poetry was not to serve as propaganda; poetry should illuminate, engage, and educate.” In 1982 he published his first collection of poetry, The Immigrant Iceboy’s Bolero. The book includes some of the iconic photographs taken his father, Frank Espada. According to WikiSummaries.org, “The title poem tells the story of his father coming to the United States. When Frank Espada was merely nine years old, he had to carry blocks of ice up flights of stairs in tenement buildings in his adopted country. As with other Latino immigrants who came to the United States in search of a better life, Espada’s father had to endure injustices in order to make his way.” The Immigrant Iceboy’s Bolero (1982) was followed by: s Trumpets from the Islands of Their Eviction, Bilingual Press, 1987 s Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands, Curbstone Press, 1990 s City of Coughing and Dead Radiators, W.W. Norton, 1993 s Imagine the Angels of Bread, Norton, 1996
s ! Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen, Norton, 2000 s Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002, W.W. Norton, 2003 s The Republic of Poetry, W.W. Norton. 2006 s La República de la Poesía, Mago Editores, Chile, 2007 s Crucifixión in the Plaza de Armas, Smokestack Books, 2008 s La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig, Terranova Editores, Puerto Rico, 2008 s Soldados en el Jardín, El Gaviero Ediciones, España, 2009 s The Trouble Ball, W.W. Norton. 2011 s Vivas to Those Who Have Failed, W.W. Norton. 2016 s What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump. Curbstone Books, 2019 s Floaters, W. W. Norton, 2021 In Trumpets from the Islands of Their Eviction, Espada talks about the colonial relationship that exists between Puerto Rico and the United States, depicting the United States as a shark and Puerto Rico as its prey. Imagine the Angels of Bread (1996) won the American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Rebellion Is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (1990) won the PEN/Revson Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize. His collection Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002 gained the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement. The Republic of Poetry (2006) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Espada has also published multiple essay collections, including Zapata’s Disciple (1999), published by South End Press. His book was banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the state of Arizona. The book won the Independent Publisher Book Award. What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (Curbstone Books, 2019) featured 93 poets, including Elizabeth Alexander, Julia Alvarez, Richard Blanco, Carolyn Forché, Aracelis Girmay, Donald Hall, Juan Felipe Herrera, Yusef Komunyakaa, Naomi Shihab Nye, Marge Piercy, Robert Pinsky, Danez Smith, Patricia Smith, Brian Turner, Ocean Vuong, Bruce Weigl, and Eleanor Wilner. Floaters (2021) takes its title from a term used by certain Border Patrol agents to describe migrants who drown trying to cross the Rio Grande at the U.S./Mexico border. The title poem responds to the viral photograph of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and Angie Valeria, a Salvadoran father and daughter who drowned in the Río Grande, and allegations posted in the “I’m 10-15” Border Patrol Facebook group that the photo was faked. The poems have been described by reviewers as “both sardonic and breathtaking” and “a work of grace-laden defiance.” In addition to the Letras Boricuas Fellowship (2021) and the National Book Award for Poetry for Floaters (2021), Espada’s body of work has been recognized with multiple awards and honors: s -ASSACHUSETTS !RTISTS &OUNDATION &ELLOWSHIP IN 0OETRY s .ATIONAL %NDOWMENT FOR THE !RTS #REATIVE 7RITING &ELLOWSHIP s 0%. 2EVSON &OUNDATION &ELLOWSHIP IN 0OETRY s 0ATERSON 0OETRY 0RIZE s .ATIONAL %NDOWMENT FOR THE !RTS #REATIVE 7RITING &ELLOWSHIP s -ASSACHUSETTS #ULTURAL #OUNCIL !RTIST 'RANT s .ATIONAL "OOK #RITICS #IRCLE !WARD &INALIST s "EFORE #OLUMBUS &OUNDATION !MERICAN "OOK !WARD s 'USTAVUS -YERS #ENTER /UTSTANDING "OOK !WARD s 0USHCART 0RIZE s )NDEPENDENT 0UBLISHER "OOK !WARD s 0OET ,AUREATE OF .ORTHAMPTON -ASSACHUSETTS s !NTONIA 0ANTOJA !WARD
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