Word Ballast guest Martin Espada

Join Billy Burgos as he talk to Martin Espada

Martín Espada
Poet, essayist, translator, editor, and attorney: Martín Espada has dedicated much of his career to the pursuit of social justice, including fighting for Latino rights and reclaiming the historical record. Espada’s critically acclaimed collections of poetry celebrate—and lament—the immigrant and working class experience. Whether narrating the struggles of Puerto Ricans an...d Chicanos as they adjust to life in the United States, or chronicling the battles Central and South American Latinos have waged against their own repressive governments, Espada has put "otherness," powerlessness, and poverty, into poetry that is at once moving and exquisitely imagistic. "Espada's books have consistently contributed to…unglamorous histories of the struggle against injustice and misfortune," noted David Charlton in the National Catholic Reporter. Over nine collections of poetry and two books of essays, multiple translations of Chicano and Latino authors, and as editor of influential anthologies like El Coro (1997) and Poetry Like Bread (2000), Espada "has provided a good, useful vehicle for disseminating [a] broader cultural awareness" praised Library Journalcontributor Lawrence Olszewski.