Biography

Martin Espada was born in 1957 and raised in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Frank Espada, is a political activist and an immigrant from Puerto Rico. Martin worked as a lawyer and then went on to work as an English professor at the University of Massachusetts. His poetry got national recognition for condemnation of political and social unfairness. His poems central role is the historicity that comes from the view of the victimized, the people that do not get credit for what they do, and the oppressed. Keeping his anger from being too much in his poetry, he adds humor and compassion to help lower the anger and bring other levels of meaning to his poems. Having these different levels helps the reader better relate to the point he is getting across.

From Literature and Society fourth edition

His collections:

Trumpets from the Island of Their Eviction (1987)
Rebellion Is the Circle of a Lover's Hands (1990)
City of Coughing and Dead Radiators (1993)
Imagine the Angels of Bread (1996)
Zapata's Disciple (1998)
A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen (2000)
Albanza: New and Selected Poems (2003)