Context for "Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100"

This poem by Martin Espada is about the 9/11 attach on the World Trade Centers. He focuses on the restaurant workers and lower jobs that were affected by 9/11. Usually in text about this attach authors focus on the main people such as the fire fighters and the soldiers. Martin Espada wants to give credit to the people that are not recognized but were still hurt by the attach. He wants to show that the lower people were important as well as the fire fighters and soldiers. He wants to keep these people and their families in his thoughts to keep them involved. Martin wants to get the point across that these people were very affected by the 9/11 attach and deserve recognition as well as anyone else.

The poem has historical context and is about war. Although it is a war poem it is different than other war poems. Martin's poem is about the 9/11 attach which was about an event that was quite recent compared to most wars talked about in poems. Since his poem is about an attach that was more recent, the people that were hurt by this are not as forgotten as the ones in most war poems, which are usually written about a war a long time ago. Reading this poem, society can easily relate to 9/11. Also his poem is not necessarily about war but about an event that started a war. Although Martin Espada's poem Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100 has differences from most war they are also similar because in all war poems innocent people died as in this poem.