19 pages • 38 minutes read
Martín EspadaOf the Threads that Connect the Stars
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context
Narrative poetry tells a story. It combines elements like characters, setting, and plot with poetic devices and forms to do so. Espada tells stories drawn from his own experience in poems like “Of the Threads that Connect the Stars.”
He has taught his students that narrative poetry doesn’t have to be linear or even rooted in realism “as long as the images are startling or arresting” and that “their lives are the stuff of poetry” (Thompson, Gabriel. “Against Oblivion: Martín Espada on his Life in Poetry.” 2018. Poetry Foundation). Both lessons are evident in his work, particularly in the specific details and voice.
Espada also gives voice to the stories of others in his poetry —particularly those who have been ignored or silenced. As a storyteller, he has said his intention is to “communicate clearly, and this means there will be some attempt at explanation. This is especially true if I am telling a story that comes from a cultural, political, or historical experience outside the ‘mainstream’ experience of many readers” (Masciotra, David. “Poet Martín Espada: ‘The Imagination is Absolutely Critical to Political Activism.’” 31 March 2021. Salon). This strategy operates within “Of the Threads that Connect the Stars,” particularly in its direct references to his family, Brooklyn, and the 1966 riots.
Espada’s work exists within a long tradition of narrative poetry that includes Walt Whitman. The 19th century poet was a pioneer of free verse, whose epic Leaves of Grass tried to connect to all Americans. “Of the Threads that Connect the Stars” is a title drawn from Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”
Authorial Context
Martín Espada’s poetry has been heavily inspired by his father, Frank Espada. “Of the Threads that Connect the Stars” is centered on three generations of Espada men: Espada, his father, and his own son, Klemente. It is one of a series of 10 poems about his father collected in Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016).
Franciso “Frank” Luis Espada was born in 1930 in Utuado, Puerto Rico. When he was nine, he and his family migrated to New York City. Like his son, he had a variety of jobs and experiences to fuel his politics and art. He played semi-professional baseball, served in the Air Force during the Korean War, and worked as an electrical contractor.
In 1949, while serving in the Air Force, Frank Espada was jailed for refusing to move to the back of a bus. The event solidified his commitment to the civil rights movement, politics, and community organization. He founded East New York Action in the early 1960s. In 1964 he was arrested for participating in a protest at the World’s Fair against one of its corporate sponsors’ unfair hiring practices. He joined the City-Wide Puerto Rican Development Program in 1967. He worked for equal rights, voting rights, tenants’ rights, and workers’ rights throughout his life.
Frank Espada became a documentary photographer after studying at the New York Institute of Photography. His work in the Puerto Rican Diaspora Project, a photodocumentary of the lives of Puerto Rican migrants, is included in collections at the Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, and the Library of Congress. He became a teacher of photography at the University of California-Berkeley.
Frank Espada died in 2014, two years before Vivas to Those Who Have Failed was published.
Martín Espada has talked about growing up with his father’s photographs. He said, “I was able to see […] the nexus between art and activism, the nexus between craft and commitment. To me, it was all one […] And so, my father, although he was a photographer, had a great influence on me as a poet and as a poet of political commitment, a poet of the political imagination” (“Poet Martín Espada on ‘Floaters,’ the Dehumanization of Refugees, Puerto Rico & His Father.” 29 Dec 2021. Democracy Now!). Understanding Espada’s family history and his experience provides a useful context for understanding his poetry.
