Latino night at the pawnshop.

University of Costa Rica

Jose Solís Ramírez

LM-1366 Introduction to English poetry

24 June, 2016

Pity Party Night

       “Latino Night at the Pawnshop” is a poem about an important issue that many of the immigrants in the United States suffer. Martín Espada, the author of this poem, born in New York  from Puerto Rico immigrant parents, and through his life he witnessed what immigrants have suffered when they face this new culture. Many people immigrate to the United States in search of the American dream, which is the search of a new life and better opportunities, and this quest, for many of them, in most of the cases is very difficult. The main tones of the poem are irony and sadness. The poem deals with the sad feeling of the forced cultural detachment that a lot of immigrants pass through in order to adapt and not to feel discriminated or exclude from this new culture in which they are living.; the usage of vivid instruments is what makes this poem ironic, they are used to demonstrate how depressing or nostalgic can be to left behind what identifies and makes a person different from the rest, just for the necessity of not being exclude from society. Also, many of the immigrants feel the need to belong to this new culture, so they pretend to be someone that they are not. For the immigrants, this cultural detachment feels like having to forget everything about their countries. The poem was inspired in one specific night in which Espada was walking in a street when he notice a particular scene at a pawnshop. Even though the idea of a salsa band and musical instruments may sound as a happy and warm idea, Espada’s poem expresses a more gloomy thought that is depicted in the images, figures of speech and word choice.

     The poem creates a sad and ironic feeling even if the idea of a salsa band and some vivid instruments may evoke some warm and fulfilling feelings. At the beginning of the poem we are presented with a very clear image of the place and time in which everything occurs: “Chelsea, Massachusetts Christmas 1987” (1-2); this information helps to start setting the tone of the poem because it gives background information. Additionally, the poem lists some instrument: “Golden trumpet, silver trombone, congas, maracas, tambourine”(4-6), instruments that creates vibrant and joyful music, which are now left abandoned  with no one who can play them; this image creates a sensation of loneliness and sadness. Moreover, the figures of speech of the poem also help to reinforce the tone because they display some important ideas of the poem. The first figure of speech that appears in the poem is the oxymoron “Liberty Loan” that juxtaposes the two terms because when a person owes something that explicitly means that the person is not free due to the attachment to the debt, which also demonstrates that this phrase is ironical. In addition, the poem has a simile, which is one of the most important figures because this it gives sense to the whole poem: “all with price tags dangling like the city morgue ticket on a dead man’s toe”(7-9). This simile expresses directly the main idea of the poem which is the comparison between the instruments in the pawnshop and the corpses in a morgue because both of them have no life anymore. Finally, the word choice also helps to create the feeling of sadness of the poem. For example, the usage of “dead man” representing the death of the emotions contrasting with the phrase “salsa band” as the specific kind music that is usually characterize for being joyful and full of life as in a party. Furthermore, another important word is “pawnshop” that is used as a private symbol of entering to a new country and having to give something precious for you, in this case your cultural identity, to get money, represents the ability to adapt to the new culture. The elements of imagery, figures of speech and word choice work together to demonstrate the irony and sadness depicted in the poem.

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