The New Groom Policy At English High School Martin Espada Summary

Martin Espada believes that language plays a substantial role in someone's identity, culture, and history. On the other hand, unfortunately, language can be used to threaten and silence others. Espada speaks out on this injustice and demonstrates how language can empower and support us. In “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School by Martin Espada, he claims that Spanish, like many other languages, represents one’s culture and identity, he explains how language is important as it shows history. This was best shown when Espada says, "Defending the right of Latinos to use their tongue of their history and identity creates in me a passion for Spanish itself” the best way for me to maintain Spanish is to fight for the right to speak Spanish.”(Espada 18-20) He emphasizes how the English-only movement negatively affects them and is undesirable. It gave him the opportunity to bring together their community and to advocate for the history and culture behind Spanish. He follows up with this by saying “the best way for me to maintain my Spanish is to fight for the right to speak Spanish.”

because it is being threatened by the English-only movement formed that oppresses his view on the role of language. The hostility from many people resulted in the founding of an organization against Spanish speakers. “This xenophobic movement is spearheaded by the organization called the U.S. English” (Espada 38-40) Espada points out how extreme the U.S. English supporters will drive out Spanish and Spanish speakers. But not only that, many of them seem to believe that English should be the only language spoken in the U.S. “English should be the only language spoken in the country because the bible was originally written in English”(Espada 286-288) This shows the ignorance of some supporters, believing that English should be the only language in the country removes the history from people