Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for Martin Espada's "My Father As a Guitar"
    A Study Guide for Martin Espada's "My Father As a Guitar"
    A Study Guide for Martin Espada's "My Father As a Guitar"
    Ebook39 pages29 minutes

    A Study Guide for Martin Espada's "My Father As a Guitar"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Martin Espada's "My Father As a Guitar," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateSep 28, 2016
    ISBN9781535829120
    A Study Guide for Martin Espada's "My Father As a Guitar"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Martin Espada's "My Father As a Guitar"

    Related ebooks

    Teaching Methods & Materials For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Art of Poetry No. 103

      Mar 15, 2019

      The Art of Poetry No. 103
      28 min read

    • Article

      Burning Blue

      Jun 16, 2022

      Burning Blue
      20 min read

    • Article

      A Shattered Sisterhood

      Sep 1, 2021

      Jamie Floyd is a solo artist and Grammy-nominated songwriter whose work has been performed by Kelly Clarkson, Miranda Lambert, and Kellie Pickler, among others. Mêlisa Annis, originally from Wales, writes for stage, television, and radio and teaches

      2 min read

    • Article

      Agent Advice

      Apr 14, 2021

      Areas of interest: Adult upmarket and literary fiction, literary memoir, narrative nonfiction On her bookshelf: Luster (FSG, 2020) by Raven Leilani, Sabrina & Corina (One World, 2019) by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Salvage the Bones (Bloomsbury, 2011) by J

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry

      Dec 21, 2017

      The book I’ve read the most this year is Antwerp by Roberto Bolaño. I read a few pages from it every morning before I crawl across the floor to my desk. It’s Bolaño distilled. It’s a crime story, a death story, a sex story, a love story, but always i

      2 min read

    • Article

      A River Runs Through It

      Apr 14, 2020

      A River Runs Through It
      1 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Rooney, Tóibín, Groff, and More

      Sep 7, 2021

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Sally Rooney, Colm Tóibín, Lauren Groff, and whole lot more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Rooney, Tóibín, Groff, and More appeared first on The Mill

      9 min read

    • Article

      FROM THE WD EDITORS: Our favourite Beginnings and Endings

      Jul 31, 2019

      The best beginnings toss readers into the whirlwind that is going to be your story right as the action begins, giving them no choice but to read further. The best endings stick with readers for years after they’ve closed the book. WD editors got toge

      1 min read

    • Article

      Yesterday’s Ruse

      Apr 5, 2020

      Yesterday’s Ruse
      5 min read

    • Article

      Recent Winners

      Dec 16, 2020

      Four poets won the 2020 Discovery Poetry Contest. They are Asa Drake of Ocala, Florida, Luther Hughes of Seattle, Ana Portnoy Brimmer of Luquillo, Puerto Rico, and Daniella Toosie-Watson of Middletown, New York. They each received $500, publication o

      20 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

      Dec 14, 2021

      Sometimes you just happen to be reading the right book—maybe it doesn't happen as often as you'd like, but when it happens oh my it happens. The post A Year in Reading: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore appeared first on The Millions.

      11 min read

    • Article

      Clarence Page: The Age-old Trick Of ‘Passing’: Fiction Writer The Latest To Be Disgraced By Lies About Heritage

      Mar 20, 2023

      I have never known a man who faked his own death, but I have known a man who faked his own life, then sadly failed to live long enough for us to talk about it. I’m talking about the late Hache Carrillo, a rising, award-winning literary talent whose r

      3 min read

    • Article

      Wordsworth’s Lake District

      Apr 30, 2020

      Wordsworth’s Lake District
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Santiago Jose Sanchez

      Dec 21, 2021

      now that my novel has sold, I feel ready to take risks as I haven’t since my early 20s. I want more books, more sex, more writing, more love. There is so much more to life than protecting myself from—and I hate to say this—myself. The post A Year in

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Martin Espada's "My Father As a Guitar"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Martin Espada's "My Father As a Guitar" - Gale

      13

      My Father as a Guitar

      Martín Espada

      2000

      Introduction

      My Father as a Guitar is a poem of personal narrative by Martín Espada, one of the most renowned Latino poets in contemporary times. It was published in 2000 in Espada's sixth collection of poetry, A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen. Widely known for his activism on behalf of disenfranchised groups, Espada's poetry of advocacy follows the tradition of Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda. Like them, he speaks for those without a social or political voice. His father, Frank Espada, was heavily involved in the civil rights movement of New York's Puerto Rican community in the 1960s and 1970s. Espada inherited his father's passion to fight for social justice, and it influenced his career both as a poet and as a tenant lawyer in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His roots and his family history are in the Latino working class. In My Father as a Guitar, Espada uses vivid metaphors to capture the social and economic stress of his father, turning a personal experience into an allegory for all immigrant laborers. The poem is a beautiful example of the way in which Espada uses narratives to humanize underrepresented people and demonstrates his mission of advocacy through poetry.

      Author Biography

      Espada was born in 1957 in Brooklyn, New York, where he lived in the Linden Projects until the age of thirteen, when his family moved to Valley Stream, Long Island. His Puerto Rican father, Frank Espada, was a documentary photographer and civil rights activist for Latino minority groups, and while growing up Espada was exposed to the politics of the minority working class from an early age. This emphasis on social justice shapes his work and is reflected in nearly every aspect of his career as a writer, editor, attorney, and social advocate.

      Espada earned his bachelor's degree in history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a juris doctorate (a professional degree in the legal field) from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, supporting himself through a series of menial jobs such as bar bouncer, janitor, and encyclopedia salesman. He published his first book of poetry, The Immigrant Iceboy's Bolero, in 1982; it incorporates his father's photography and largely deals with personal experiences of his childhood in Brooklyn. After becoming a lawyer, he stayed close to his roots by specializing in tenant law and legal advocacy for working-class Latinos while

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1