"Latin Night at the Pawnshop," by Martín Espada
Author: Martín Espada
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Chelsea, Massachusetts
Christmas, 1987
The apparition of a salsa band
gleaming in the Liberty Loan
pawnshop window:
Not a lot of poems give you the setting of where, what day, and what year. This gives me an idea of the wether at this time and the feel of it because winter is dark so the poet ends with something dark. Its all connected somehow and someway.
the tittle is “Latin Night at the Pawnshop”. the only latin part of the whole poem that the poet address is that there’s is a ’’Salsa Band". the rest of the poem is talking about instruments and a ticket.
In this small sentence we are able to imply that special moments were made from these instruments and that they were in a band which shows that it wasnt only one person enjoying this but multiple.
Golden trumpet,
silver trombone,
congas, maracas, tambourine,
all with price tags dangling
like the city morgue ticket
on a dead man's toe.
also in the line after (Paragraph 3, sentence 2) that repeats in saying the color and then the instrument name. This patter caught my attention when read it. This sound like it rhymes to when said out loud.
“Gleaming,” “Golden,” and “Silver” relate to value. This ties in later with the idea of putting a “price tag” on something that has cultural value to the speaker.
the first two end with an “as” which rhymes and then the last word of the sentence ends with “ine”. this breaks the rhyme. this made me stop and re-read because i thought i said something wrong and not with the flow . However the poet did that on purpose.
the poet describe the ticket dangling from the instrument a ticket from a dead mans toe. this gives a twist at the end. this also makes twist dark really fast. However why did the poet do it?
What the speaker realizes is that the value of that band, its music, and again a cultural aspect. Will/Does Chelsea, Mass. want, need, or appreciate what the band has to offer?
how dose a dead man toes ties to an liberty loan pawnshop. it went from saying different types of instruments to taking about a ticket on a dead man toe. i don’t really see how this ties together.
Tag on a dead mans toe like the ticket on the instrument. Both just waiting to be consumed.
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