cover image Rebellion Is the Circle of a Lovers Hands/Rebelio

Rebellion Is the Circle of a Lovers Hands/Rebelio

Martn Espada, Martc-N Espada, Marta-N Espada. Curbstone Press, $10.95 (123pp) ISBN 978-0-915306-95-4

The American-born son of Puerto Rican parents, Espada ( Trumpets from the Islands of Their Eviction ) writes from the sharpened perspective of political activism (he is a tenant lawyer) and the experience of discrimination. ``Yes, / I am / one of those lawyers / who smuggles / Sandinistas / into the country,'' he says. Many of the poems take a historical view; in ``La tumba de Buenaventura Roig,'' Estrada recalls the exploitation of Puerto Rico by ``occupation armies and sugarcane-patrones.'' Other poems such as ``Niggerlips'' assume a more personal tone, demonstrating the sad ignorance that characterizes racism on the one hand--``Niggerlips was the high school name / for me''--and the ironic self-awareness it impels on the other--``My great-grandfather Luis / was correct/pk un negrito too / . . . The family called him a secret / and kept no photograph.'' All the poems are fine, but Espada is at his best in his pieces about the plight of migrant workers and refugees from Central America, such as ``Federico's Ghost,'' the story of a proud boy killed by spray from a cropduster. This bilingual volume was awarded the 1989 PEN/Revson Award. (Nov.)