Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper

Espada has spoken and written eloquently about his memory of his father’s involvement in labor protests when he was still a child (Mishler, Peter. “Martin Espada on Framing the Present through the Lens of the Past.” LitHub, 2021.), and the theme of sympathy for the plight of exploited laborers runs through not just this poem but much of his life and work. The poet is concerned about a philosophical system that sacrifices the wellbeing of workers on the altar of capitalist progress—in reality, he argues, the bank balances and share values of the unseen and unmentioned bosses of the company.

Marx’s notion of alienated labor is implicitly considered in that the makers of the legal pads—at least at the time—derive no benefit from the product of their hard labor. A contrary reading might suggest the poem is a defense of the dream of self-betterment, since it ends with Espada going on to law school himself and using the same pads he once made. Yet this theory does not really hold up. Espada has described how he represented many clients from migrant backgrounds who worked long shifts in blue-collar jobs, yet they earned barely enough to cover the rent demanded by unforgiving landlords.