Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits

Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1989

No one asks
where I am from,
I must be
from the country of janitors,
I have always mopped this floor.
Honduras, you are a squatter's camp
outside the city
of their understanding.

No one can speak
my name,
I host the fiesta
of the bathroom,
stirring the toilet
like a punchbowl.
The Spanish music of my name
is lost
when the guests complain
about toilet paper.

What they say
must be true:
I am smart,
but I have a bad attitude.

No one knows
that I quit tonight,
maybe the mop
will push on without me,
sniffing along the floor
like a crazy squid
with stringy gray tentacles.
They will call it Jorge.


from Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands

My interpretation of this poem:

Martin Espada has found a way to put humor into his negativity in the story “Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits.” This church janitor seems to carry a feeling of neglect with him throughout this piece. In the very first stanza he says:

“No one asks where I am from, I must be from the country of janitors.”

This implies that no one at the church talks to him, he seems very lonely. Obviously he is fed up when he claims:

“No one knows that I quit tonight, maybe the mop will push on without me.”

This makes me wonder whether his name is actually Jorge or if that is just what people call him. In the last stanza he implies that he is invisible pushing the mop and that they will not be able to tell the difference between him and the next guy that comes in to clean after he leaves.
The fact that he is at a church janitor makes this story even more lonesome. Churches are supposed to be positive settings with everyone smiling and bringing fellowship. But in Jorge’s perspective he feels as though they look down upon him because he is there to clean and not to worship.

“What they say must be true: I am smart, but I have a bad attitude.”

So maybe the ‘Church folk’ do not like him, maybe they have not brought forth the effort to treat him like a person, to them he is just "Jorge the janitor."

Audiobooks by Espada

• Now the Dead Will Dance the Mambo
  
  "[He's] one of a handful of American poets who are forging a new American language, one that tells the unwritten history of the continent, speaks truth to power, and sings songs of selves we can no longer silence. His ambition and his achievement remind us of Whitman, where it all begins."
  -Russell Banks
  

The Works of Poetry by Espada

• Alabanza: New and Selected Poems
  
  "Martin Espada weilds his poetry like a flint, striking sparks, cutting to the bone. To read this work is to be struck breathless, and surely to come away changed."
  -Barbara Kingsolver
  
• Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas
  
  A collection of Poems about a wide variety of subjects From the different meanings of his name; Espada means "sword" in spanish, to Colonialism and the movement for independence. Also detailed in this book are the Ponce Massacre and the life and struggle of Clemente Soto Velez, a poet who was imprisoned for 'seditious conspiracy.' On top of all this he is searching the mountains for the grave of his great- grandfather
  
• La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig
  
  
• A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen
  
  
• The Republic of Poetry
  
  
• Poetry Like Bread: Poets of the Political Imagination from Curbstone Poets
  
  
• El Coro: A Chorus of Latino and Latina Poetry
  
  
• Last Summer
  
  
• Toward Anguish
  
  
• Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands
  

Overview of Martin Espada

Martin Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957. Since then he has done much to create a name for himself. What names you ask? According to www.martinespada.net/ he has been called "the Latino poet of his generation" as well as "the Pablo Neruda of North America."
After reading a few of his short stories and poems, I found those accusations to be true.
He has done much to uncover the truth that there is underlying discrimination occurring in America still.
A Poet, an Essayist, Editor and a Translator for over sixteen published books, Espada has stood the test of time and still continues to write works of literature today, publishing two collections of poems last year (2008).
He is currently a Professor at The University of Massachusetts-Amherst where he teaches creative writing and the work of Pablo Nerudo.