Colibrí (Themes)

Themes

Language

One of the primary ways that colonizing powers subjugate a people is through language. The colonizer’s act of naming and renaming the world of the colonized forces the less powerful to see themselves through the eyes of the occupiers, rather than through their own eyes. Espada foregrounds the diabolical nature of this practice by listing it along with guns as the primary weapon the Spanish used on the native Borinquens.

Espada provides two examples of renaming, “colibrí” and “Taino.” The Spaniards called the native Arawak Taino, and they dubbed the hummingbird colibrí. The poem itself extends the metaphor comparing the former to the latter. Ironically, although the final image of the poem is one of liberation, there is no escaping from the circle of the oppressor’s language, as it becomes part of the fabric of the way that the oppressed view and experience life. The poem’s final image suggests that there can be no real liberation from the Europeans’ linguistic colonialism.

History

History has as much, if not more, to do with the present than it does the past, as those who write it do so out of the demands of the present. The rush in the last few decades to rewrite American history taking into account the viewpoints of Native Americans and previously omitted peoples attests to this. Espada’s poem can be seen as an attempt to provide another view of Puerto Rico’s past by describing its “discovery” and occupation as acts of aggression. The last two lines of the poem — “If only history / were like your hands” — are both a wish and a lament, as they underscore the difficulty of undoing popular thinking about Puerto Rico and righting the injustices of the past.

Nature

Poets often romanticize nature by describing it in Edenic terms, as if it were a place of salvation and innocence. Espada draws on this tradition in “Colibrí” by linking the Taino to the natural world and the Spanish to a fallen world that attempts to dominate nature rather than live in harmony with it. Espada describes the Taino as living off the “plátanos in the trees,” and he figuratively links the Taino with the hummingbird, an animal known for its beauty and vulnerability. Both are captives. When the bird is freed, it is released into “a paradise of sky / a nightfall of singing frogs.” This line suggests the Taino also need to be freed into such a paradise. There are no predators in Espada’s nature, no threats, except for the Spanish interlopers.

Colonialism

At various points in the history of civilization, countries have sought to occupy and annex other countries, often destroying the culture and irrevocably changing the history of those countries. In “Colibrí,” Espada shows the effect of Spanish colonization on the Taino. The Spaniards change the Taino way of life, striking fear into them with their “iron and words.” By comparing the Taino with the hummingbird, who “darts and bangs / between. white walls,” Espada emphasizes how the Taino are imprisoned as well, literally and figuratively. Espada underlines the sheer brutality of colonial power with the image of the colibrí’s “pure stillness” in the predator’s hands.