It’s probably a happy coincidence, but the same week that CNN is launching its miniseries Latino in America, Seattle Arts and Lectures is welcoming the poet Martín Espada to town. Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Espada is either famed or notorious for his political views, derived from his Puerto Rican heritage. “The melting pot” is not his preferred metaphor.

In an earlier interview about his book, Republic of Poetry, Espada said: “The American history taught and published in this country all too often resembles a consensus on what to forget. This is especially true when it comes to Latinos, Latin America, and their history.” Talking with Bill Moyers, he put it more bluntly: “I mean, we have to deal with this paradox that there are 40 million Latinos in this country and yet we’re invisible.”

The Republic of Poetry was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer, and came on the heels of his collection Alabanza, which gathered selections written between 1982 and 2003. Both titles are taken from poems.

In Espada’s “The Republic of Poetry,” dedicated to Chile, poets and poetry overrun the trains, parades, restaurants, zoos, and airports. It’s a portrait of a country that celebrates remembrance, where people see each other. It’s also a gift from a poet, even one called “the Pablo Neruda of North America,” surprised by popular recognition of his gifts.

“Alabanza” is about remembrance, too, but in a tragic key–it’s a work in praise of “the 43 members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 100, working at the Windows on the World restaurant, who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center.” Espada memorializes each minute before the planes:

Alabanza. Praise the kitchen radio, dial clicked

even before the dial on the oven, so that music and Spanish

rose before bread. Praise the bread. Alabanza.

Seattle Arts and Lectures Poetry Series: Martín Espada, Friday, October 23, 7:30 p.m.; Benaroya Hall; tickets: $20-$50/$10 students.