So much of Martín Espada's work is a reflection of his cultural and historical perspective that nearly every poem could be discussed in terms of what it says about a political or social event, military action, or displacement of immigrants. He often makes a point about a public act by describing its personal impact on an individual, whether it is a war, a riot, or an "eviction" of a people from their native land. "We Live by What We See at Night" takes place in both Puerto Rico and New York, and it spans the time of his father's youth on the island to thirty years later when the poet is dreaming of it, just as the older man does. This puts the poem's time frame in both the 1950s and the 1980s.

Puerto Rico's history is made up of one struggle after another...