Rhina Espaillat

Espaillat is especially well-known for her literary translations of the Christian poetry of St. John of the Cross (1542–1591) from Castilian Spanish into American English and which appeared in the literary journal First Things, and for similarly translating the greatest works from the literary canon of both Spanish and Latin American poetry.

Espaillat has also published acclaimed translations from American English into Spanish of the poems of both Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur.

Espaillat's renderings of the poetry of Robert Frost have particularly been praised for her ability to find completely accurate Spanish equivalents for the Yankee poet's many uses of rural New England slang terms.

In 2023, Espaillat's translations of the Christian poetry by the Archpriest of Hita, Dafydd ap Gwilym, Marko Marulić, Bedřich Bridel, and Gaspar Aquino de Belén were edited and published for the first time by Burl Horniachek in the poetry anthology To Heaven's Rim: The Kingdom Poets Book of World Christian Poetry.

Espaillat's translation of a Middle Welsh poem by Dafydd ap Gwilym for the book was made in collaboration with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

Rafael Brache had supported the 1930 coup d'etat that had brought Rafael Trujillo to power.

Rhina Polonia Espaillat (born January 20, 1932, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a bilingual Dominican-American poet and translator who is affiliated with the literary movement known as New Formalism in American poetry.

She has published eleven collections of poetry.

Rhina Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic's capital of Santo Domingo, which Caudillo Rafael Trujillo had recently renamed Cuidad Trujillo, on January 20, 1932.

Shortly after her birth, Espaillat's parents returned with their infant daughter to their hometown of La Vega, which had been founded by Christopher Columbus in 1494.

While growing up in La Vega, the Espaillat family lived near an historic fort on Independence Avenue, surrounded by a large community of extended family and friends who shared their dedication to art, music, and poetry.

Espaillat was often taken to visit relatives in her mother's hometown of Jarabacoa, which is now a popular resort.

Espaillat began composing poetry in Spanish when she was only 4-years of age.

Her first poems were written down by her grandmother, who told Espaillat that her poems were all wonderful and that she was a poet.

None of those first poems, however, still survive.

Furthermore, Brache's duties ever since becoming Ambassador to the United States in 1934 had mainly involved defending Trujillo's public reputation, which was suffering due to reports of political assassinations, human rights abuses, and the censorship of the press.

In 1937, a five-year old Espaillat accompanied her parent on a diplomatic mission to Washington, D.C..

At the time, Espaillat's great-uncle and god-father, Rafael Brache, headed the Dominican delegation and Espaillat's father was the legation's secretary.

In 1937, however, Trujillo issued orders to the Dominican Army that resulted in the genocidal Parsley massacre of an estimated 20,000 Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

In response, a horrified Rafael Brache wrote a letter to Trujillo which denounced the massacre and said, "he could no longer be associated with a government that had committed such a terrible criminal act."

According to Espaillat, "we did learn that the dictator was absolutely furious when he received it."

At that time, however, there was little or no organized opposition to Trujillo in the Dominican Republic and, in November 1937, a majority vote by the National Congress declared Rafael Brache and three other critics of the massacre to be, "unworthy Dominicans", and, "enemies of the fatherland".

According to Espaillat's biographer Leslie Monsour, Brache and his nephew, Espaillat's father, knew that they, "would face a dire punishment – at best imprisonment – and the lives of other members of the family would be endangered if the two men returned to their country."

By that time, however, "reports of Trujillo's oppression and brutality had reached international notoriety", and the United States Federal Government willingly granted political asylum to Rafael Brache, his nephew, and their dependents.

She had her first poetry published by the Ladies' Home Journal in November 1947.

At the age of 16, she became the youngest ever member of the Poetry Society of America, which altered its rules to admit her.

Following her 1952 interracial marriage to sculptor and labor union organizer Alfred Moskowitz, however, Espaillat drifted away from contributing to American poetry until their children had grown up and left home.

Her original poetry contains many sonnets describing her family in domestic settings, which she calls "snapshots".

She is also well-known for writing poetry that captures the beauty of daily routine, as well as poems which ironically and humorously retell stories from both the Christian Bible and Classical mythology.

Furthermore, even though Espaillat grew up in a time when, "the expectation that one should overcome any non-British ancestral origins, still held sway as a prerequisite to entering the sphere of genuine Americanness", Espaillat's poetry also expresses pride in being a Latina, in her identity as a feminist who is also a loving and happy wife and mother, and in American patriotism rooted in gratitude for her status as a political refugee who has built a family and a successful and rewarding life for herself in the United States.

Her work has been included in many popular anthologies, including The Heath Introduction to Poetry (Heath 2000); The Muse Strikes Back (Story Line Press 1997); and In Other Words: Literature by Latinas of the U.S. (Arte Publico Press 1994).

Born in Santo Domingo into an upper class family of mixed Afro-Dominican, Spanish, French, and Arawak descent, Espaillat grew up during World War II in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City after her family became refugees from the Dominican Government of caudillo Rafael Trujillo.

Following the 2020 Presidential Election, President-elect of the United States Joe Biden received a joint open letter and petition signed by more than 70 eminent American poets, who urged him to select Espaillat to read her poetry at Biden's Presidential Inauguration.

Biden ultimately chose Amanda Gorman instead.

Espaillat is of mixed Afro-Dominican, Spanish, French, and Arawak descent.

She is the daughter of Carlos Manuel Homero Espaillat Brache, a Dominican diplomatic attaché, and Dulce María Batista.

Her aunt Rhina Espaillat Brache founded the first ballet institute of La Vega.

Espaillat is also the grandniece and god-daughter of Dominican diplomat Rafael Brache.

Through her great-uncle, Espaillat is second-cousin of Democratic Party chairman Tom Perez.

Espaillat is fourth-cousin once-removed of Adriano Espaillat and great-great-great-grand-niece of Dominican President Ulises Espaillat, and is descended from the French immigrant François Espeillac.