WEBVTT

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Smiling all day in
the sun down here.

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Leslie Silko.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Let's see.

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First thing, I have to
get used to this mic.

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Those of you who weren't
at the forum at noon today,

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we were in a room.

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It was a smaller room.

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And I didn't use one of these.

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I like to just not have to
use these kinds of things.

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But in a bigger
room you have to,

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so I'll probably
gesture with my hand

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and hit it a couple of times and
maybe talk too closely into it.

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But I don't like these things.

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Well, let's see.

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Usually, and I guess
even for this appearance,

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they sort of book me as a poet.

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But I think of myself
more as a storyteller.

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And that's what I
really love to do.

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I get started with a
storytelling and the stories,

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and I lose all track of time.

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That's my wristwatch over there.

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I was going to try to watch it
so that I didn't exhaust you.

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What I'd like to do though
is do some of the things

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that I really love to
do, the storytelling.

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And then I'll do a few poems.

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I love to write poems.

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I don't want you to
misunderstand me.

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But I don't enjoy
reading poetry as much

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as I enjoy doing stories.

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So we'll get started this way.

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Storytelling, the kind of
storytelling that I'm into,

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is something that is very much
a part of where I grew up.

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And it's an ongoing thing.

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This kind of
storytelling is something

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that, as long as
the people at Laguna

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can still have enough strength
to speak, why, this will go on.

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I think it's this way with
a lot of other Indian people

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in different places.

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And I know with
the Chicano people

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and maybe somewhere in rural
areas with white people too.

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Anyway, this is a story
that is sort of X-rated.

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It's called "Laughing and
Laughing about Something

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that Happened at Mesita."

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Mesita's a village near
Laguna where I grew up.

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And people at home
live for good stories.

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And the happiest thing
that can happen to you

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is to hear a good story that
you can tell to your friends

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for the rest of the day.

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And this is one of the stories.

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And it goes like this.

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"There was this man from Mesita.

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And he was seeing this woman.

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And she wasn't young, either.

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And she was married,
too, just like him,

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with five or six kids.

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Anyway, the story goes this way.

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This man's wife had caught
these two together before.

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Or maybe she just
heard about them.

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I don't know.

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Maybe some of her
neighbors told her.

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Well, anyway, it was
in the summertime,

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after the corn got tall.

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That day it was hot
and past noontime,

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and everybody was inside,
resting or sleeping.

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And that is what these
two were counting on.

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While everybody else was
inside resting from the heat,

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they could lay down with each
other out in the cornfield.

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I don't know whose
field it was, but I

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guess they waited until
all the other people left

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and went inside to eat lunch.

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Well, there they were, I
guess, on the shady ground,

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a little damp from last week's
rain, sort of cool, maybe,

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and all surrounded by the tall
corn with the leaves rustling

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in the breeze.

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They were deep into
those places that people

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go when they are together like
that, when his wife showed up.

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She didn't go there by herself.

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She brought her two
sisters along with her.

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They knew what was going
on, and they were just

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waiting to catch them together.

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So they caught them.

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And the man and that
woman jumped up,

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and they put on their clothes.

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And all that time, the
wife and the sisters

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were seen standing
there, silent,

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probably because they
didn't have anything to say.

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And then, that other woman left.

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And the man was alone with
his wife and sisters-in-law.

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And by this time,
his wife was crying.

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And her sisters were
saying, don't cry, sister.

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Don't cry.

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And then the man stood there for
a while, looking up at the sky

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or maybe over at the long
red mesa behind the village.

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And then pretty soon he
started hoeing weeds again.

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Anyway, they were ignoring
him like he didn't matter, now

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that that other woman was gone.

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And so that's what happened.

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And everybody was
laughing and laughing

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when they heard
about it at Laguna.

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We were all laughing
and laughing

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about what happened at Mesita.

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And then there was
this time at Laguna,

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this man was going up
the hill to the toilet.

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And it was nighttime.

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And he heard funny sounds
coming from one of the old barns

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on the side of the hill.

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He thought he'd better go
check up on things in case

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some animal was trapped in
there or something like that.

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So he opened up the door and
shined his flashlight in there,

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and here was this man, really
respected in the community

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because he always worked hard
and hardly ever got drunk.

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Well, there he was, laying there
naked with this woman who was

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big and fat and had 12 kids.

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And here it was, the
middle of winter,

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and they were both naked there.

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This man who found them didn't
exactly know what to say,

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so he closed the door again.

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And he went back
home, and he even

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forgot that he had
to go to the toilet.

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And I guess he told someone,
because pretty soon everybody

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heard about it.

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And we were all laughing
because that man was

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so skinny and small, and
she was so heavy and fat.

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And someone said that this
man sure was taking a chance,

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messing around with her.

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Because she was
so big, all she'd

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have to do is roll over on
him and that would be the end.

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You have to understand
about the attitudes at home,

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despite Christianity
and so forth,

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towards this sort of thing.

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It's not quite the same as
if I was telling the story

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and this happened to a
suburban housewife in Tucson.

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I realize that in Anglo-Saxon
law and Anglo-Saxon culture,

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this sort of thing is grounds
for instantaneous divorce

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and destruction and all
kinds of terrible things.

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But at home, it was more of
a, oh, it was more of a game,

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I guess, to see
if you could keep

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from being found out and
see if you could get down

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to the cornfield and back
again without your husband

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finding out.

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And if someone
cried over it, they

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cried over it because
of these stories

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that would be going around.

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Not so much for the
deed, but just the fact

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that everyone was
going, there goes--

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this is so-and-so.

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Did you hear about
what happened?

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That kind of thing.

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Anyway, so it's meant--
these things go around there,

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and it's in a much more
lighthearted manner,

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I think, than what you might
be sort of used to ordinarily.

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The reasons for this go
way back into the old time.

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