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>> Anybody here speaks Spanish?

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Raise your hand.

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That type of thing.

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I do too. So I should like
to read something in Spanish.

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I'll might have to look it up.

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I don't know where it is.

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It's -- The title, by the way,
is con el pie en el estribo.

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One foot up the stirrup, and I
took that title from the prologue

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to the second part of Cervantes's Quijote.

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Yeah. We have a similar thing in English.

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And so mine is going west, although
I don't know this generation

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of English speakers knows what going west means.

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People my age still do.

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It's you're going to die.

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And this is what Con el pie
en el estribo is and it's --

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Here it is.

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We can talk a little bit.

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I mean, I can stop.

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Doesn't have to be just a reading seminar.

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Casa sin corredores.

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Calle sin faroles.

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Amigos que mueren.

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Jóvenes que ya no hablan
español ni saben saludar.

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Desaparece el valle de gentes.

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Los americanos con sus propiedades,
sus bancos y contratos, sí.

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Gente que no reconoce un
choque de mano como cosa legal.

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Farmacéuticos con títulos pero
sin experiencia en la materia.

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Rancheros que no labran y
pueblerinos con corbata.

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¿Para qué le sirve a uno vivir 83 años si
todo lo que uno vió nacer está enterrado?

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Los Vílchez [fonético], muertos.

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Los Tuero, también.

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Los Buenrostro se acaban y las familias
fundadoras se secan como las hojas del

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mezquite doliente.

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A la trampa, Rafa.

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A la trampa con el valle con su buena tierra
ahora ya casi toda cercada con alambres de púa.

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Esos llanos ahora poblados
con casas de material,

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hechas por patrones que viven
entre nosotros sin conocernos.

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¿Dónde están los troqueros
que llevaban gente para el norte?

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El Pirulí, Leocadio Gavira [fonético], el
Nicle [fonético] tan renombrado, muertos,

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o viejos y tullidos, que es la
misma cosa que la muerte viva.

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Y el mercado en la calle Comercio
de San Antonio, ¿estará ahí?

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Y la marqueta de Houston, donde tanta
gente se bullía, muertos todos.

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El tiempo también muerto y
olvidado, muerto y suspendido.

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No le tengo miedo a la muerte pero
también reconozco que no valgo la pena,

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que me echen al canal grande ya, ahorita mismo.

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Y pensar que en mis tiempos se sabía más que
ahora, con sus radios y teléfonos y sus vistas.

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Tiempos malos fueron aquellos también con su
rinches, la ley aprovechada, los terratenientes,

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las sequías y la vida misma, pero al fin y al
cabo era mi tiempo, mi gente, mi valle querido.

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Antes de que hubiera tal cosa como el
condado de [inaudible] y [inaudible] City,

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y todo lo demás.

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Había gente, Rafa.

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Gente, labores y rancherías, y ese Río Grande
que era para beber y no para detener los unos de

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un lado contra el otro, no.

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Eso vino después con los americanos y sus
ingenieros y el papelaje, todo en inglés.

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No, no te lo niego.

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No, ni para qué negarlo.

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Pero también hubo raza traicionera,
raza que jodía a la raza y gratis,

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por el mero gusto de jodernos
los unos a los otros.

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Lambiscones, coyotes, chupasangre,
nuestra enfermedad nacional.

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Pero el sol nacía y el sol se ponía
y todo el mundo sabía lo que hacía.

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Bola de sinvergüenzas, gente tramposa que
no tenía palabra ni cara con qué sostenerla.

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Gente con me vale suaves y de trato feo.

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Gente sin pelo en el pecho que se vendían en
las elecciones o que chaqueteaban por un plato

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de barbacoa y un par de cervezas.

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Pero eran pocos.

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Los más eran gentes con
sombreros de petate, bien sudados.

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Gente trabajada y engañada por
mucho tiempo y por todo mundo.

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Gente incrédula y llena de fe, gente no
letrada pero con la cultura en las uñas.

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Gente del Valle, Rafa.

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Este Valle tan llevado y traído.

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Gente que a pulso ganó la tierra
y qué paso lento la fue perdiendo.

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Gente que por fin se fue para
el norte, para no volver.

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Barrios abandonados y quién sabrá Si
eso también no haya sido una bendición.

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Amigos y patrones al pozo, iban rumbo.

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Me acuerdo, Rafa.

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Carne seca colgada en los alambres de la lavada
y cabritos que se mataban en los solares.

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Árboles llenos de higos y de miel de
abejas, que chupaban a flor de naranjos.

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Ruidos de animales que ya no se oyen, ni se ven.

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Bailes con gente invitada y ahora me
cuentan que se tiene que pagar la entrada,

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pero te das cuenta.

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Y ahí están las palmeras, Rafa, las palmeras
que se daban en el valle y que crecían como

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Dios quería, hasta que la bolillada vino con
sus hachas y las cortaron como si tal cosa.

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Parece mentira.

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Ahora ellos mismos venden
palmas para que se siembren.

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¿Quién los entiende?

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Vendiendo palmas para sembrar, qué bonito.

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Si ellos fueron los que las cortaron.

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Palmas que se doblaban pero que no cedían.

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Palmas que perdían hojas y nacían
otras, hasta que vinieron las hachas.

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Así como la gente, Rafa.

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Y las guerras.

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Las guerras de tu padre aquí en el Valle,
las de tus hermanos y la tuya, Rafa.

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Y las otras guerras de ellos, a
los cuales siempre nos inmiscuyen.

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Valle, valle, quién te ha visto y quién te ve.

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Y yo soy del Valle, tengo el honor,
como decía la vieja canción.

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Y ahora, nada.

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Me voy, Rafa.

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Tú te quedas.

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Muchacho joven que vives entre los
viejos y con sus viejos recuerdos.

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Thank you.

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I think it's very nice of you.

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Sit through all of that if you didn't
understand a word of it, too many words.

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But it's amazing where people
get their ideas to write.

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I've been visited by a fellow writer who
was at Texas at the time and I was living

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out in the Valley, but in South Texas.

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South Texas is North of the Valley.

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And after he left, my daughter who's
now a senior at University, was a baby then.

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We walked around the neighborhood.

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It was a nice neighborhood, you know,

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one of those zoned neighborhoods,
but without sidewalks.

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In the nice zoned neighborhood, expensive house

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but without the lamp posts
on the corners, you know.

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And then your neighbor has
the same lawn as yours.

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Not like mine, I'm not a lawn freak at all.

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He had to mow mine because I wasn't
about to touch the damn thing.

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And I wasn't going to work that night.

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I was going to go straight to bed because he'd
been there and we'd been talking [inaudible].

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And then, I turned an old 1932,
1933 song by Carlos Gardel.

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Not a tango, but more or less
with the cola vidalita [phonetic]

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which is country music from Argentina.

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And it was an old broken-down gaucho in his 80s,
living by himself, in what we call a pastura,

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which is probably better known as the pampa.

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And I'd heard that song all my life.

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I'm 59 years old and this is
-- I heard it from the thirties

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and forties and I bought the record.

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He's been dead since 35.

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That's 50 somewhat years ago
and his album still sounds.

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It's an amazing thing.

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It's very endearing.

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And I heard that evening as if I'd
heard it for the very first time.

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And I got up out of my room and I have
this TV and not this record player,

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but I use those ear things,
I won't bother the family.

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And I walked in, I told my wife I'm sorry, but
I think I'm going to stay up and work tonight.

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She said well, that's great.

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And I went to the room, started writing
and what attracted me was not the plot,

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but the old man's lament was,
because it's really a plaint,

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very old English, European form.

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And - But I liked the tone.

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And I just fell into that.

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I think this is one of the
fastest writings I've ever done.

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I think it took less than a week, rewrote it in
less than three weeks and was over by a month.

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I just want a little serendipity [inaudible].

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And it came from that and you never know
and it's by way of Argentina years ago

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and the man was killed in an
airplane crash in Colombia in 1935

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and I was six years old and it just popped up.

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That's why it's very difficult when
people ask you where your ideas come from,

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unless you actually know
and I remember this one.

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The rest is all of you who are
writers know, you never know.