WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.840 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:02.400 align:middle line:90% Hello, everybody. 00:00:02.400 --> 00:00:07.200 align:middle line:84% Maritza, thank you for that very beautiful reading. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:12.750 align:middle line:84% I know how hard it is to be here because we've had such 00:00:12.750 --> 00:00:15.790 align:middle line:90% a tragic couple of days here. 00:00:15.790 --> 00:00:19.110 align:middle line:84% But the lights here are really for the ancestors. 00:00:19.110 --> 00:00:21.210 align:middle line:84% And they're with us always, whether it's 00:00:21.210 --> 00:00:24.900 align:middle line:84% Pedro Infante, our own relatives, or the people that 00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:28.590 align:middle line:84% are out there in the world that are circling in those places 00:00:28.590 --> 00:00:29.400 align:middle line:90% that they circle. 00:00:29.400 --> 00:00:30.970 align:middle line:90% It's great to be here. 00:00:30.970 --> 00:00:34.470 align:middle line:84% I spent the day with Maritza, and it's so important 00:00:34.470 --> 00:00:36.120 align:middle line:90% that we're here together. 00:00:36.120 --> 00:00:39.450 align:middle line:90% Because creativity is light. 00:00:39.450 --> 00:00:41.430 align:middle line:84% And it's important that you're here. 00:00:41.430 --> 00:00:43.330 align:middle line:90% It's important that we're here. 00:00:43.330 --> 00:00:46.950 align:middle line:84% And so, thank you so much to the university. 00:00:46.950 --> 00:00:49.950 align:middle line:84% Dean Tatum, who's a good friend from Las Cruces. 00:00:49.950 --> 00:00:52.030 align:middle line:84% I don't know where you are, but thank you. 00:00:52.030 --> 00:00:55.110 align:middle line:84% Thank you to Aurelie and the English 00:00:55.110 --> 00:00:57.960 align:middle line:84% and the Spanish departments, the Creative Writing Department, 00:00:57.960 --> 00:00:58.830 align:middle line:90% Alison Deming. 00:00:58.830 --> 00:01:02.310 align:middle line:84% All of you, thank you for coming tonight. 00:01:02.310 --> 00:01:06.120 align:middle line:84% I'd like to read from Loving Pedro Infante. 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:08.790 align:middle line:84% The candles up here, there's four for Pedro 00:01:08.790 --> 00:01:11.280 align:middle line:90% because he deserves his candles. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:14.260 align:middle line:84% And there are others for other people. 00:01:14.260 --> 00:01:17.355 align:middle line:84% I have a photograph that I'm going to put up here. 00:01:17.355 --> 00:01:18.730 align:middle line:84% I don't know that you can see it. 00:01:18.730 --> 00:01:21.330 align:middle line:84% It's very dark, but we'll take it out there. 00:01:21.330 --> 00:01:23.920 align:middle line:90% This is Pedro Infante. 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:28.440 align:middle line:84% And I'd like to talk a little bit about him. 00:01:28.440 --> 00:01:31.650 align:middle line:90% You can see that, perhaps later. 00:01:31.650 --> 00:01:36.810 align:middle line:84% Pedro Infante was more than the Dean Martin of Mexico. 00:01:36.810 --> 00:01:39.450 align:middle line:84% He was the Elvis and the Rudolph Valentino, 00:01:39.450 --> 00:01:42.090 align:middle line:90% but he was even more than that. 00:01:42.090 --> 00:01:45.960 align:middle line:84% I can think of no actor, singer, probably 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:47.730 align:middle line:84% in the history of the world, I don't know, 00:01:47.730 --> 00:01:50.940 align:middle line:84% for Latinas, I mean there's only one Pedro Infante. 00:01:50.940 --> 00:01:54.820 align:middle line:84% He was born in Sinaloa, and rose through the ranks. 00:01:54.820 --> 00:01:58.050 align:middle line:84% He was a carpenter and became a singer and song-- 00:01:58.050 --> 00:01:59.310 align:middle line:90% well, he didn't write songs-- 00:01:59.310 --> 00:02:02.970 align:middle line:84% a singer and actor in the '40s and '50s, what they called la 00:02:02.970 --> 00:02:04.500 align:middle line:90% Época de Oro. 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:08.250 align:middle line:84% And my protagonist, Teresina "la Tere" Ávila, 00:02:08.250 --> 00:02:10.940 align:middle line:84% is a member of a fan club to Pedro Infante. 00:02:10.940 --> 00:02:14.070 align:middle line:84% And they still exist in Mexico and different parts 00:02:14.070 --> 00:02:15.060 align:middle line:90% of the world. 00:02:15.060 --> 00:02:17.850 align:middle line:84% On my book tour, I met somebody from Venezuela 00:02:17.850 --> 00:02:21.980 align:middle line:84% that, they have a festival every year in a small little pueblito 00:02:21.980 --> 00:02:24.840 align:middle line:90% in Venezuela for Pedro Infante. 00:02:24.840 --> 00:02:28.860 align:middle line:84% He's an incredible person because he's like Elvis. 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:31.170 align:middle line:90% You still have sightings. 00:02:31.170 --> 00:02:32.040 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:32.040 --> 00:02:33.180 align:middle line:90% Yes, you do. 00:02:33.180 --> 00:02:35.460 align:middle line:90% People have seen Pedro Infante. 00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:36.600 align:middle line:90% He's still alive. 00:02:36.600 --> 00:02:38.880 align:middle line:84% I've met people that said, yes, he still lives. 00:02:38.880 --> 00:02:41.190 align:middle line:90% He's in un pueblito in Mexico. 00:02:41.190 --> 00:02:43.680 align:middle line:84% The Univision went to this little village 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:47.130 align:middle line:84% to find a man that had a metal plate in his head 00:02:47.130 --> 00:02:49.830 align:middle line:84% like Pedro did from the very first plane accident. 00:02:49.830 --> 00:02:54.870 align:middle line:84% He died in a plane accident, supposedly, in 1957. 00:02:54.870 --> 00:02:59.160 align:middle line:84% But we're not sure about that because maybe he survived. 00:02:59.160 --> 00:03:03.180 align:middle line:84% Maybe his face was messed up like ground meat, 00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:08.220 align:middle line:84% and he went into hiding, or he's living in Europe, or who knows? 00:03:08.220 --> 00:03:11.580 align:middle line:84% I'd like to read from the very first chapter. 00:03:11.580 --> 00:03:14.940 align:middle line:84% Funny that you should mention you started with chapter 7. 00:03:14.940 --> 00:03:17.070 align:middle line:90% This was chapter 10. 00:03:17.070 --> 00:03:19.680 align:middle line:90% But then, now it's chapter 1. 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:24.900 align:middle line:84% And it's amazing how you shuffle those cards of your chapters. 00:03:24.900 --> 00:03:29.395 align:middle line:84% And I'd like to begin with a little quote from García Lorca. 00:03:29.395 --> 00:03:31.520 align:middle line:84% ¡Ay, qué trabajo me cuesta quererte como te quiero! 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:35.880 align:middle line:90% 00:03:35.880 --> 00:03:41.880 align:middle line:84% Oh, what an effort it is to love you the way that I do. 00:03:41.880 --> 00:03:46.080 align:middle line:84% This is a book about the illusion of love. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:49.980 align:middle line:84% Teresina is in love with Pedro Infante on the screen. 00:03:49.980 --> 00:03:55.620 align:middle line:84% And we can only reflect on these days of hardship and struggle, 00:03:55.620 --> 00:03:57.960 align:middle line:90% on the illusion of hate. 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:03.630 align:middle line:84% So I'd like to begin with this first chapter, "Hijole! 00:04:03.630 --> 00:04:05.840 align:middle line:90% In the Darkness." 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:07.000 align:middle line:90%