WEBVTT

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In the darkness of El
Colón movie theater,

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larger than life and
superimposed on a giant screen,

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Pedro Infante, the
Mexican movie star,

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stares straight at me with
his dark smoldering eyes.

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It is here, in the
sensuous shadows,

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that I forget all about my life
as Teresina "La Tere" Ávila,

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teacher's aide at Cabritoville
Elementary School.

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Maybe that's why I like Pedro
Infante's movies so much.

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They make me think
to stop thinking.

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Or stop thinking
to really think.

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It is here that I
prefer to dream,

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seated in the middle of the
people that I call familia.

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To my right is my comadre,
Irma "La Wirma" Granados.

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And next to her is her
mother, Nyvia Ester Granados.

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Ay, it's dinnertime
on a hot July night,

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and I should be at home,
and yet I find myself here,

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lost in the timeless
transparency of El Colón,

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watching Pedro Infante in the
movie, La vida no vale nada.

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Pedro plays a
melancholic loner named

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Pablo who keeps leaving any
number of possible lives behind

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and all sorts of women
who might have loved him.

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He is a good-hearted
vato who goes

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on these life-changing
borracheras

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whenever he feels overwhelmed,
which is pretty much

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most of the time.

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Ay, Dios mio.

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Pedro's lips part slightly
with that naughty nene--

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little boy-- grin of his as he
breaks into song, Oh, ay, ay

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ay!

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He knows me.

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He knows that I crave
his arms, his touch,

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his deep voice in my
ear, his knowing hands

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on my trembling body.

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Aye!

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Hijole!

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The great flames of
my dreams billow up

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to meet the flickering screen
as a wave of intense light

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consumes the sweet,
painful, and familiar song

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of my untold longing.

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Oh-hoo-hoy!

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The man has me going!

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Revved up like a swirling green,
yellow, silver, and blue top,

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I can barely sit
still in my seat.

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And I sit up straight,
and then I shiver down

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and melt to hot plastic, trying
to find a comfortable position.

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My legs are itchy, a
sure sign of the troubled

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state of my mind and
my restless body.

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There is no relief.

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I admit, years after he died
tragically in a plane crash,

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that I am still in love
with Pedro Infante.

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Who isn't?

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In the movie,
Pedros-as-Pablo meets

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Cruz, the widowed owner of an
antique shop in the market.

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And he carries her
groceries home for her.

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But he can't help but
notice how voluptuous Cruz

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is in her widow's garbs.

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After exchanging glances
that would have worked

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on any other woman,
Cruz can still not

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admit that she loves
Pedro-as-Pablo.

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But she is thrilled to
know that he wants her.

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His lust naked, unadorned.

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It is only when she's behind
closed doors in her room

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that she can admit
the terrible truth.

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Now, what can I tell
you about Pedro Infante?

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If you are a
Mexicana or Mexicano,

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and you do not know
who Pedro Infante is,

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you should be tied to a
hot stove with yucca rope

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and beaten with
sharp, dry corn husks,

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as you stand in a
vat of soggy fideos.

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Now if your racial and
cultural ethnicity is Other,

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then listen up.

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It's about time you learned
about the most famous

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of Mexican singers and actors.

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Pedro was born on November
the 18th, 1917, in Mazatlán,

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Sinaloa.

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And he died in 1957 in a
terrible plane crash in Mérida,

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Yucatán, when he was
only 40 years old,

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at the height of his popularity.

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He was known as "El
idolo del Pueblo."

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Some people even call him
the Dean Martin of México,

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but he's much more than that.

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His real life was
just as passionate

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as the one he played
on the screen.

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There was his first
girlfriend, Lupita Marques,

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who bore him a little girl.

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And then there was his
long-suffering wife,

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ay pobrecita, Maria
Luisa de Leon.

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Then there was Lupe
Torrentera, the young dancer

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he met when she was 14 and had a
child with him when she was 15.

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And then there was Ima
Dorantes, the young actress

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who starred in many
of his motion pictures

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and became the mother
of his daughter, Irmita.

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And the list goes on and on.

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If I'd had a chance, and
I had been born earlier

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in a different
part of the world,

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I might have taken up
with Pedro Infante too.

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But I was born in
Cabritoville, USA,

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on the Tejas-México
border near El Paso.

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The closest that I will ever
come to Pedro Infante is in El

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Colón on a Thursday night.

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In here, time is suspended.

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In here, I want to
imagine the impossible

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and to leave, for an hour
or two, my life behind.

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Nyvia Ester, she's
sitting behind a woman who

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keeps talking when
Pedro-as-Pablo

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does something cute on screen.

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Or he makes ojitos
with his beautiful eyes

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which makes us all sticky
and hot like the popcorn

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with the butter that we're
holding even though we

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know he's been dead for years.

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[LAUGHTER]

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All I need is a little
quiet and a lot of darkness.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And for the man across
the aisle from me

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to stop smacking his lips and
murmuring under his hot breath.

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When Pedro-as-Pablo suddenly
takes Cruz in his arms,

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there is a profound
and sacred silence.

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Ay!

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I hear a sharp intake of
breath from Nyvia Ester.

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[GASP] Irma sighs, oh, a
barely perceptible sound

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of pure pleasure.

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And I slide down in my seat,
my hands momentarily resting

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on the plastic chair
back, then nervously rise

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with dreaded anticipation
with what is to come.

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This is the scene where Cruz
gives Pablo her father's gold

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watch.

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I know what's going to happen.

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Ay, it breaks my heart every
time Pedro-as-Pablo leaves Cruz

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in the middle of the night
after she's given him

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her father's gold watch.

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Later, she wakes
to find him gone.

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And she runs down a set of
dark stairs, calling his name.

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Pablo!

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Pablo!

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But he will never come back.

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Pedro-as-Pablo is
the kind of man

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who will never be
faithful to one woman.

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It's not that he doesn't
want to, he just can't.

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He can't stay with Silvia.

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No, he can't.

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Can't stay with her, with
Silvia, the prostitute that he

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befriends, and eventually
he earns enough money

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as a baker to free
her from the brothel

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where she has been working
and where she's indebted to.

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But when she finally
finds him to thank him

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and to hopefully spend the
rest of her life with him,

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he doesn't want her.

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Ay, more adventures, more
women, a life out of control.

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And now, raucous with laughter,
the man across from me

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applauds as
Pedro-as-Pablo awakes

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to find himself in bed,
again, with Silvia.

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Not even Cruz could
stop Pedro-as-Pablo,

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make him stand still,
find a life of peace.

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