WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.145 align:middle line:84% From Puerto Rico we move to Chile. 00:00:02.145 --> 00:00:04.740 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:07.470 align:middle line:84% And this is a poem from the previous book, Trumpets 00:00:07.470 --> 00:00:10.820 align:middle line:84% From the Islands of Their Eviction. 00:00:10.820 --> 00:00:12.920 align:middle line:84% I worked for a while as a radio journalist. 00:00:12.920 --> 00:00:15.350 align:middle line:84% One of the things that I did was a documentary 00:00:15.350 --> 00:00:17.870 align:middle line:84% on the seventh anniversary of the coup in Chile. 00:00:17.870 --> 00:00:20.570 align:middle line:84% And that's where a lot of the information in this poem 00:00:20.570 --> 00:00:26.180 align:middle line:84% comes from-- interviews with people who were there. 00:00:26.180 --> 00:00:32.470 align:middle line:84% The context for this poem is the 1973 military coup in Chile 00:00:32.470 --> 00:00:36.880 align:middle line:84% that overthrew the elected Marxist president, Salvador 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:41.840 align:middle line:84% Allende, and instituted a junta, which slaughtered 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.900 align:middle line:84% as many as 30,000 people in the months 00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:47.930 align:middle line:84% following the coup, many of them in the soccer 00:00:47.930 --> 00:00:51.110 align:middle line:90% stadiums of Santiago de Chile. 00:00:51.110 --> 00:00:54.050 align:middle line:90% One such person was Victor Jara. 00:00:54.050 --> 00:00:59.580 align:middle line:84% Victor Jara was a singer, songwriter, composer, 00:00:59.580 --> 00:01:04.739 align:middle line:84% guitarist, poet, an activist, and a symbol 00:01:04.739 --> 00:01:07.380 align:middle line:84% for the people of Chile-- one of the leaders of the new song 00:01:07.380 --> 00:01:09.960 align:middle line:90% movement in Chile. 00:01:09.960 --> 00:01:14.910 align:middle line:84% He was publicly executed as an example. 00:01:14.910 --> 00:01:19.390 align:middle line:84% And yet what the junta found out, in this case, 00:01:19.390 --> 00:01:27.050 align:middle line:84% was that sometimes an idea is very hard to kill. 00:01:27.050 --> 00:01:29.900 align:middle line:84% The poem is called "The Firing Squad is Singing in Chile." 00:01:29.900 --> 00:01:35.940 align:middle line:90% 00:01:35.940 --> 00:01:42.370 align:middle line:84% "It was years ago, at the moment of the coup, 00:01:42.370 --> 00:01:48.770 align:middle line:84% that the military arrested Victor Jara, alleged communist, 00:01:48.770 --> 00:01:49.270 align:middle line:90% a singer. 00:01:49.270 --> 00:01:51.930 align:middle line:90% 00:01:51.930 --> 00:01:54.150 align:middle line:84% They took him to the stadium where 00:01:54.150 --> 00:01:58.410 align:middle line:84% thousands of the suspected stood waiting for a bullet, where 00:01:58.410 --> 00:02:02.700 align:middle line:84% skulls leaked in interrogation rooms like earthenware pots, 00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:06.290 align:middle line:90% spilling their wine. 00:02:06.290 --> 00:02:10.860 align:middle line:84% He sang for them, and they, neck-bruised, 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:15.246 align:middle line:84% heartbeat drumming in the forehead, fear-eyed they, 00:02:15.246 --> 00:02:17.830 align:middle line:90% they sang. 00:02:17.830 --> 00:02:22.480 align:middle line:84% And he sang, sang after the gun butts fractured his hands 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:24.250 align:middle line:90% to stop the guitar. 00:02:24.250 --> 00:02:26.950 align:middle line:84% Sang though they pried the tongue from his head, 00:02:26.950 --> 00:02:30.790 align:middle line:84% so that a mouth cavern of red was his song. 00:02:30.790 --> 00:02:34.090 align:middle line:84% Sang till the guards pointed metallic snouts 00:02:34.090 --> 00:02:38.455 align:middle line:84% and punctured his chest with machine guns iron insect sting. 00:02:38.455 --> 00:02:41.900 align:middle line:90% 00:02:41.900 --> 00:02:43.730 align:middle line:90% There were thousands. 00:02:43.730 --> 00:02:45.950 align:middle line:84% And each one had a wake in the mouth 00:02:45.950 --> 00:02:49.400 align:middle line:84% for a dead singer, a quiet between sorrowful teeth 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:50.750 align:middle line:90% for a mutilated song. 00:02:50.750 --> 00:02:53.460 align:middle line:90% 00:02:53.460 --> 00:02:56.490 align:middle line:90% And the military made laws. 00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:58.050 align:middle line:90% They banned the songs-- 00:02:58.050 --> 00:03:00.450 align:middle line:84% "Laborers Prayer," and "The Child of the Plow," 00:03:00.450 --> 00:03:02.790 align:middle line:84% "Winds of the People," and "Song of the Fallen--" 00:03:02.790 --> 00:03:06.990 align:middle line:84% document stamp subversive in the hundreds. 00:03:06.990 --> 00:03:10.920 align:middle line:84% They banned the armadillo shell charango, the quena 00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:14.490 align:middle line:84% flute in its condor god throat, the bombo drum of Mapuche 00:03:14.490 --> 00:03:20.780 align:middle line:84% ritual, infected by communists-- incinerated, subversive. 00:03:20.780 --> 00:03:24.470 align:middle line:84% They banned the mention of Victor Jara's name-- 00:03:24.470 --> 00:03:28.010 align:middle line:90% a repented subversive. 00:03:28.010 --> 00:03:30.890 align:middle line:84% These are the junta's policies-- bureaucrats 00:03:30.890 --> 00:03:33.470 align:middle line:84% proofreading music sheets, police escorting 00:03:33.470 --> 00:03:36.350 align:middle line:84% those who mispronounce their lyrics to shock batons 00:03:36.350 --> 00:03:40.270 align:middle line:90% and spotlights in a humid room. 00:03:40.270 --> 00:03:43.870 align:middle line:84% The army in twos and threes on street corners, 00:03:43.870 --> 00:03:47.170 align:middle line:84% leaning on rifles, a vigil of cigarettes, 00:03:47.170 --> 00:03:49.440 align:middle line:90% listening for years. 00:03:49.440 --> 00:03:51.980 align:middle line:90% 00:03:51.980 --> 00:03:57.140 align:middle line:84% And years later, exiles in cafes sing. 00:03:57.140 --> 00:03:59.780 align:middle line:90% Smuggled tape recordings sing. 00:03:59.780 --> 00:04:02.990 align:middle line:84% Nightwatchmen, late in warehouses, sing. 00:04:02.990 --> 00:04:06.800 align:middle line:84% Labor camp prisoners, anally raped, cry and sing. 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:10.280 align:middle line:84% The wives and mothers of the disappeared in protest sing. 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:14.120 align:middle line:84% [SPANISH] assembling rifles in a clandestine basement sing. 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:16.744 align:middle line:84% As if a butchered tongue could stop Chile from singing. 00:04:16.744 --> 00:04:19.529 align:middle line:90% 00:04:19.529 --> 00:04:24.830 align:middle line:84% Generals, constipated with blood, are overhearing it. 00:04:24.830 --> 00:04:27.050 align:middle line:84% The condemned in a row were singing, 00:04:27.050 --> 00:04:33.038 align:middle line:84% singing with the furious chorus of the firing squad." 00:04:33.038 --> 00:04:36.377 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:04:36.377 --> 00:04:40.670 align:middle line:90% 00:04:40.670 --> 00:04:42.490 align:middle line:90% Thank you.