WEBVTT

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A few years later,
I went back again,

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this time with my father.

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And at the spur
of the moment, we

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decided to search for the grave
of my great-grandfather, whose

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name was Buenaventura Roig.

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Buenaventura in Spanish,
roughly translated,

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means good luck or good fortune.

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And indeed, he was one of
these larger than life figures

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that almost every family
has in its history.

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This is what we found.

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There's some
Spanish in the poem.

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The title, first of all.

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"La Tumba de Buenaventura
Roig," of course,

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the grave of Buenaventura Roig.

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I refer also to Utuado,
which is the town up

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in the mountains of Puerto
Rico where my father was born.

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I refer to flamboyán, which
is a brilliant red and orange

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flowering tree on the island.

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Patrones, of course,
the landowners.

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Jíbaros, that's our
word for peasant.

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And finally, San Miguel, or
Saint Michael, the patron

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saint of Utuado.

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The poem, again, is called,
"La Tumba de Buenaventura

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Roig," for my great-grandfather,
who died in 1941.

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"Buenaventura Roig-- once
peasants in the thousands

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streamed down hillsides to
witness the great eclipse

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of your funeral.

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Now your bones have drifted with
the tide of steep grass, sunken

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in the chaos of weeds,
bent and suffering,

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like cane cutters in the sun.

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The drunken caretaker
cannot find the grave.

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Squinting at your name,
spitting as he stumbles

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between the white Christs,
with hands raised,

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sowing their field
of white crosses.

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Buenaventura Roig-- In Utuado
you built the stone bridge,

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crushed years later by a river,
raving like a forgotten god.

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Here, sweat streaked your
face with the soil of coffee,

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the ground where your nephew
slept while rain ruined

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the family crop, and his
blood flowered like flamboyán

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on the white suit
of his suicide.

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Buenaventural Roig-- in the
town plaza where you were Mayor,

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where there once was a
bench with the family name,

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you shouted subversion against
occupation armies and sugarcane

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patrones to the jíbaros who
swayed in their bristling,

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dry thicket of straw hats, who
knew bundles and sacks loaded

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on the fly bitten
beast of a man's back.

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Buenaventura Roig-- not enough
money for a white Christ.

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Lost now, even to the
oldest grave digger--

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the one with an
English name, descended

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from the pirates
of the coast, who

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grabs for a shirt
pocket cigarette

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as he remembers your funeral.

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A caravan trailing
in the distance

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of the many years that cracked
the skin around his eyes.

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Buenaventura Roig-- we
are small among mountains,

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and we listen for your
voice in the peasant chorus

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of five centuries,
waiting for the cloud

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burst of wild,
sacred song pouring

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over the wreckage of graveyard,
over the plaza and the church,

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where the statue
of San Miguel still

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chokes the devil with a chain."

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