WEBVTT

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Now one of the things I want
to try is a sassy piece.

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You all look like
a sassy audience.

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That was the decision I made
when I was looking at you.

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When I did the new book,
I decided to experiment

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with a section in the middle
that is entitled "Cuarteto

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Mexicano," "Mexican Quartet."

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And I decided to ask myself
what the voices of four

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women in Mexico's history
would sound like if they

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were on the talk shows.

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And so they are Coatlicue,
the Aztec goddess,

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Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Malinche, and La Llorona.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And, for those of you not
familiar with Coatlicue,

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in the Museum of
Anthropology in Mexico City,

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there is this
wonderful gray stone

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figure of this Aztec goddess,
who is the goddess of Earth,

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and, in Aztec mythology,
her last child

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is born in full armor.

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He slays her
daughter, the moon--

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who becomes the moon, and
all the rest of the siblings

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become the stars.

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And, in this figure,
this rock figure,

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her face is these two snakes
looking at one another,

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so she's a very
imposing stark figure.

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And she's the one who's going
to give you some advice.

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"Calico's Rules-- Advice
from an Aztec Goddess."

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"Rule one, beware of
offers to make you famous.

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I, pious Aztec, mother lost
in housework, am pedestalled.

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She of the serpent skirt,
necklace dangling hearts

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and hands, faceless statue,
two snakes eye to eye

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on my shoulders, goddess
of Earth, also death,

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which leads to rule two, retain
control of your own publicity.

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Past is present.

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Women are women.

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I'm not competitive, and
motherhood isn't about numbers,

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but 400 sons and a daughter
may be a record, even

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without the baby.

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There's something
wrong in this world

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if a woman isn't safe even
when she sweeps her own house,

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when any speck can enter
even through the eye albeit,

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and become a stubborn tenant.

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Rule three, protect your uterus.

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Conceptions, immaculate
and otherwise, happen.

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Women swallow sacred stones
that fill their bellies

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with elbows and knees.

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In Guatemala, a skull
dangling from a tree

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whispers 'touch me'
to a young girl,

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and a clear drop drips
on her palm, disappears.

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Dew drops in, if you
know what I mean.

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Saliva moved in
her, the girl says.

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Moved in, I say, settled into
that empty space and grew.

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Men know.

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They stay full of themselves,
keeps occupancy down.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Rule four, avoid housework.

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Remember, I was sweeping,
humming actually,

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high on Coatepec, our serpent
mountain, humming loud

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so I wouldn't hear all
those sighs inside.

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I was sweeping
slivers, gold and jade,

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picking up after 400
sons who think they're

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gods and their spoiled sister.

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I was sweeping when
feathers fell on me,

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brushed my face, first light
touch in years like in a dream.

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At first, I just
blew them off, then

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I saw the prettiest ball of tiny
plumes glowing green and gold.

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Gently, I gathered it.

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Oh, it was soft as baby hair.

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Brought back mother shivers
when I pressed it to my skin.

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I nestled it like I
used to nestle them here

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when they finished nursing.

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Maybe I even stroke
the roundness.

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I have since heard
that feathers aren't

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that unusual at annunciations,
but I was innocent.

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After sweeping, I looked
in vain inside my clothes,

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but the soft ball had
vanished, well, descended.

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I think I showed within
the hour, or so it seemed.

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They noticed first, of course.

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Rule five, avoid housework.

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It bears repeating.

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I was too busy washing,
cooking, sweeping again,

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worrying about my daughter
painted with bells

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when I began to bump into
their frowns and mutterings.

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They kept glancing at my
stomach, started pointing.

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I got so hurt and
mad, I started crying.

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Why do they get to us?

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One wrong word or look from any
one of them doubles me over,

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and I've had 401, no anesthetic.

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Near them, I'm like a snail
with no shell on a sizzling day.

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They started yelling,
'wicked, wicked'

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and my daughter right there with
them, my wannabe warrior boy.

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The yelling was easier than
the whispers 'kill, kill, kill,

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kill.'

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Kill me, their mother?

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One against 401?

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All I'd done was press that
feathered softness into me.

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Rule six, listen
to inside voices.

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You mothers know about the
baby and the family, right?

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Even if he hadn't talked
to me from deep inside,

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he would have been
special, maybe the best.

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But as my name is
Coatlicue, he did.

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That unborn child that
started as a ball of feathers

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all soft green and
gold heard my woes

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and spoke to me, a thoughtful
boy and formal, too.

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He said 'do not be afraid.

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I know what I must do.'

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So I stopped shaking.

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Rule seven, verify that
the inside voice is yours.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I'll spare you the part about
the body hacking and head

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rolling, but he was
provoked, remember.

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All this talk of gods
and goddesses distorts.

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This planet wasn't big
enough for all of us,

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but my whole family has done
well for itself I think.

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I'm the mother of stars.

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My daughter's white head rolls
around the heavens each night,

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and my sons wink down at me.

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What can I say, a family
of high visibility.

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The baby, up there also.

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The sun, the real thing,
such a god he is--

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of war unfortunately.

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And the boy never stops, always
racing across the sky every day

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of the year, a ball
of fire since birth.

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But I think he has forgotten me.

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You sense my ambivalence.

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I'm blinded by his light.

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Rule eight, insist on
personal interviews.

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Past is present, remember?

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Men carved me, wrote my
story and Eve's, Malinche's,

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Guadalupe's, Llorona's, snakes
everywhere, even in our mouths.

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Rule nine, be selective
about what you swallow."

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[LAUGHTER]

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[APPLAUSE]

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