WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:11.030 align:middle line:90% Let me do one. 00:00:11.030 --> 00:00:13.130 align:middle line:84% As you know, I grew up on the border, 00:00:13.130 --> 00:00:19.970 align:middle line:84% in what we grew up calling El Paso, El Paso del Norte. 00:00:19.970 --> 00:00:29.880 align:middle line:84% And one of the figures in the new book is an uncle of mine. 00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:31.260 align:middle line:90% And it's interesting. 00:00:31.260 --> 00:00:33.390 align:middle line:84% Of course, you can know people your whole life. 00:00:33.390 --> 00:00:36.370 align:middle line:84% And then, when you begin to interview them, 00:00:36.370 --> 00:00:39.780 align:middle line:84% you realize that there are big aspects of them 00:00:39.780 --> 00:00:42.160 align:middle line:90% that you don't know at all. 00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:49.080 align:middle line:84% And one of the things I discovered about this uncle 00:00:49.080 --> 00:00:51.810 align:middle line:84% is that, when we were talking, he 00:00:51.810 --> 00:00:54.480 align:middle line:90% grew up during the Depression. 00:00:54.480 --> 00:00:58.050 align:middle line:84% And I never really knew if he was a reader or not. 00:00:58.050 --> 00:01:00.030 align:middle line:90% And we call him Uncle Lalo. 00:01:00.030 --> 00:01:04.470 align:middle line:84% And I said, so Uncs, did you like books? 00:01:04.470 --> 00:01:07.950 align:middle line:84% And it's one of the greatest moments I have on tape-- 00:01:07.950 --> 00:01:10.200 align:middle line:90% that his voice just changes. 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:13.410 align:middle line:90% And he goes, oh, books. 00:01:13.410 --> 00:01:16.230 align:middle line:90% There's just this great moment. 00:01:16.230 --> 00:01:19.410 align:middle line:84% And he's back in this little library 00:01:19.410 --> 00:01:23.100 align:middle line:84% on the border and reading Doctor Dolittle 00:01:23.100 --> 00:01:25.200 align:middle line:90% all afternoon on a Saturday. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:31.080 align:middle line:84% It was just great, the power of the words. 00:01:31.080 --> 00:01:35.310 align:middle line:84% Well, if my Uncle Lalo were standing up here next to me, 00:01:35.310 --> 00:01:38.970 align:middle line:84% if you have any preconceptions about what Chicanos look like, 00:01:38.970 --> 00:01:42.840 align:middle line:84% you'd say he isn't one because he's very fair. 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:47.700 align:middle line:84% And so he didn't experience a particular kind 00:01:47.700 --> 00:01:48.930 align:middle line:90% of discrimination. 00:01:48.930 --> 00:01:52.270 align:middle line:84% But because people have these stereotypes, 00:01:52.270 --> 00:01:55.230 align:middle line:90% he had another experience. 00:01:55.230 --> 00:02:02.990 align:middle line:84% "Depression Days"-- "He buys the dark with his last $0.15. 00:02:02.990 --> 00:02:06.380 align:middle line:84% Reel after reel, he's on the deck 00:02:06.380 --> 00:02:11.690 align:middle line:84% with men who fill their chests, taut on the high seas, 00:02:11.690 --> 00:02:17.260 align:middle line:84% who boom red sails in the sunset. 00:02:17.260 --> 00:02:21.550 align:middle line:84% He tries not to think of last night on his cot. 00:02:21.550 --> 00:02:27.340 align:middle line:84% His private reel, border kid playing sea, sea, sea 00:02:27.340 --> 00:02:33.790 align:middle line:84% lumberjack, gripping an axe, slicing the green, pine scent 00:02:33.790 --> 00:02:38.820 align:middle line:84% in a house dark from his father's death. 00:02:38.820 --> 00:02:42.500 align:middle line:84% He tries not to think of the other men who climbed cold 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:47.030 align:middle line:84% on the truck with him that morning, caramba, qué frío, 00:02:47.030 --> 00:02:54.160 align:middle line:84% their stomachs screechy as gears, hungry for paychecks. 00:02:54.160 --> 00:02:57.520 align:middle line:84% He tries not to think of the desert winds sliding 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:02.170 align:middle line:84% into the barracks, herding bare flesh around the stove's 00:03:02.170 --> 00:03:04.300 align:middle line:90% warm belly. 00:03:04.300 --> 00:03:06.430 align:middle line:90% Am I alive, doc-- 00:03:06.430 --> 00:03:11.590 align:middle line:84% his joke, limp as his clothes bag. 00:03:11.590 --> 00:03:17.400 align:middle line:84% He tries not to think of the sergeant, spitting "delgado." 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:21.060 align:middle line:84% My uncle steps forward into a frown. 00:03:21.060 --> 00:03:23.990 align:middle line:90% I said "delgado." 00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:31.100 align:middle line:84% I am "delgado"-- the twitch of lips, the wind. 00:03:31.100 --> 00:03:34.720 align:middle line:84% He tries not to think of the words later. 00:03:34.720 --> 00:03:37.570 align:middle line:84% "You don't look Mexican, delgado. 00:03:37.570 --> 00:03:40.270 align:middle line:90% Just change your name." 00:03:40.270 --> 00:03:44.380 align:middle line:90% His formal father eyeing him-- 00:03:44.380 --> 00:03:49.110 align:middle line:84% "Just change your name, and you've got a job." 00:03:49.110 --> 00:03:53.220 align:middle line:84% He buys the dark with his last $0.15. 00:03:53.220 --> 00:03:57.690 align:middle line:84% He tries not to think about the bare icebox, his mother's 00:03:57.690 --> 00:04:03.930 align:middle line:84% sighing eyes, of his father, who never understood this country, 00:04:03.930 --> 00:04:10.130 align:middle line:84% of the price of eggs and names and skin." 00:04:10.130 --> 00:04:11.000 align:middle line:90%