WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.690 align:middle line:84% When I left Albuquerque, it was snowing, cold, 00:00:03.690 --> 00:00:05.850 align:middle line:84% and I was up to my neck in problems 00:00:05.850 --> 00:00:09.750 align:middle line:84% I couldn't resolve like how do we 00:00:09.750 --> 00:00:11.000 align:middle line:90% make Bush pay for what he did? 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:11.960 align:middle line:90% No. 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:15.000 align:middle line:84% So I get here, and I cannot believe how lucky you people 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:15.500 align:middle line:90% are. 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:16.333 align:middle line:90% I got off the plane. 00:00:16.333 --> 00:00:18.875 align:middle line:84% I got out of the airport, and I was like, god. 00:00:18.875 --> 00:00:20.750 align:middle line:84% And the first thing I did, and I kid you not, 00:00:20.750 --> 00:00:22.130 align:middle line:90% was I started praying. 00:00:22.130 --> 00:00:23.840 align:middle line:84% Thank you, God, for my legs to be 00:00:23.840 --> 00:00:25.220 align:middle line:90% able to walk in this sweater. 00:00:25.220 --> 00:00:30.733 align:middle line:84% Thank you, God, for my face and my skin that feels the weather. 00:00:30.733 --> 00:00:32.150 align:middle line:84% I prayed all the way to the hotel. 00:00:32.150 --> 00:00:33.120 align:middle line:84% And then when I got to the hotel, 00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:35.245 align:middle line:84% I ran out of prayers because the hotel was so cool. 00:00:35.245 --> 00:00:37.160 align:middle line:90% I just said, where can I eat? 00:00:37.160 --> 00:00:38.280 align:middle line:90% This is all really good. 00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:39.590 align:middle line:90% I'm going to indulge myself. 00:00:39.590 --> 00:00:42.300 align:middle line:84% By the way, my five-year-old boy, Esai, 00:00:42.300 --> 00:00:44.825 align:middle line:84% he asked me the other day, which was really cool-- 00:00:44.825 --> 00:00:47.765 align:middle line:84% I'd like for all of you to try to answer that. 00:00:47.765 --> 00:00:49.890 align:middle line:84% Well, there's probably a lot of biologists in here. 00:00:49.890 --> 00:00:54.050 align:middle line:84% But anyway, we were talking about how 00:00:54.050 --> 00:00:56.750 align:middle line:84% we can feel my shirt on my skin right now, 00:00:56.750 --> 00:01:00.660 align:middle line:84% and how I can feel my hat on my head, and all that stuff. 00:01:00.660 --> 00:01:02.540 align:middle line:84% And he says to me, Papi, how come 00:01:02.540 --> 00:01:05.390 align:middle line:90% I can't feel my skin on me? 00:01:05.390 --> 00:01:07.760 align:middle line:90% Isn't that cool? 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:10.880 align:middle line:84% He just says really amazing things that just absolutely 00:01:10.880 --> 00:01:13.700 align:middle line:90% warm my heart. 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:15.650 align:middle line:90% In the next session-- 00:01:15.650 --> 00:01:17.900 align:middle line:84% I have a bunch of interns from all over the world that 00:01:17.900 --> 00:01:19.410 align:middle line:90% work for me. 00:01:19.410 --> 00:01:21.650 align:middle line:84% Some of them are OxyContin addicts. 00:01:21.650 --> 00:01:24.470 align:middle line:84% Some of them are Fulbright scholars. 00:01:24.470 --> 00:01:25.970 align:middle line:90% And we put them all together. 00:01:25.970 --> 00:01:27.770 align:middle line:84% And what happened in Santa Fe, where 00:01:27.770 --> 00:01:29.420 align:middle line:84% we have one of the offices, they were 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:33.142 align:middle line:84% supposed to send the movies this way, but the guy from Germany, 00:01:33.142 --> 00:01:34.850 align:middle line:84% a kid from Germany didn't know that FedEx 00:01:34.850 --> 00:01:37.610 align:middle line:90% didn't run on Sunday. 00:01:37.610 --> 00:01:39.080 align:middle line:84% Don't you love those mistakes that 00:01:39.080 --> 00:01:42.140 align:middle line:90% make life easier on this end? 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:43.070 align:middle line:90% Hey. 00:01:43.070 --> 00:01:44.330 align:middle line:90% And Nick-- thank God for Nick. 00:01:44.330 --> 00:01:45.080 align:middle line:90% What a great read. 00:01:45.080 --> 00:01:46.700 align:middle line:84% Hey, I wanted to thank the sponsors 00:01:46.700 --> 00:01:49.632 align:middle line:90% of these kids, Amy and-- 00:01:49.632 --> 00:01:50.960 align:middle line:90% Kurt. 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:52.280 align:middle line:90% Kurt, where are you? 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:54.017 align:middle line:90% I want to see you. 00:01:54.017 --> 00:01:55.100 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much, Kurt. 00:01:55.100 --> 00:01:55.600 align:middle line:90% Wow. 00:01:55.600 --> 00:01:58.741 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:58.741 --> 00:02:00.310 align:middle line:90% Wow, that's fantastic. 00:02:00.310 --> 00:02:03.688 align:middle line:90% 00:02:03.688 --> 00:02:05.230 align:middle line:84% I've been in Arizona many, many times 00:02:05.230 --> 00:02:06.910 align:middle line:84% to read, and have been given awards here. 00:02:06.910 --> 00:02:08.410 align:middle line:84% And I can't thank you people enough. 00:02:08.410 --> 00:02:09.820 align:middle line:90% You're amazing. 00:02:09.820 --> 00:02:11.500 align:middle line:90% You're amazing. 00:02:11.500 --> 00:02:13.090 align:middle line:84% There comes a time in a poet's life 00:02:13.090 --> 00:02:15.980 align:middle line:84% when the poet has to cut the bullshit, 00:02:15.980 --> 00:02:20.245 align:middle line:84% and a poet has to literally go out and start living the poem. 00:02:20.245 --> 00:02:23.152 align:middle line:90% 00:02:23.152 --> 00:02:25.360 align:middle line:84% With all the bullshit awards and all this other stuff 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:28.600 align:middle line:84% that goes on, and on, and on, it just comes time. 00:02:28.600 --> 00:02:31.420 align:middle line:90% And without you, my 16 books-- 00:02:31.420 --> 00:02:34.270 align:middle line:84% I have it in 31 languages, and they're in 18 printings 00:02:34.270 --> 00:02:35.900 align:middle line:90% now, every one of them. 00:02:35.900 --> 00:02:38.590 align:middle line:84% And none of them would have been anything had it not 00:02:38.590 --> 00:02:40.082 align:middle line:90% been for people like you. 00:02:40.082 --> 00:02:41.290 align:middle line:90% They say, this poor guy, man. 00:02:41.290 --> 00:02:42.760 align:middle line:84% He really has a passion for poetry. 00:02:42.760 --> 00:02:44.110 align:middle line:90% And I do. 00:02:44.110 --> 00:02:46.450 align:middle line:84% And somehow, some other way, you reached in your pocket, 00:02:46.450 --> 00:02:47.830 align:middle line:84% pulled out your cash-- and I know how hard it 00:02:47.830 --> 00:02:49.045 align:middle line:90% is to take it from you, Aleena. 00:02:49.045 --> 00:02:51.280 align:middle line:84% You pulled it out, you paid for a book, you took it home. 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:53.280 align:middle line:84% And you know what was really beautiful about it? 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:55.600 align:middle line:84% Even though I'm a hardcore Chicano ex-convict who 00:02:55.600 --> 00:02:59.860 align:middle line:84% believes in killing freaking oppression, 00:02:59.860 --> 00:03:02.123 align:middle line:84% and blowing up the freaking prisons, 00:03:02.123 --> 00:03:04.540 align:middle line:84% and putting in prison the people who would really hurt us, 00:03:04.540 --> 00:03:06.580 align:middle line:84% which is about 1% of all the prisoners 00:03:06.580 --> 00:03:09.580 align:middle line:84% that we have in this country, and of advocating 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:11.860 align:middle line:84% for true education to the poor, which we don't do. 00:03:11.860 --> 00:03:13.610 align:middle line:84% It's just pure bullshit that we say we do, 00:03:13.610 --> 00:03:16.000 align:middle line:84% and we don't, and then this on, and on, 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:21.480 align:middle line:84% and on, and on, thank you so much for having such grandorous 00:03:21.480 --> 00:03:25.210 align:middle line:84% spirits to support me and the things that we do. 00:03:25.210 --> 00:03:28.450 align:middle line:90% And we're not failing. 00:03:28.450 --> 00:03:32.200 align:middle line:84% We're now in about 11, 12 countries in the world. 00:03:32.200 --> 00:03:34.930 align:middle line:84% 175,000 schools take our products now. 00:03:34.930 --> 00:03:37.745 align:middle line:90% 00:03:37.745 --> 00:03:39.370 align:middle line:84% This year, this year alone, we gave out 00:03:39.370 --> 00:03:42.130 align:middle line:90% something like 65,000 books. 00:03:42.130 --> 00:03:42.850 align:middle line:90% You know what? 00:03:42.850 --> 00:03:46.330 align:middle line:84% And we don't need the approval of all these-- 00:03:46.330 --> 00:03:50.470 align:middle line:84% This is eyesore crap, this corporate stuff. 00:03:50.470 --> 00:03:52.060 align:middle line:90% Ask Barnes-- I'm sorry. 00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:54.460 align:middle line:90% I've got to stop. 00:03:54.460 --> 00:03:56.350 align:middle line:84% Ask Barnes & Noble how much money have they 00:03:56.350 --> 00:03:58.850 align:middle line:84% put to helping the young women that are dying in the desert. 00:03:58.850 --> 00:04:01.750 align:middle line:90% 00:04:01.750 --> 00:04:02.380 align:middle line:90% Ask them. 00:04:02.380 --> 00:04:04.510 align:middle line:84% Ask the University of Arizona how much 00:04:04.510 --> 00:04:09.220 align:middle line:84% they've tried to-- seven out of 10 Hispanics do not graduate. 00:04:09.220 --> 00:04:10.240 align:middle line:90% Ask them. 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:13.593 align:middle line:84% Show me the money of your community engagement 00:04:13.593 --> 00:04:14.260 align:middle line:90% and involvement. 00:04:14.260 --> 00:04:16.720 align:middle line:90% Show me the money. 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:19.720 align:middle line:84% How much money have you put into this, and to the corrections 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:22.870 align:middle line:84% department here, and to stopping the killing and the madness 00:04:22.870 --> 00:04:24.520 align:middle line:90% of the solos. 00:04:24.520 --> 00:04:26.890 align:middle line:84% And Barnes & Noble, have you seen-- 00:04:26.890 --> 00:04:27.560 align:middle line:90% forget it. 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:29.140 align:middle line:90% I'm not going to got there. 00:04:29.140 --> 00:04:30.310 align:middle line:90% I got to stop. 00:04:30.310 --> 00:04:32.200 align:middle line:84% Otherwise, I'll go on, and on, and on. 00:04:32.200 --> 00:04:34.900 align:middle line:84% I mean, Barnes & Noble's cool, but let me tell you what I did. 00:04:34.900 --> 00:04:36.190 align:middle line:90% You know what they announced? 00:04:36.190 --> 00:04:40.540 align:middle line:84% I won the writing award or something for Barnes & Noble. 00:04:40.540 --> 00:04:45.550 align:middle line:84% I called them up, and I said, unless I 00:04:45.550 --> 00:04:48.010 align:middle line:84% see a truckload of food and clothes 00:04:48.010 --> 00:04:50.270 align:middle line:84% tomorrow at the homeless shelter, 00:04:50.270 --> 00:04:52.060 align:middle line:84% I'm going to go on Good Morning America 00:04:52.060 --> 00:04:54.820 align:middle line:84% and tell the people that you're nothing 00:04:54.820 --> 00:04:56.830 align:middle line:84% but a bunch of scoundrels who keep your money 00:04:56.830 --> 00:05:00.550 align:middle line:84% and invest it in South African prisons. 00:05:00.550 --> 00:05:01.315 align:middle line:90% You know what? 00:05:01.315 --> 00:05:02.440 align:middle line:90% I'll get right back to you. 00:05:02.440 --> 00:05:05.620 align:middle line:90% 00:05:05.620 --> 00:05:08.630 align:middle line:84% And if people do not like what I'm saying, you can all leave. 00:05:08.630 --> 00:05:09.130 align:middle line:90% It's OK. 00:05:09.130 --> 00:05:11.710 align:middle line:90% 00:05:11.710 --> 00:05:15.490 align:middle line:84% Amiri Baraka and I ended up somewhere in South Africa. 00:05:15.490 --> 00:05:17.830 align:middle line:84% They had 70,000 chairs laid out, and they only 00:05:17.830 --> 00:05:20.290 align:middle line:84% had two old white ladies in front. 00:05:20.290 --> 00:05:22.840 align:middle line:90% 00:05:22.840 --> 00:05:25.185 align:middle line:84% But they were the most amazing women in the world. 00:05:25.185 --> 00:05:27.310 align:middle line:84% One of them lit up a joint and went to have coffee. 00:05:27.310 --> 00:05:29.590 align:middle line:90% They split the cherry pie. 00:05:29.590 --> 00:05:31.210 align:middle line:90% I'm like, yeah. 00:05:31.210 --> 00:05:33.730 align:middle line:84% Amiri Baraka says, you know, if I'm 00:05:33.730 --> 00:05:35.940 align:middle line:84% going to be killed on his plane going back to Jersey, 00:05:35.940 --> 00:05:39.340 align:middle line:90% it's well worth the trip, Jimmy. 00:05:39.340 --> 00:05:40.540 align:middle line:90% I'm like, yeah. 00:05:40.540 --> 00:05:42.040 align:middle line:90% Amiri, what a spirit. 00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:45.910 align:middle line:84% But anyway, I said to them, if you don't, you-- 00:05:45.910 --> 00:05:46.960 align:middle line:90% I'm not-- 00:05:46.960 --> 00:05:50.542 align:middle line:84% Way too long ago, I quit playing by the rules at the prison. 00:05:50.542 --> 00:05:51.250 align:middle line:90% So you know what? 00:05:51.250 --> 00:05:54.010 align:middle line:84% The next morning when I went out there, and I was serious-- 00:05:54.010 --> 00:05:57.100 align:middle line:84% the next morning I get there, there's a truck. 00:05:57.100 --> 00:05:59.390 align:middle line:84% And they're hanging out beautiful food baskets. 00:05:59.390 --> 00:06:02.045 align:middle line:84% They're hanging out little clothes to the little toddlers. 00:06:02.045 --> 00:06:02.920 align:middle line:90% You see what happens? 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:05.590 align:middle line:90% 00:06:05.590 --> 00:06:07.390 align:middle line:84% The corporate executives are so terrified 00:06:07.390 --> 00:06:09.160 align:middle line:84% of the world finding out who they really 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:13.630 align:middle line:84% are, that if you even hint at unveiling that terror, 00:06:13.630 --> 00:06:15.610 align:middle line:90% they'll do whatever you want. 00:06:15.610 --> 00:06:16.480 align:middle line:90% And you know what? 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:18.790 align:middle line:84% Yes, it's been hard, but you know what? 00:06:18.790 --> 00:06:23.240 align:middle line:84% Today, we have more invitations at Cedar Tree Inc. 00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:26.030 align:middle line:84% to go all over the world and spread the type of education 00:06:26.030 --> 00:06:30.110 align:middle line:84% that we promote then we've ever had in our lives. 00:06:30.110 --> 00:06:35.040 align:middle line:84% We're now at 175,000 schools in the world. 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:36.770 align:middle line:90% Isn't that amazing? 00:06:36.770 --> 00:06:41.180 align:middle line:84% It all started in Florence, Arizona in a tiny cell. 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:41.990 align:middle line:90% Isn't that amazing? 00:06:41.990 --> 00:06:44.900 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:06:44.900 --> 00:06:48.300 align:middle line:90% 00:06:48.300 --> 00:06:51.357 align:middle line:84% I started in a cell, and then it was people like Rachel-- 00:06:51.357 --> 00:06:52.690 align:middle line:90% I don't even know if she's here. 00:06:52.690 --> 00:06:53.357 align:middle line:90% She's a painter. 00:06:53.357 --> 00:06:54.190 align:middle line:90% She's right there. 00:06:54.190 --> 00:06:56.608 align:middle line:84% She's an incredible-- It started with Cami, Camillano. 00:06:56.608 --> 00:06:57.900 align:middle line:90% I don't even know if he's here. 00:06:57.900 --> 00:06:58.860 align:middle line:84% But I started with people like that. 00:06:58.860 --> 00:06:59.700 align:middle line:90% Where are you at, Cami? 00:06:59.700 --> 00:07:00.200 align:middle line:90% Right over there. 00:07:00.200 --> 00:07:01.200 align:middle line:90% All right, [INAUDIBLE]. 00:07:01.200 --> 00:07:04.320 align:middle line:84% It started with people like that are unknowns in the world who 00:07:04.320 --> 00:07:05.370 align:middle line:90% said Jimmy, come here. 00:07:05.370 --> 00:07:06.330 align:middle line:90% Read over here. 00:07:06.330 --> 00:07:07.590 align:middle line:84% Work with these people and stuff like that. 00:07:07.590 --> 00:07:09.030 align:middle line:84% And you know what the beautiful-est part 00:07:09.030 --> 00:07:09.720 align:middle line:90% of this whole thing is? 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:12.095 align:middle line:84% Then I'll read poetry and then we'll go to the other one. 00:07:12.095 --> 00:07:13.207 align:middle line:90% But it's this. 00:07:13.207 --> 00:07:15.040 align:middle line:84% I have some other projects that we're doing, 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:17.520 align:middle line:84% but I spent five years writing a novel. 00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:21.640 align:middle line:84% I've never been in the fields and worked ever. 00:07:21.640 --> 00:07:22.973 align:middle line:90% I went over that novel-- 00:07:22.973 --> 00:07:23.890 align:middle line:90% It took me five years. 00:07:23.890 --> 00:07:31.030 align:middle line:84% I went over that novel five years 41 times. 00:07:31.030 --> 00:07:35.890 align:middle line:84% And when I finally turned it in, I sent it to New York, 00:07:35.890 --> 00:07:41.290 align:middle line:84% they are calling it a masterpiece. 00:07:41.290 --> 00:07:43.840 align:middle line:84% I'm getting calls from the Bloomsbury in London saying, 00:07:43.840 --> 00:07:45.630 align:middle line:90% what's a corrido? 00:07:45.630 --> 00:07:48.280 align:middle line:90% A corrido? 00:07:48.280 --> 00:07:49.270 align:middle line:90% I said, you know what? 00:07:49.270 --> 00:07:53.290 align:middle line:84% The best explanation I can give you for a corrido is to go out 00:07:53.290 --> 00:07:56.552 align:middle line:84% and buy Flaco Jiménez's records, his DVDs, 00:07:56.552 --> 00:07:58.510 align:middle line:84% and take them back to your little loft in the-- 00:07:58.510 --> 00:08:01.030 align:middle line:90% 00:08:01.030 --> 00:08:04.240 align:middle line:90% And the guy was so cool. 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:06.200 align:middle line:84% He's doing a 15 page overview of the book, 00:08:06.200 --> 00:08:08.950 align:middle line:84% and he says astonishingly beautiful. 00:08:08.950 --> 00:08:09.850 align:middle line:90% It had me up. 00:08:09.850 --> 00:08:12.310 align:middle line:84% I was just pacing in my tea room. 00:08:12.310 --> 00:08:15.100 align:middle line:90% I was like-- 00:08:15.100 --> 00:08:16.360 align:middle line:90% Isn't that great? 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:18.790 align:middle line:84% And it's about two immigrants coming to America. 00:08:18.790 --> 00:08:20.920 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to nail it so bad, that I 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:24.430 align:middle line:84% kept going over and over, and revising, revising, revising. 00:08:24.430 --> 00:08:26.860 align:middle line:84% And now, it's gone from publisher to publisher, 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:30.533 align:middle line:84% and it's just so cool when you nail it. 00:08:30.533 --> 00:08:32.950 align:middle line:84% And when you're really a cool guy like me and you nail it, 00:08:32.950 --> 00:08:33.868 align:middle line:90% it's even better. 00:08:33.868 --> 00:08:41.723 align:middle line:90% 00:08:41.723 --> 00:08:43.390 align:middle line:84% I'm just going to read a little excerpt. 00:08:43.390 --> 00:08:46.720 align:middle line:84% When you go on in life, and you realize that God has given you 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:50.490 align:middle line:84% more blessings than you can handle, 00:08:50.490 --> 00:08:55.370 align:middle line:84% and you manage to keep rebalancing the scales 00:08:55.370 --> 00:08:58.520 align:middle line:84% so that you stay where you want to stay in your reality 00:08:58.520 --> 00:09:01.430 align:middle line:84% and not get shifted off by the momentum of other powers 00:09:01.430 --> 00:09:04.670 align:middle line:84% that are trying to move you along, it's like this. 00:09:04.670 --> 00:09:07.460 align:middle line:84% I was in Minneapolis last week and Reno. 00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:09.860 align:middle line:84% I was speaking to 5,000 high school 00:09:09.860 --> 00:09:12.890 align:middle line:84% kids who were dropping out, and I insisted, and insisted, 00:09:12.890 --> 00:09:16.972 align:middle line:84% and insisted, you can not drop out. 00:09:16.972 --> 00:09:20.710 align:middle line:90% You don't have that right. 00:09:20.710 --> 00:09:22.420 align:middle line:84% So we were-- It was so beautiful. 00:09:22.420 --> 00:09:23.980 align:middle line:90% Anyway, somebody said to me-- 00:09:23.980 --> 00:09:25.690 align:middle line:84% I was talking, and I said, when we're 00:09:25.690 --> 00:09:28.430 align:middle line:84% born out of mothers' wombs, we're 00:09:28.430 --> 00:09:33.000 align:middle line:84% born with this extraordinary Earth. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:35.500 align:middle line:84% When I was born from my mother, even though I was an orphan, 00:09:35.500 --> 00:09:38.140 align:middle line:84% I had the entire Earth at my leisure. 00:09:38.140 --> 00:09:40.990 align:middle line:84% I could have gone anywhere and done anything. 00:09:40.990 --> 00:09:45.190 align:middle line:84% It's so sad that by the time that same child who 00:09:45.190 --> 00:09:49.240 align:middle line:84% was born from her mother's womb is that in high school, 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:52.060 align:middle line:84% all they have left of that whole globe of Earth 00:09:52.060 --> 00:09:54.220 align:middle line:84% are a few sand grains, or in this case, 00:09:54.220 --> 00:09:59.930 align:middle line:84% desert grains that they can blow off as they're smoking crack. 00:09:59.930 --> 00:10:02.060 align:middle line:90% Isn't that, like, wow. 00:10:02.060 --> 00:10:03.830 align:middle line:84% And my question is, if they were born 00:10:03.830 --> 00:10:05.840 align:middle line:84% with the world in their hands, why 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:07.730 align:middle line:84% do they reduce themselves to a few grains 00:10:07.730 --> 00:10:09.350 align:middle line:90% in their teenage years? 00:10:09.350 --> 00:10:12.920 align:middle line:84% Why isn't that Earth built upon to start 00:10:12.920 --> 00:10:16.340 align:middle line:90% a universe of good things? 00:10:16.340 --> 00:10:19.770 align:middle line:90% Because that's not working. 00:10:19.770 --> 00:10:23.150 align:middle line:84% Us going to bookstores, it's just not working. 00:10:23.150 --> 00:10:24.928 align:middle line:84% It's not that that's going to get us there 00:10:24.928 --> 00:10:26.720 align:middle line:84% to give all the children a chance at really 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:27.590 align:middle line:90% having a great life. 00:10:27.590 --> 00:10:32.510 align:middle line:84% It's us with contact with them so that we're there. 00:10:32.510 --> 00:10:35.730 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:10:35.730 --> 00:10:37.570 align:middle line:90% 00:10:37.570 --> 00:10:39.100 align:middle line:90% We have to be there. 00:10:39.100 --> 00:10:40.425 align:middle line:90% We have to be there. 00:10:40.425 --> 00:10:42.550 align:middle line:84% And it's not like I want to go in detention centers 00:10:42.550 --> 00:10:44.440 align:middle line:84% or at-risk, high schools, or prisons. 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:46.300 align:middle line:90% I don't want to go. 00:10:46.300 --> 00:10:47.980 align:middle line:90% I hate it. 00:10:47.980 --> 00:10:51.880 align:middle line:84% But I cannot stand people giving up. 00:10:51.880 --> 00:10:54.310 align:middle line:90% I hate people giving up. 00:10:54.310 --> 00:10:56.600 align:middle line:84% I cannot bear people who just say, the hell with it. 00:10:56.600 --> 00:10:58.130 align:middle line:90% I'm going to be silent. 00:10:58.130 --> 00:11:01.570 align:middle line:84% I said, look, when you say, I don't know, 00:11:01.570 --> 00:11:03.670 align:middle line:84% you're given the right to the people 00:11:03.670 --> 00:11:06.820 align:middle line:90% who hate you to define you. 00:11:06.820 --> 00:11:13.030 align:middle line:84% And nobody is going to define Jimmy Santiago Baca ever. 00:11:13.030 --> 00:11:16.780 align:middle line:84% Now, when I'm done speaking, you can say, what a total asshole. 00:11:16.780 --> 00:11:19.060 align:middle line:84% Hey, you have the right to do that. 00:11:19.060 --> 00:11:22.510 align:middle line:84% But I'm going to give you my two cents because my whole life 00:11:22.510 --> 00:11:24.160 align:middle line:90% was, you don't understand. 00:11:24.160 --> 00:11:27.400 align:middle line:84% When the judge sentenced me in Arizona in Phoenix, 00:11:27.400 --> 00:11:32.950 align:middle line:84% he said, I'm giving you five to 15 years day for day. 00:11:32.950 --> 00:11:34.700 align:middle line:84% I just turned 20 years old, and I thought, 00:11:34.700 --> 00:11:36.200 align:middle line:90% something's wrong with this. 00:11:36.200 --> 00:11:38.780 align:middle line:90% Something's wrong. 00:11:38.780 --> 00:11:42.470 align:middle line:90% Something ain't right with this. 00:11:42.470 --> 00:11:45.830 align:middle line:84% The judge said, do you got anything to say? 00:11:45.830 --> 00:11:47.965 align:middle line:84% And in my head, it was rolling around, 00:11:47.965 --> 00:11:50.090 align:middle line:84% and around, and around, and around, and in my head, 00:11:50.090 --> 00:11:55.260 align:middle line:84% I was saying, but you don't understand. 00:11:55.260 --> 00:12:02.230 align:middle line:84% Well, hey, isn't it time you express yourself, Jimmy? 00:12:02.230 --> 00:12:06.010 align:middle line:84% For the last 18 years, you've gone every obstacle in the way 00:12:06.010 --> 00:12:08.000 align:middle line:90% saying, you don't understand. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.520 align:middle line:90% 00:12:10.520 --> 00:12:13.250 align:middle line:84% And that was the day that I opened up my heart, 00:12:13.250 --> 00:12:16.100 align:middle line:84% and I apologized to my grandmother for all the work 00:12:16.100 --> 00:12:20.720 align:middle line:84% that she had done to get me, the only Baca in a huge family, 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:22.310 align:middle line:90% first one to go to school. 00:12:22.310 --> 00:12:24.350 align:middle line:90% And how do I pay her back? 00:12:24.350 --> 00:12:27.590 align:middle line:84% By spitting in her face and saying, but grandma, 00:12:27.590 --> 00:12:30.140 align:middle line:90% you don't understand. 00:12:30.140 --> 00:12:31.460 align:middle line:90% And you know what? 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:34.070 align:middle line:90% My grandma did understand. 00:12:34.070 --> 00:12:37.760 align:middle line:84% She knew that you are going to get nowhere in life unless you 00:12:37.760 --> 00:12:41.310 align:middle line:84% go to school, and you gain the skill to express yourself. 00:12:41.310 --> 00:12:43.340 align:middle line:84% And that's where education starts. 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:46.640 align:middle line:84% You have to learn to express yourself. 00:12:46.640 --> 00:12:48.620 align:middle line:90% I don't care what they ask you. 00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:50.870 align:middle line:84% You don't have the right to say, you 00:12:50.870 --> 00:12:56.330 align:middle line:84% don't understand me because it's your job to express yourself. 00:12:56.330 --> 00:13:00.440 align:middle line:90% So I'm about to express myself. 00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:02.660 align:middle line:84% This is to a friend of mine, a poet. 00:13:02.660 --> 00:13:06.440 align:middle line:84% We did a film in the prisons with sign language. 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:07.790 align:middle line:90% And it's not ESL. 00:13:07.790 --> 00:13:09.860 align:middle line:84% It's the way prisoners talk to each other 00:13:09.860 --> 00:13:12.967 align:middle line:90% around the entire world. 00:13:12.967 --> 00:13:15.050 align:middle line:84% As a matter of fact, I'll read from this one here. 00:13:15.050 --> 00:13:21.590 align:middle line:84% It's the way people speak in Korea, and Russia, and China, 00:13:21.590 --> 00:13:23.220 align:middle line:90% all that stuff. 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:26.930 align:middle line:84% And this wonderful guy, James Drake, from West Texas-- 00:13:26.930 --> 00:13:31.190 align:middle line:84% what an extraordinarily, beautiful man he is. 00:13:31.190 --> 00:13:35.280 align:middle line:84% He found out that there was a common language 00:13:35.280 --> 00:13:37.320 align:middle line:90% among everybody. 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:41.040 align:middle line:84% All prisoners, African-American, South Africans, the Mexicans, 00:13:41.040 --> 00:13:42.990 align:middle line:84% the Chicanos, the Peruvians, the Alaskans. 00:13:42.990 --> 00:13:45.540 align:middle line:84% Wherever you go in the world, all people who are oppressed 00:13:45.540 --> 00:13:49.980 align:middle line:84% and are taken the right away stripped from them to speak 00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:52.260 align:middle line:84% have created a language behind bars that's 00:13:52.260 --> 00:13:53.873 align:middle line:90% similar throughout the world. 00:13:53.873 --> 00:13:55.290 align:middle line:84% So we went there with a film crew. 00:13:55.290 --> 00:13:56.850 align:middle line:84% We actually went with Peter Jennings, 00:13:56.850 --> 00:13:58.475 align:middle line:84% and he was battling cancer at the time. 00:13:58.475 --> 00:14:00.975 align:middle line:84% And we went there, and we did this in the California prison. 00:14:00.975 --> 00:14:03.060 align:middle line:84% We chose the worst prison in the United States 00:14:03.060 --> 00:14:05.968 align:middle line:84% to film it in because it was worse because the Blacks hated 00:14:05.968 --> 00:14:06.510 align:middle line:90% the Chicanos. 00:14:06.510 --> 00:14:07.920 align:middle line:90% The Chicanos hated the Blacks. 00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:09.300 align:middle line:90% The Mexicans hated the Blacks. 00:14:09.300 --> 00:14:10.467 align:middle line:90% The whites hated the Blacks. 00:14:10.467 --> 00:14:11.740 align:middle line:90% The Blacks hated the whites. 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:13.530 align:middle line:84% It was the worst situation we could go in. 00:14:13.530 --> 00:14:15.060 align:middle line:84% And we wanted to work in there because we 00:14:15.060 --> 00:14:17.102 align:middle line:84% wanted to see how this language played itself out 00:14:17.102 --> 00:14:18.600 align:middle line:90% in a gang situation. 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:20.280 align:middle line:90% It was extraordinary. 00:14:20.280 --> 00:14:22.720 align:middle line:90% Extraordinary. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:27.708 align:middle line:84% So I wrote some poems for that guy. 00:14:27.708 --> 00:14:30.000 align:middle line:84% Let me read you one here really quick to break the ice. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.180 align:middle line:90% 00:14:33.180 --> 00:14:35.290 align:middle line:84% I think you all here have heard this before. 00:14:35.290 --> 00:14:37.150 align:middle line:90% "Pórtate bien." 00:14:37.150 --> 00:14:37.650 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:14:37.650 --> 00:14:39.963 align:middle line:84% You want me to read that one first? 00:14:39.963 --> 00:14:41.380 align:middle line:84% I spent so much time here talking, 00:14:41.380 --> 00:14:43.713 align:middle line:84% I should probably read you something that's decent, huh? 00:14:43.713 --> 00:14:45.510 align:middle line:90% 00:14:45.510 --> 00:14:48.360 align:middle line:84% The next session we have, we'll answer questions and stuff 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:52.307 align:middle line:84% like that, and we'll talk about something really incredible. 00:14:52.307 --> 00:14:52.890 align:middle line:90% You know what? 00:14:52.890 --> 00:14:55.740 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read some poems I've never read before aloud. 00:14:55.740 --> 00:14:56.470 align:middle line:90% How's that? 00:14:56.470 --> 00:14:56.970 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:14:56.970 --> 00:14:57.360 align:middle line:90% Here goes. 00:14:57.360 --> 00:14:59.193 align:middle line:84% I'm not even sure what this is going to say, 00:14:59.193 --> 00:15:00.630 align:middle line:84% so if I run into a verse line that 00:15:00.630 --> 00:15:03.060 align:middle line:84% has some serious, serious obscenities, 00:15:03.060 --> 00:15:05.070 align:middle line:84% I may try to quickly start speaking 00:15:05.070 --> 00:15:08.790 align:middle line:84% into [? Nahuatl ?] so the rest of you won't get it. 00:15:08.790 --> 00:15:11.618 align:middle line:90% Number 12, "Fingers." 00:15:11.618 --> 00:15:12.660 align:middle line:90% Yeah, I think I'll do it. 00:15:12.660 --> 00:15:14.410 align:middle line:84% I'll go through one poem from the section. 00:15:14.410 --> 00:15:15.720 align:middle line:90% This is a five section book. 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:16.770 align:middle line:90% "Fingers." 00:15:16.770 --> 00:15:20.500 align:middle line:84% I won't go into all the work they've done. 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:23.880 align:middle line:84% More interested how they ignore manners 00:15:23.880 --> 00:15:27.210 align:middle line:84% when scratching or picking, seeing women standing 00:15:27.210 --> 00:15:29.010 align:middle line:84% below in the dark rain on an evening winter 00:15:29.010 --> 00:15:32.700 align:middle line:84% night on the streets signaling to lovers in jail, 00:15:32.700 --> 00:15:36.240 align:middle line:84% signing messages of love and the passages of grief, 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:39.660 align:middle line:84% fondling and caressing the air, patting their dog's 00:15:39.660 --> 00:15:42.750 align:middle line:84% scruffed hearts, gripping the steering wheel of grief 00:15:42.750 --> 00:15:45.510 align:middle line:84% or the prisoners above signing back to their beautiful women 00:15:45.510 --> 00:15:48.150 align:middle line:84% codes that send the women off on missions to collect drugs 00:15:48.150 --> 00:15:51.000 align:middle line:84% or send messages to friends to get killed. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:53.610 align:middle line:84% A hand sign with crimped and bent fingers 00:15:53.610 --> 00:15:57.980 align:middle line:84% studded with cheap rings has only one need in life, 00:15:57.980 --> 00:15:59.720 align:middle line:90% to communicate. 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:01.880 align:middle line:84% Isn't that the essential reason we do what we do? 00:16:01.880 --> 00:16:04.460 align:middle line:84% To communicate to another human being? 00:16:04.460 --> 00:16:07.760 align:middle line:84% To communicate how much we love, how much 00:16:07.760 --> 00:16:10.370 align:middle line:84% we desire to be touched, to be loved and love someone else? 00:16:10.370 --> 00:16:17.790 align:middle line:84% The spinster's fingers grow thin like witnesses to a crime 00:16:17.790 --> 00:16:19.500 align:middle line:90% and hold secrets to themselves. 00:16:19.500 --> 00:16:23.220 align:middle line:84% And the poet's fingers singe the air like loose electrical wires 00:16:23.220 --> 00:16:27.027 align:middle line:84% whipping around in a wild storm, but it 00:16:27.027 --> 00:16:28.860 align:middle line:84% is the fingers of those women on the streets 00:16:28.860 --> 00:16:32.550 align:middle line:84% that keep true to what fingers were meant to do, 00:16:32.550 --> 00:16:36.030 align:middle line:84% communicating messages of loyalty. 00:16:36.030 --> 00:16:40.570 align:middle line:84% The fingers say, we haven't forgotten you. 00:16:40.570 --> 00:16:43.630 align:middle line:84% Yes, I will come again on Friday. 00:16:43.630 --> 00:16:45.880 align:middle line:84% No, no, your mother has to work on Thursday. 00:16:45.880 --> 00:16:48.670 align:middle line:84% She changes sheets at the hospital she got a job at. 00:16:48.670 --> 00:16:51.130 align:middle line:84% Oh, your little brother was arrested last night? 00:16:51.130 --> 00:16:53.530 align:middle line:90% Yes, I dream of you. 00:16:53.530 --> 00:16:56.410 align:middle line:84% Of course, I think of you with every spoon of chili and butter 00:16:56.410 --> 00:16:58.590 align:middle line:90% tortilla, my love. 00:16:58.590 --> 00:17:01.020 align:middle line:90% I'll see you in the window, OK? 00:17:01.020 --> 00:17:02.700 align:middle line:84% No, I mean, I see you in the window when 00:17:02.700 --> 00:17:04.859 align:middle line:90% the wind is blowing. 00:17:04.859 --> 00:17:06.839 align:middle line:84% I go there often and look this way. 00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:10.430 align:middle line:90% I ask God to bless you. 00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:12.167 align:middle line:90% And I'll wait. 00:17:12.167 --> 00:17:13.089 align:middle line:90% I'll wait, my love. 00:17:13.089 --> 00:17:15.640 align:middle line:90% I'll wait. 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:17.516 align:middle line:90% Nice part. 00:17:17.516 --> 00:17:18.016 align:middle line:90%