WEBVTT

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One of the great tragedies
of the Mesoamerican new world

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genocide was that we
lost our languages--

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many of our languages--

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Indigenous languages.

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So we have Spanish,
the father tongue.

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The beautiful language, but
the language of the conquerors.

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We have English,
my first language.

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And we have all the
Indigenous languages

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that we never learned, but
I hope to learn one day.

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At least one.

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And some of us have Ladino.

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That was a language that
was spoken in medieval Spain

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by Jews who practiced
their faith in secret

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and were then expelled
during the Inquisition.

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Many of our ancestors
spoke Ladino in New Mexico,

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almost to the present day.

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"Song."

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I dreamed my voice was
an Anasazi pot, filled

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with Tewa, Ladino, and Nahuatl.

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The conquistadors
crushed it when

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they heard its savage sounds.

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My songs and prayers
bled into the ground.

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And when the West
was won and paved,

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the topsoil with all
my words blew away.

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Seven shards of pottery
were all I could find.

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I strung them together--

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a wind chime.

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I am mute, but the
breeze is strong.

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Oh sad, triumphant,
beautiful song.

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My sad, triumphant,
beautiful song.

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