WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.653 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.653 --> 00:00:02.570 align:middle line:84% And Lois and I can tell you that a high school 00:00:02.570 --> 00:00:04.850 align:middle line:84% class this morning came up with 10 00:00:04.850 --> 00:00:06.600 align:middle line:90% questions in the first minute. 00:00:06.600 --> 00:00:08.930 align:middle line:90% So the pressure's on. 00:00:08.930 --> 00:00:13.214 align:middle line:90% 00:00:13.214 --> 00:00:14.170 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:00:14.170 --> 00:00:17.140 align:middle line:84% Have you given your new book of poetry a title? 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:17.880 align:middle line:90% Journeys. 00:00:17.880 --> 00:00:19.165 align:middle line:90% Journeys, that's right. 00:00:19.165 --> 00:00:19.665 align:middle line:90% Journeys. 00:00:19.665 --> 00:00:22.140 align:middle line:84% And you're working on a book of essays too. 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:25.950 align:middle line:90% Can you say a word about them? 00:00:25.950 --> 00:00:32.790 align:middle line:84% I had written some essays for a couple of magazines. 00:00:32.790 --> 00:00:37.680 align:middle line:84% And originally, way back when probably when 00:00:37.680 --> 00:00:41.760 align:middle line:84% I was in about junior high, I think essay writing really 00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:44.130 align:middle line:90% had a lot of appeal to me. 00:00:44.130 --> 00:00:50.820 align:middle line:84% Now, having-- although there's a lot of struggle writing 00:00:50.820 --> 00:00:53.760 align:middle line:84% with poetry, there has to be more pleasure, 00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:54.540 align:middle line:90% I wouldn't do it. 00:00:54.540 --> 00:00:58.830 align:middle line:84% So now I'm finding that I have to struggle to convince 00:00:58.830 --> 00:01:00.900 align:middle line:90% myself to try prose. 00:01:00.900 --> 00:01:03.900 align:middle line:84% And sometimes when I sit down to work on an essay, 00:01:03.900 --> 00:01:06.240 align:middle line:84% I just think, Oh, there are just so many words. 00:01:06.240 --> 00:01:09.160 align:middle line:84% I wish I could just sit and write a poem about this. 00:01:09.160 --> 00:01:13.530 align:middle line:84% But there are some things that I feel I really want to say. 00:01:13.530 --> 00:01:17.460 align:middle line:84% And sometimes I think using prose 00:01:17.460 --> 00:01:21.180 align:middle line:84% is a way of reaching another audience, 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:28.470 align:middle line:84% and that there are people who rightly or wrongly feel, 00:01:28.470 --> 00:01:31.050 align:middle line:84% if it's in poetry, I'm not going to understand, 00:01:31.050 --> 00:01:32.910 align:middle line:90% it I'm not going to tackle it. 00:01:32.910 --> 00:01:36.420 align:middle line:84% So I am working on a collection of essays, 00:01:36.420 --> 00:01:38.790 align:middle line:84% probably the theme's very related 00:01:38.790 --> 00:01:42.570 align:middle line:90% to a lot of what my poetry is. 00:01:42.570 --> 00:01:46.680 align:middle line:84% I have an essay about the aunt that I mentioned, 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:48.690 align:middle line:84% who is very, very important to me. 00:01:48.690 --> 00:01:51.330 align:middle line:90% There's an essay about her. 00:01:51.330 --> 00:01:58.200 align:middle line:84% And poems about being a Chicana or Mexican-American. 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:00.870 align:middle line:84% Poems about something I've become very interested 00:02:00.870 --> 00:02:02.880 align:middle line:84% in the last year and a half, which 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:05.100 align:middle line:84% is a cultural conservation movement, 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:10.860 align:middle line:84% and trying to motivate people to treasure their ethnic heritage 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:13.780 align:middle line:84% regardless of what it is, that's really important to me. 00:02:13.780 --> 00:02:16.590 align:middle line:84% So I am going to have some essays about that. 00:02:16.590 --> 00:02:19.920 align:middle line:90% 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:23.700 align:middle line:90% On that note, are you-- 00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:28.650 align:middle line:84% what do you consider yourself, a Chicana writer or a writer 00:02:28.650 --> 00:02:33.780 align:middle line:84% or a mujer writer or [? a poet ?]?? 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:37.110 align:middle line:84% Well, I probably consider myself a writer. 00:02:37.110 --> 00:02:42.250 align:middle line:84% But I don't have any trouble with someone saying, 00:02:42.250 --> 00:02:46.500 align:middle line:84% well, she's a Chicana writer or she is a women writer. 00:02:46.500 --> 00:02:48.810 align:middle line:84% I don't-- that doesn't bother me at all. 00:02:48.810 --> 00:02:50.020 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:02:50.020 --> 00:02:50.520 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:52.560 align:middle line:90% I mean, it's a big part of-- 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:54.720 align:middle line:84% I mean, that's what I am and it's a big part 00:02:54.720 --> 00:02:55.980 align:middle line:90% of what I write about. 00:02:55.980 --> 00:02:58.260 align:middle line:84% I can certainly understand the other side, 00:02:58.260 --> 00:03:01.560 align:middle line:84% and I understand writers or artists who say, 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:04.770 align:middle line:84% don't put any kind of an adjective, you know. 00:03:04.770 --> 00:03:08.490 align:middle line:84% I am a writer or I am a painter and I don't want to be-- 00:03:08.490 --> 00:03:09.848 align:middle line:90% I can understand that. 00:03:09.848 --> 00:03:11.640 align:middle line:84% It's just something that doesn't bother me. 00:03:11.640 --> 00:03:16.560 align:middle line:90% 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:20.340 align:middle line:84% Have you ever thought of writing poems in Spanish? 00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:22.210 align:middle line:90% Or have you done so? 00:03:22.210 --> 00:03:22.710 align:middle line:90% No. 00:03:22.710 --> 00:03:25.240 align:middle line:90% I really haven't. 00:03:25.240 --> 00:03:27.960 align:middle line:84% And as I said this morning, I think 00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:30.660 align:middle line:84% it's hard enough to write in the language 00:03:30.660 --> 00:03:32.610 align:middle line:84% that you feel most comfortable in. 00:03:32.610 --> 00:03:36.210 align:middle line:90% And I do my thinking in English. 00:03:36.210 --> 00:03:42.420 align:middle line:84% I grew up speaking both, but I probably don't speak Spanish 00:03:42.420 --> 00:03:43.830 align:middle line:90% even once a week now. 00:03:43.830 --> 00:03:49.860 align:middle line:84% And so I don't feel that I have that fine sense that I 00:03:49.860 --> 00:03:51.000 align:middle line:90% would want to have. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:54.300 align:middle line:84% Now I have thought that if I could spend time 00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:59.278 align:middle line:84% in a Spanish speaking country for a while that-- 00:03:59.278 --> 00:04:01.320 align:middle line:84% if I could get to the point that I thought that I 00:04:01.320 --> 00:04:03.390 align:middle line:90% were thinking in English-- 00:04:03.390 --> 00:04:06.430 align:middle line:84% I mean, thinking in Spanish, I'd tackle it. 00:04:06.430 --> 00:04:10.110 align:middle line:84% But until then, some people have been very good and very 00:04:10.110 --> 00:04:12.810 align:middle line:84% generous and have translated some of my poems 00:04:12.810 --> 00:04:14.400 align:middle line:90% into Spanish, OK? 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:19.269 align:middle line:84% And so I read them that way, but I always credit them. 00:04:19.269 --> 00:04:22.470 align:middle line:84% You just mentioned the conservation 00:04:22.470 --> 00:04:28.710 align:middle line:90% of the ethnic heritage. 00:04:28.710 --> 00:04:31.710 align:middle line:84% Don't you think that language is an important part 00:04:31.710 --> 00:04:34.890 align:middle line:90% of the [INAUDIBLE]? 00:04:34.890 --> 00:04:36.270 align:middle line:90% [? Speak ?] with them, you know. 00:04:36.270 --> 00:04:39.420 align:middle line:90% 00:04:39.420 --> 00:04:43.650 align:middle line:84% I have very, very strong feelings about the minority 00:04:43.650 --> 00:04:49.260 align:middle line:84% writer and the importance of getting our story and our words 00:04:49.260 --> 00:04:52.033 align:middle line:90% as part of American literature. 00:04:52.033 --> 00:04:57.126 align:middle line:90% 00:04:57.126 --> 00:05:01.290 align:middle line:84% What generation are you [INAUDIBLE] 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:04.820 align:middle line:84% provide inspiration [INAUDIBLE] generation [INAUDIBLE] 00:05:04.820 --> 00:05:05.900 align:middle line:90% first generation. 00:05:05.900 --> 00:05:08.270 align:middle line:90% Second generation, uh-huh. 00:05:08.270 --> 00:05:13.220 align:middle line:84% My father was born in Mexico and came to the US 00:05:13.220 --> 00:05:14.870 align:middle line:90% when he was like two or three. 00:05:14.870 --> 00:05:17.900 align:middle line:84% So really, doesn't have many memories. 00:05:17.900 --> 00:05:21.500 align:middle line:84% My mother was born in the States. 00:05:21.500 --> 00:05:24.920 align:middle line:90% Both are bilingual. 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:30.290 align:middle line:84% I grew up at a time when neither of my parents 00:05:30.290 --> 00:05:33.230 align:middle line:84% had grown up in an English speaking home, 00:05:33.230 --> 00:05:36.020 align:middle line:84% but they wanted their children to. 00:05:36.020 --> 00:05:38.870 align:middle line:84% I was lucky in that I had a grandmother who 00:05:38.870 --> 00:05:40.970 align:middle line:90% did not want to learn English. 00:05:40.970 --> 00:05:43.580 align:middle line:84% And so I was very close to her, which 00:05:43.580 --> 00:05:47.870 align:middle line:84% is what kept me speaking Spanish, you know. 00:05:47.870 --> 00:05:50.960 align:middle line:90% 00:05:50.960 --> 00:05:54.050 align:middle line:84% And I would say that I view myself 00:05:54.050 --> 00:05:56.490 align:middle line:84% as really very much one of the lucky ones. 00:05:56.490 --> 00:06:02.390 align:middle line:84% I went to Catholic schools, I had, I think, 00:06:02.390 --> 00:06:04.760 align:middle line:84% wonderful grammarians as teachers, 00:06:04.760 --> 00:06:07.790 align:middle line:84% and teachers that made me memorize a poem a week. 00:06:07.790 --> 00:06:11.570 align:middle line:84% And I think this is all a big part of my love 00:06:11.570 --> 00:06:12.930 align:middle line:90% for the English language. 00:06:12.930 --> 00:06:16.310 align:middle line:84% I have very strong love for it, OK? 00:06:16.310 --> 00:06:20.390 align:middle line:84% Now I have very strong feelings about Spanish too, 00:06:20.390 --> 00:06:24.920 align:middle line:84% but that's why, getting back to your answer, you see, 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:29.240 align:middle line:84% for me to decide to write in Spanish, 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:33.890 align:middle line:84% I think would not be, as I said, almost honest. 00:06:33.890 --> 00:06:38.390 align:middle line:84% I have a very strong loyalty to making English reflect 00:06:38.390 --> 00:06:40.610 align:middle line:90% a lot of what some of us are. 00:06:40.610 --> 00:06:45.295 align:middle line:84% In your--in the the interview that appeared in the Wildcat, 00:06:45.295 --> 00:06:50.180 align:middle line:84% you said that, children, Chicano children, 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:55.640 align:middle line:84% they have a strong desire for imaginative literature that 00:06:55.640 --> 00:07:00.050 align:middle line:84% reflects their reality, literature in English. 00:07:00.050 --> 00:07:03.320 align:middle line:84% Don't you think there is a need for literature in Spanish? 00:07:03.320 --> 00:07:04.220 align:middle line:90% Sure, I do. 00:07:04.220 --> 00:07:06.380 align:middle line:90% Lots of them are still-- 00:07:06.380 --> 00:07:07.110 align:middle line:90% Sure, I do. 00:07:07.110 --> 00:07:08.240 align:middle line:90% But that's not-- 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:11.860 align:middle line:84% I would just say, that won't be my role, OK? 00:07:11.860 --> 00:07:15.590 align:middle line:84% That I would say if I were going to pick a role, 00:07:15.590 --> 00:07:18.920 align:middle line:84% it would be to do the best writing 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:20.600 align:middle line:90% that I could in English. 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:24.140 align:middle line:84% That my feeling is, in terms of children's literature, 00:07:24.140 --> 00:07:27.290 align:middle line:84% that there are many Hispanic or Chicano children 00:07:27.290 --> 00:07:31.250 align:middle line:84% who find English very alien because the stories 00:07:31.250 --> 00:07:35.630 align:middle line:84% that they read, the picture books that they grow up with, 00:07:35.630 --> 00:07:38.270 align:middle line:84% don't reflect any of their experiences. 00:07:38.270 --> 00:07:42.890 align:middle line:84% Well, how's that language going to be appealing? 00:07:42.890 --> 00:07:45.500 align:middle line:84% And so I'd like to be a part of changing that. 00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:47.648 align:middle line:84% Sure, I think there's need for the other. 00:07:47.648 --> 00:07:57.430 align:middle line:90% Would you say [INAUDIBLE] 00:07:57.430 --> 00:08:02.080 align:middle line:84% Well, I don't think of the desert in negative images, 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:05.110 align:middle line:84% and I think a lot of people do, you know. 00:08:05.110 --> 00:08:09.070 align:middle line:84% And I-- particularly when I see people 00:08:09.070 --> 00:08:12.700 align:middle line:84% move into El Paso from the East and they 00:08:12.700 --> 00:08:15.700 align:middle line:84% go through the usual stuff about no trees 00:08:15.700 --> 00:08:18.010 align:middle line:84% and how can you stand it, no water, and so dry, 00:08:18.010 --> 00:08:18.820 align:middle line:90% and all this. 00:08:18.820 --> 00:08:22.270 align:middle line:84% And I think, for me, the desert-- 00:08:22.270 --> 00:08:23.770 align:middle line:84% and I know it sounds trite, but I'm 00:08:23.770 --> 00:08:26.410 align:middle line:90% going to give you my answer. 00:08:26.410 --> 00:08:30.160 align:middle line:84% For me, it's really just a great teacher, 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:33.140 align:middle line:90% that's how I feel about it. 00:08:33.140 --> 00:08:37.299 align:middle line:90% And, you know, when you live-- 00:08:37.299 --> 00:08:41.230 align:middle line:84% I've spent my whole life in the desert. 00:08:41.230 --> 00:08:44.020 align:middle line:84% And that doesn't mean that I don't think 00:08:44.020 --> 00:08:47.800 align:middle line:90% I respond to another terrain. 00:08:47.800 --> 00:08:51.310 align:middle line:84% And if I could move to Hawaii, I imagine 00:08:51.310 --> 00:08:55.150 align:middle line:84% that I would write all kinds of poems about frangipani, 00:08:55.150 --> 00:08:56.920 align:middle line:90% and that that'd be great. 00:08:56.920 --> 00:08:58.960 align:middle line:84% But it just happens to be where I am. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.630 align:middle line:90% 00:09:01.630 --> 00:09:04.940 align:middle line:84% You've conjured a lot of vivid images in your poem "Frenzy." 00:09:04.940 --> 00:09:07.215 align:middle line:84% And I was just wondered what your life experiences 00:09:07.215 --> 00:09:09.460 align:middle line:90% you drew from for that? 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:14.980 align:middle line:84% Oh, well we-- yeah, it was a pretty vivid experience. 00:09:14.980 --> 00:09:17.410 align:middle line:84% I mean, this was not a made up one. 00:09:17.410 --> 00:09:23.950 align:middle line:84% A tour group was taken out to this place and it was dark. 00:09:23.950 --> 00:09:24.800 align:middle line:90% And-- 00:09:24.800 --> 00:09:26.200 align:middle line:90% Tour group? 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:26.740 align:middle line:90% Uh-huh. 00:09:26.740 --> 00:09:28.330 align:middle line:90% Outside of Havana. 00:09:28.330 --> 00:09:35.200 align:middle line:84% And there were maybe 20 of us, and the troop was very slow 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:36.580 align:middle line:90% getting started that night. 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:38.320 align:middle line:90% There'd been a blackout. 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:43.090 align:middle line:84% And so we sat there and got more and more tired. 00:09:43.090 --> 00:09:45.430 align:middle line:84% And finally, they came on the stage 00:09:45.430 --> 00:09:50.800 align:middle line:84% and there was a lot of drums and a lot of, for us, 00:09:50.800 --> 00:09:53.110 align:middle line:90% I think, as US Americans-- 00:09:53.110 --> 00:09:56.290 align:middle line:84% and I'm sure Eliana will demonstrate this for us now-- 00:09:56.290 --> 00:09:58.090 align:middle line:90% a lot of very sensual dancing. 00:09:58.090 --> 00:10:01.810 align:middle line:90% 00:10:01.810 --> 00:10:05.320 align:middle line:84% I mean, really sensual dancing, which kind of 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:08.470 align:middle line:90% throws you off base anyway. 00:10:08.470 --> 00:10:15.280 align:middle line:84% And then the lead dancer was a very large Cuban. 00:10:15.280 --> 00:10:18.130 align:middle line:84% And he was very imposing, and I think 00:10:18.130 --> 00:10:20.140 align:middle line:84% he knew he was frightening, you know. 00:10:20.140 --> 00:10:22.180 align:middle line:84% And he would just look right at you 00:10:22.180 --> 00:10:25.360 align:middle line:84% and you kept looking down and hoping he wouldn't pick you. 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:29.110 align:middle line:84% And he would grab somebody and take them up on the stage, 00:10:29.110 --> 00:10:29.650 align:middle line:90% you know. 00:10:29.650 --> 00:10:32.050 align:middle line:84% And this kept going on all evening. 00:10:32.050 --> 00:10:33.943 align:middle line:84% And so you could just feel yourself 00:10:33.943 --> 00:10:35.110 align:middle line:90% getting more and more tense. 00:10:35.110 --> 00:10:37.220 align:middle line:84% And then they did do this chicken thing, you know, 00:10:37.220 --> 00:10:41.260 align:middle line:84% where someone bit the chicken's head. 00:10:41.260 --> 00:10:44.160 align:middle line:84% And it wasn't so much what they did. 00:10:44.160 --> 00:10:48.500 align:middle line:84% What fascinated me was just that building up of the frenzy, 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:49.000 align:middle line:90% you know. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:53.050 align:middle line:84% Both on the part of the dancers, there was the building up 00:10:53.050 --> 00:10:53.650 align:middle line:90% the frenzy. 00:10:53.650 --> 00:10:56.710 align:middle line:84% They started out pretty loose anyway. 00:10:56.710 --> 00:11:00.340 align:middle line:84% But by the end, the music was louder 00:11:00.340 --> 00:11:02.170 align:middle line:90% and the dancing was wilder. 00:11:02.170 --> 00:11:04.720 align:middle line:84% So there was a lot of frenzy on the stage. 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:07.390 align:middle line:84% But on the part of those of us that were sitting there 00:11:07.390 --> 00:11:12.490 align:middle line:84% in the shadows trying to look like a stump of wood, you know. 00:11:12.490 --> 00:11:14.887 align:middle line:84% I mean, really, my mouth was dry and I kept thinking, 00:11:14.887 --> 00:11:17.470 align:middle line:84% you know, what am I going to do if he comes and grabs my hand? 00:11:17.470 --> 00:11:19.810 align:middle line:84% Am I really going to be willing to go on the stage? 00:11:19.810 --> 00:11:23.090 align:middle line:84% And luckily, I kept looking down and he never did. 00:11:23.090 --> 00:11:31.090 align:middle line:84% But it was really very, very strong images. 00:11:31.090 --> 00:11:33.130 align:middle line:90% Anything else? 00:11:33.130 --> 00:11:35.470 align:middle line:84% If not, I thank you all very much for your time. 00:11:35.470 --> 00:11:45.430 align:middle line:90% 00:11:45.430 --> 00:11:47.120 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much.