WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.320 align:middle line:90% OK, 23. 00:00:03.320 --> 00:00:07.040 align:middle line:84% "Murilio Miguel grew up in Michoacán on a large hacienda 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:09.500 align:middle line:84% built around a central courtyard, 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:13.730 align:middle line:84% opened the huge wooden doors, and there it is, an oasis. 00:00:13.730 --> 00:00:16.309 align:middle line:84% In the courtyard there are tall trees 00:00:16.309 --> 00:00:20.510 align:middle line:84% and from them hang clay pots of water to cool in the breeze. 00:00:20.510 --> 00:00:23.930 align:middle line:84% There are birds, a cacophony of songs. 00:00:23.930 --> 00:00:27.830 align:middle line:84% Flowers so large and vibrant they have tongues. 00:00:27.830 --> 00:00:31.940 align:middle line:84% There is a church on the ranch, long and low and white, 00:00:31.940 --> 00:00:34.190 align:middle line:90% built in the shape of a cross. 00:00:34.190 --> 00:00:38.900 align:middle line:84% Above the altar, Christ carries the cross, stumbling, one knee 00:00:38.900 --> 00:00:40.580 align:middle line:90% on the ground. 00:00:40.580 --> 00:00:44.390 align:middle line:84% When Maurilio was five, the Federales came out to the ranch 00:00:44.390 --> 00:00:48.180 align:middle line:84% and he hid in the cellar of the chapel with the statues. 00:00:48.180 --> 00:00:52.040 align:middle line:84% The statues were white and cold, the cellar was dark, 00:00:52.040 --> 00:00:53.690 align:middle line:84% and he could hear the hollow sound 00:00:53.690 --> 00:00:55.940 align:middle line:84% their boots made on the wooden floor 00:00:55.940 --> 00:01:01.100 align:middle line:84% above his head, the fine dirt sifting down with the light. 00:01:01.100 --> 00:01:05.720 align:middle line:84% Dora tells me I remind him of his mother 00:01:05.720 --> 00:01:09.170 align:middle line:84% because of my light colored hair and the way I braid it, 00:01:09.170 --> 00:01:13.520 align:middle line:84% because my maiden name was Coryell and hers Curiel. 00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:16.670 align:middle line:84% His mother, like me, was afraid of thunder. 00:01:16.670 --> 00:01:20.810 align:middle line:84% Dora always tells us this story when the monsoons come and it's 00:01:20.810 --> 00:01:22.880 align:middle line:84% raining and she and the children and I 00:01:22.880 --> 00:01:26.510 align:middle line:84% are in the living room waiting for the thunder to stop. 00:01:26.510 --> 00:01:29.600 align:middle line:84% Maurilio, when he was a child in the hacienda, 00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:33.860 align:middle line:84% Dora tells us, used to hide with his mother and little sister. 00:01:33.860 --> 00:01:36.920 align:middle line:84% They would crawl under the dark table in the sala 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:40.730 align:middle line:84% and hide until the storm had passed. 00:01:40.730 --> 00:01:43.760 align:middle line:84% Maurilio's father, Carlos, had been a Cristiano, 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:46.070 align:middle line:90% one who defended the church. 00:01:46.070 --> 00:01:49.190 align:middle line:84% In the early 1920s when the government was looting 00:01:49.190 --> 00:01:52.400 align:middle line:84% and burning the churches, Carlos had gone with other men 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:54.770 align:middle line:90% to defend a nearby town. 00:01:54.770 --> 00:01:57.530 align:middle line:84% After the Federales left, while smoke was still 00:01:57.530 --> 00:02:01.400 align:middle line:84% rising from the rubble, he rode up and saw a beautiful woman 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:03.650 align:middle line:90% standing in the ruins. 00:02:03.650 --> 00:02:07.700 align:middle line:84% As if in a movie, he helped her up onto the back of his horse 00:02:07.700 --> 00:02:10.770 align:middle line:84% and they galloped away and fell in love. 00:02:10.770 --> 00:02:13.880 align:middle line:84% She was the daughter of a wealthy German merchant 00:02:13.880 --> 00:02:17.540 align:middle line:84% and he was the son of a Spanish hacendado. 00:02:17.540 --> 00:02:20.130 align:middle line:84% They fled to California and married, 00:02:20.130 --> 00:02:23.360 align:middle line:84% had two children before returning to Mexico. 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:26.870 align:middle line:84% Late one night, Carlos was in town working in the family's 00:02:26.870 --> 00:02:30.530 align:middle line:84% trucking firm locking up the office and someone shot him 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:31.910 align:middle line:90% in the back. 00:02:31.910 --> 00:02:34.790 align:middle line:84% Maurilio four or five at the time, 00:02:34.790 --> 00:02:38.180 align:middle line:84% remembers his German grandfather at the wide wooden doors 00:02:38.180 --> 00:02:39.590 align:middle line:90% of the hacienda. 00:02:39.590 --> 00:02:43.040 align:middle line:84% He has come to collect his daughter and granddaughter. 00:02:43.040 --> 00:02:46.280 align:middle line:90% Maurilio he leaves behind. 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:50.270 align:middle line:84% Later, when Maurilio is 13, he will get into a gunfight 00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:53.030 align:middle line:84% with the federale, perhaps the same one who 00:02:53.030 --> 00:02:54.530 align:middle line:90% killed his fathers. 00:02:54.530 --> 00:02:57.140 align:middle line:84% And his uncles will dress him as a woman, 00:02:57.140 --> 00:03:01.460 align:middle line:84% smuggle him out of Michoacán to Mexico City where he will live 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:05.720 align:middle line:84% for a year with ancient nuns in a large house with servants. 00:03:05.720 --> 00:03:09.650 align:middle line:84% There are high walls he is never allowed to see over. 00:03:09.650 --> 00:03:11.810 align:middle line:90% Bowls of water on the table. 00:03:11.810 --> 00:03:15.020 align:middle line:84% You squeeze lemon in and then rinse your fingers. 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:18.650 align:middle line:90% There is mole, camarones. 00:03:18.650 --> 00:03:21.320 align:middle line:90% Mangoes and papayas are sweet. 00:03:21.320 --> 00:03:25.580 align:middle line:84% The old women wear black and wrestle like angry nuns 00:03:25.580 --> 00:03:27.860 align:middle line:90% from room to room. 00:03:27.860 --> 00:03:29.840 align:middle line:84% It is a relief to leave even though he 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:31.640 align:middle line:84% has to be dressed again as a woman 00:03:31.640 --> 00:03:35.750 align:middle line:84% and smuggled across the border, even though he is left alone 00:03:35.750 --> 00:03:40.760 align:middle line:84% at 14 in California where he will learn English and find 00:03:40.760 --> 00:03:43.880 align:middle line:84% work mounting dirt over stocks of asparagus 00:03:43.880 --> 00:03:46.550 align:middle line:84% so they will stay white and tender. 00:03:46.550 --> 00:03:48.470 align:middle line:84% Where he will drive trucks taking food 00:03:48.470 --> 00:03:51.440 align:middle line:84% to relocation camps for the Japanese. 00:03:51.440 --> 00:03:55.550 align:middle line:84% Where he will fall in love and have a son and leave them both. 00:03:55.550 --> 00:03:59.150 align:middle line:84% Where he will wear his zoot suit and fight with the sailors 00:03:59.150 --> 00:04:02.690 align:middle line:84% and end up in jail for stabbing a policeman. 00:04:02.690 --> 00:04:07.040 align:middle line:84% Where, at the age of 24, he will reinvent himself, 00:04:07.040 --> 00:04:09.410 align:middle line:84% move to Arizona, and work on the roofs 00:04:09.410 --> 00:04:15.200 align:middle line:84% mopping hot tar, 125 degrees in the summer, easy. 00:04:15.200 --> 00:04:17.899 align:middle line:84% He will learn to read and write English. 00:04:17.899 --> 00:04:20.839 align:middle line:84% He will marry, raise nine children. 00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:22.880 align:middle line:90% He will never look back. 00:04:22.880 --> 00:04:26.570 align:middle line:84% The past, like Mexico, is a place to be from. 00:04:26.570 --> 00:04:31.280 align:middle line:84% He is mexicano, pero de Los estados unidos. 00:04:31.280 --> 00:04:34.040 align:middle line:90% His name is Mike." 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:35.590 align:middle line:90% OK.