WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.870 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.870 --> 00:00:04.380 align:middle line:84% My transition from-- somebody just showed me that they have 00:00:04.380 --> 00:00:08.010 align:middle line:84% one of my old prose novels that I wrote for adults way back 00:00:08.010 --> 00:00:10.800 align:middle line:90% in the early '90s, mid-'90s. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:16.079 align:middle line:84% My transition from writing prose for grown-ups 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:20.040 align:middle line:84% to writing verse novels for young people 00:00:20.040 --> 00:00:21.960 align:middle line:90% came at this stage. 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:25.470 align:middle line:84% When I was struggling to write about Juan Francisco 00:00:25.470 --> 00:00:30.750 align:middle line:84% Manzano, who is known in Cuba el poeta slavo de Cuba, 00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:32.320 align:middle line:90% the poet slave of Cuba. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:35.160 align:middle line:90% That's a real nickname. 00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:38.670 align:middle line:84% I won't say that he's incredibly famous there, 00:00:38.670 --> 00:00:41.340 align:middle line:90% but he is well known. 00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:44.700 align:middle line:84% But he was unheard of in the US, and I 00:00:44.700 --> 00:00:49.770 align:middle line:84% wanted to bring his story to American readers. 00:00:49.770 --> 00:00:54.930 align:middle line:84% And I tried writing for grown-ups. 00:00:54.930 --> 00:00:58.890 align:middle line:84% I tried writing in prose, and I will 00:00:58.890 --> 00:01:03.420 align:middle line:84% admit that I tried for 10 years, and I basically 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:07.230 align:middle line:84% hit my head against the prose wall for 10 years 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:09.930 align:middle line:84% until he reached down from heaven 00:01:09.930 --> 00:01:14.280 align:middle line:84% and hit me on my stubborn head and said I was a poet. 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:19.230 align:middle line:84% And I swear that from the moment I remembered 00:01:19.230 --> 00:01:25.560 align:middle line:84% that he was a poet, I switched to writing about him in verse. 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:30.330 align:middle line:84% And from that moment on, the words flowed. 00:01:30.330 --> 00:01:33.630 align:middle line:84% I fell in love with the first novel form 00:01:33.630 --> 00:01:36.090 align:middle line:90% and I've never gone back. 00:01:36.090 --> 00:01:39.750 align:middle line:84% Maybe someday I will try writing prose again. 00:01:39.750 --> 00:01:43.500 align:middle line:84% But right now, I'm just passionate about the verse 00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:52.560 align:middle line:84% novel form as a vessel for historical and personal stories 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:57.900 align:middle line:84% where the poems can link to tell a longer story. 00:01:57.900 --> 00:02:02.940 align:middle line:84% And yet where they can present a very friendly, 00:02:02.940 --> 00:02:11.190 align:middle line:84% open, unintimidating page to a young reader who might not 00:02:11.190 --> 00:02:15.060 align:middle line:84% want to read, or a young reader who might think 00:02:15.060 --> 00:02:17.310 align:middle line:90% they're too busy to read. 00:02:17.310 --> 00:02:21.450 align:middle line:84% Or a young reader who might think that in order 00:02:21.450 --> 00:02:23.100 align:middle line:84% to read a book quickly, they're going 00:02:23.100 --> 00:02:25.620 align:middle line:90% to have to choose a baby book. 00:02:25.620 --> 00:02:28.020 align:middle line:84% Oh, I better choose a really short book. 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:30.750 align:middle line:84% Well no, you don't have to choose really short book. 00:02:30.750 --> 00:02:34.350 align:middle line:90% You can finish this one in what? 00:02:34.350 --> 00:02:35.350 align:middle line:90% Two hours. 00:02:35.350 --> 00:02:39.840 align:middle line:84% So I hope that a librarian, or teacher, could say oh, come on. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:40.620 align:middle line:90% Give it a try. 00:02:40.620 --> 00:02:41.770 align:middle line:90% You can do this. 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:46.470 align:middle line:84% And I also hope that librarians and teachers won't say 00:02:46.470 --> 00:02:48.600 align:middle line:90% poetry is hard to understand. 00:02:48.600 --> 00:02:51.630 align:middle line:84% Because I'm convinced that my first novels are not 00:02:51.630 --> 00:02:52.740 align:middle line:90% hard to understand. 00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:54.090 align:middle line:90% I think they're very simple. 00:02:54.090 --> 00:02:56.040 align:middle line:84% I think they're very straightforward. 00:02:56.040 --> 00:02:57.795 align:middle line:90% I intend them that way. 00:02:57.795 --> 00:03:00.650 align:middle line:90% 00:03:00.650 --> 00:03:02.750 align:middle line:84% At the beginning of The Poet Slave 00:03:02.750 --> 00:03:05.840 align:middle line:84% Of Cuba, I wrote about wanting to tell 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:08.990 align:middle line:84% two stories at the same time, one of suffering 00:03:08.990 --> 00:03:10.340 align:middle line:90% and the other of hope. 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:14.180 align:middle line:84% But I wrote it in Juan Francisco Manzano's voice, 00:03:14.180 --> 00:03:17.450 align:middle line:84% my imaginary version of his voice. 00:03:17.450 --> 00:03:21.742 align:middle line:84% I did not write the subtitle, A Biography 00:03:21.742 --> 00:03:24.780 align:middle line:84% Of Juan Francisco Manzano, because it's 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:26.100 align:middle line:90% biographical fiction. 00:03:26.100 --> 00:03:29.160 align:middle line:84% It's not a non-fiction biography. 00:03:29.160 --> 00:03:31.830 align:middle line:84% That was added by a marketing department. 00:03:31.830 --> 00:03:38.460 align:middle line:84% But after that, I did receive so many headaches 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:41.490 align:middle line:84% from librarians objecting to the subtitle 00:03:41.490 --> 00:03:43.800 align:middle line:84% that I was able to keep the word biography off 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:45.360 align:middle line:90% of future subtitles. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:49.590 align:middle line:84% And for The Surrender Tree we did the unthinkable. 00:03:49.590 --> 00:03:53.250 align:middle line:84% My editor and I decided, let's just 00:03:53.250 --> 00:03:55.080 align:middle line:84% be straightforward in the subtitle 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:57.180 align:middle line:84% and call it Poems About, and everybody 00:03:57.180 --> 00:03:59.940 align:middle line:84% said you can't put poems on the cover of a book. 00:03:59.940 --> 00:04:01.020 align:middle line:90% That's the kiss of death. 00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:02.020 align:middle line:90% Nobody will buy it. 00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:04.260 align:middle line:84% Nobody will read it if it says "poems." 00:04:04.260 --> 00:04:11.670 align:middle line:84% But we did it anyway, and there's no harm 00:04:11.670 --> 00:04:12.840 align:middle line:90% in telling the truth, right? 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:15.510 align:middle line:84% It is poems, but they do link to tell a long story. 00:04:15.510 --> 00:04:22.019 align:middle line:84% The Surrender Tree is the one that has the first Newbery 00:04:22.019 --> 00:04:23.700 align:middle line:90% honor received by any Latino. 00:04:23.700 --> 00:04:30.900 align:middle line:84% But it distills a very complex historical situation 00:04:30.900 --> 00:04:33.060 align:middle line:90% down to its emotional essence. 00:04:33.060 --> 00:04:34.020 align:middle line:90% Or I hope it does. 00:04:34.020 --> 00:04:35.580 align:middle line:90% That was my intention. 00:04:35.580 --> 00:04:38.790 align:middle line:84% And I think that's one of the distinct advantages 00:04:38.790 --> 00:04:41.520 align:middle line:84% of the verse novel form for trying 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:45.510 align:middle line:84% to write about something like, not just 00:04:45.510 --> 00:04:47.790 align:middle line:84% what we call the Spanish-American War, 00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:51.840 align:middle line:84% but Cuba's three wars for independence from Spain. 00:04:51.840 --> 00:04:55.230 align:middle line:84% And not just writing about the wars, 00:04:55.230 --> 00:04:58.850 align:middle line:84% but I wanted to write in particular about Rosa la 00:04:58.850 --> 00:05:03.510 align:middle line:84% Bayamesa, a woman who was born into slavery, 00:05:03.510 --> 00:05:09.090 align:middle line:84% was set free at the time when Cuban planters in 1868 00:05:09.090 --> 00:05:12.510 align:middle line:84% freed their slaves and declared independence from Spain. 00:05:12.510 --> 00:05:16.020 align:middle line:84% And then went to war against Spain, former owners 00:05:16.020 --> 00:05:18.940 align:middle line:84% and former slaves fighting side by side. 00:05:18.940 --> 00:05:22.770 align:middle line:84% It's as if you took the Revolutionary 00:05:22.770 --> 00:05:27.210 align:middle line:84% War and the Civil War and put them in one package with no 100 00:05:27.210 --> 00:05:30.030 align:middle line:90% years in between. 00:05:30.030 --> 00:05:31.740 align:middle line:90% That's what happened in Cuba. 00:05:31.740 --> 00:05:35.650 align:middle line:84% So fighting side by side for a common cause, 00:05:35.650 --> 00:05:39.120 align:middle line:84% there was a very different relationship between the races 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:41.350 align:middle line:90% from that point on. 00:05:41.350 --> 00:05:45.120 align:middle line:84% But it's not a story about race, and it's not a story about war. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:49.650 align:middle line:84% It's a story about Rosa la Bayamesa's decision 00:05:49.650 --> 00:05:56.100 align:middle line:84% to heal the soldiers from both sides of the war using 00:05:56.100 --> 00:05:56.940 align:middle line:90% wild plants. 00:05:56.940 --> 00:06:01.590 align:middle line:84% She hid in caves in the wilderness, in the jungle, 00:06:01.590 --> 00:06:05.610 align:middle line:84% and used her knowledge of herbs as a self-taught nurse 00:06:05.610 --> 00:06:09.000 align:middle line:84% to heal the wounds and fevers of Spanish soldiers 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:12.120 align:middle line:84% that were found in the jungle, as well as the Cuban rebels. 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:15.870 align:middle line:84% And the reason that's so impressive to me, 00:06:15.870 --> 00:06:20.610 align:middle line:84% the reason I admire her courageous decision so much, 00:06:20.610 --> 00:06:23.670 align:middle line:84% is that the Spanish soldiers would 00:06:23.670 --> 00:06:27.390 align:middle line:84% have kept her in slavery, would have returned her to slavery. 00:06:27.390 --> 00:06:33.100 align:middle line:84% Whereas the rebel soldiers acknowledge her freedom. 00:06:33.100 --> 00:06:35.530 align:middle line:84% And yet she decided to heal both. 00:06:35.530 --> 00:06:39.130 align:middle line:84% And to me, that's something so amazing 00:06:39.130 --> 00:06:41.650 align:middle line:84% that I feel like she should be better known. 00:06:41.650 --> 00:06:47.350 align:middle line:84% I love to write about people who have been forgotten by history. 00:06:47.350 --> 00:06:49.330 align:middle line:84% Sometimes that might mean that I'm 00:06:49.330 --> 00:06:53.920 align:middle line:84% writing about somebody who is already well-known in Cuba. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:56.690 align:middle line:84% Rosa la Bayamesa, like Juan Francisco Manzano, 00:06:56.690 --> 00:06:59.410 align:middle line:90% was not super famous. 00:06:59.410 --> 00:07:02.890 align:middle line:84% It's not like writing about José Martí. 00:07:02.890 --> 00:07:07.810 align:middle line:84% But she is certainly better known than in the US. 00:07:07.810 --> 00:07:10.450 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to bring her amazing story 00:07:10.450 --> 00:07:15.250 align:middle line:90% into the realm of English. 00:07:15.250 --> 00:07:21.040 align:middle line:84% And I was very fortunate to be able to talk the publisher 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:22.900 align:middle line:90% into a dual-language edition. 00:07:22.900 --> 00:07:26.260 align:middle line:84% so there's not only the original English hardback 00:07:26.260 --> 00:07:29.020 align:middle line:84% but there's also this book where the first half is in English 00:07:29.020 --> 00:07:31.150 align:middle line:90% in the second half in Spanish. 00:07:31.150 --> 00:07:37.720 align:middle line:84% And that's kind of amazing for a book for older children, 00:07:37.720 --> 00:07:42.400 align:middle line:84% ages 12 and up, I'd say, into the teenage years. 00:07:42.400 --> 00:07:44.830 align:middle line:84% There are some bilingual picture books, 00:07:44.830 --> 00:07:49.390 align:middle line:84% but, very few bilingual books for older kids 00:07:49.390 --> 00:07:51.700 align:middle line:90% with mature topics. 00:07:51.700 --> 00:07:57.490 align:middle line:84% So some of the advantages that I see for this verse novel format 00:07:57.490 --> 00:08:01.630 align:middle line:84% are being able to distill complex historical situations 00:08:01.630 --> 00:08:04.870 align:middle line:84% down to what I think of as their emotional essence. 00:08:04.870 --> 00:08:07.960 align:middle line:84% How did it feel to live in that time and place? 00:08:07.960 --> 00:08:13.250 align:middle line:84% How did it feel to be faced with a difficult decision? 00:08:13.250 --> 00:08:16.090 align:middle line:90% I also feel free to experiment. 00:08:16.090 --> 00:08:20.860 align:middle line:84% I feel free to explore, to combine 00:08:20.860 --> 00:08:25.240 align:middle line:84% poetry and storytelling, poetry and history, poetry 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:28.480 align:middle line:84% and science, because I do bring my botanical background 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:29.320 align:middle line:90% into it. 00:08:29.320 --> 00:08:32.200 align:middle line:84% I feel free to combine historical and fictional 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:39.100 align:middle line:84% characters, nature and culture, the US and Cuba, and English 00:08:39.100 --> 00:08:40.870 align:middle line:90% and Spanish. 00:08:40.870 --> 00:08:44.680 align:middle line:84% I love the free flow of characters' thoughts 00:08:44.680 --> 00:08:48.115 align:middle line:84% and feelings that can be put into this format. 00:08:48.115 --> 00:08:52.010 align:middle line:90% 00:08:52.010 --> 00:08:58.650 align:middle line:84% I love the freedom to actually write 00:08:58.650 --> 00:09:03.000 align:middle line:84% as if I'm inside the character's head, 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:06.570 align:middle line:84% in that friendly, uncrowded page that I showed you. 00:09:06.570 --> 00:09:12.420 align:middle line:84% Inviting reluctant readers, and writing about the themes 00:09:12.420 --> 00:09:13.740 align:middle line:90% that I feel are important. 00:09:13.740 --> 00:09:16.830 align:middle line:84% Freedom, peace, hope as well as the courage 00:09:16.830 --> 00:09:19.350 align:middle line:90% and compassion of individuals. 00:09:19.350 --> 00:09:24.210 align:middle line:84% It's a form that requires meticulous research. 00:09:24.210 --> 00:09:27.720 align:middle line:84% I have to read everything I can find 00:09:27.720 --> 00:09:30.720 align:middle line:84% about a historical subject, and then I 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:34.320 align:middle line:84% have to leave 99% of it out of the book, 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:36.900 align:middle line:90% because it's not going to fit. 00:09:36.900 --> 00:09:40.080 align:middle line:90% But I need to know these things. 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:45.300 align:middle line:84% I have to have read the facts, and figures, and the dates, 00:09:45.300 --> 00:09:48.210 align:middle line:84% and the names of the generals, and all these things. 00:09:48.210 --> 00:09:53.550 align:middle line:84% But I can't fit it all in, and because I can't fit it 00:09:53.550 --> 00:09:58.060 align:middle line:84% I have to ask myself, what's really important to me? 00:09:58.060 --> 00:10:01.200 align:middle line:84% And those are the things that I fit. 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:05.110 align:middle line:90% So poetry forces me to be brief. 00:10:05.110 --> 00:10:08.250 align:middle line:84% I have to choose which details will 00:10:08.250 --> 00:10:12.330 align:middle line:90% go into the final manuscript. 00:10:12.330 --> 00:10:16.920 align:middle line:84% For authenticity, I need obscure research materials. 00:10:16.920 --> 00:10:19.770 align:middle line:84% It sounds like I'm describing a way of making my job just 00:10:19.770 --> 00:10:20.940 align:middle line:90% harder and harder. 00:10:20.940 --> 00:10:24.900 align:middle line:84% And it really is, because for authenticity, I 00:10:24.900 --> 00:10:28.560 align:middle line:84% feel like whenever possible, I need first-person accounts. 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:31.410 align:middle line:84% I need to read diaries, and letters, 00:10:31.410 --> 00:10:35.280 align:middle line:84% and for more recent topics, maybe interviews. 00:10:35.280 --> 00:10:38.060 align:middle line:90% 00:10:38.060 --> 00:10:40.340 align:middle line:84% Most of those diaries and letters 00:10:40.340 --> 00:10:42.830 align:middle line:84% are not available in a digital format. 00:10:42.830 --> 00:10:45.260 align:middle line:84% And it means actually finding antique books, 00:10:45.260 --> 00:10:47.690 align:middle line:84% either through interlibrary loan, 00:10:47.690 --> 00:10:53.750 align:middle line:84% or buying them through a rare books dealer. 00:10:53.750 --> 00:10:58.260 align:middle line:84% There are some disadvantages, there are some limitations. 00:10:58.260 --> 00:11:03.860 align:middle line:84% The biggest limitation is just knowing that chain bookstores 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:06.890 align:middle line:90% aren't going to carry them. 00:11:06.890 --> 00:11:11.990 align:middle line:84% That's limiting in the sense that publishers 00:11:11.990 --> 00:11:15.870 align:middle line:84% wish chain bookstores would carry your books. 00:11:15.870 --> 00:11:20.270 align:middle line:90% But I don't let that limit me. 00:11:20.270 --> 00:11:24.350 align:middle line:90% I just go forward, anyway. 00:11:24.350 --> 00:11:27.020 align:middle line:84% The other limitation is that I personally 00:11:27.020 --> 00:11:30.380 align:middle line:84% feel that dialogue in a verse novel 00:11:30.380 --> 00:11:34.070 align:middle line:84% is a little bit awkward if you use quotation marks. 00:11:34.070 --> 00:11:37.970 align:middle line:84% I'm not comfortable, in general, with using quotation marks 00:11:37.970 --> 00:11:41.250 align:middle line:90% for dialogue in poetry. 00:11:41.250 --> 00:11:45.260 align:middle line:84% So I try to find other ways for characters to communicate. 00:11:45.260 --> 00:11:48.200 align:middle line:84% I guess kind of like my parents not speaking the same language, 00:11:48.200 --> 00:11:52.190 align:middle line:84% find some other way for them to communicate than actual-- 00:11:52.190 --> 00:11:58.610 align:middle line:84% once you experiment with putting conversation 00:11:58.610 --> 00:12:02.060 align:middle line:84% in quotation marks, it starts to sound like prose. 00:12:02.060 --> 00:12:05.150 align:middle line:84% And I lose some of the rhythm that I 00:12:05.150 --> 00:12:09.020 align:middle line:90% want in the poetry format. 00:12:09.020 --> 00:12:18.320 align:middle line:84% So my basic writing process is daydreaming. 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:20.870 align:middle line:84% That follows the year, or two years, 00:12:20.870 --> 00:12:23.180 align:middle line:84% or whatever of meticulous research. 00:12:23.180 --> 00:12:28.790 align:middle line:84% Then all of a sudden, I'm free to daydream on paper, 00:12:28.790 --> 00:12:32.360 align:middle line:90% experimenting with the rhythm. 00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:36.020 align:middle line:84% And I feel like the rhythm of free verse, 00:12:36.020 --> 00:12:39.440 align:middle line:84% for me, is very similar to the rhythm of walking. 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:40.710 align:middle line:90% I love the outdoors. 00:12:40.710 --> 00:12:41.520 align:middle line:90% I love nature. 00:12:41.520 --> 00:12:42.390 align:middle line:90% I like to walk. 00:12:42.390 --> 00:12:43.340 align:middle line:90% I like to hike. 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:48.140 align:middle line:84% And often, portions of poems come to me as I'm walking. 00:12:48.140 --> 00:12:50.940 align:middle line:84% So the rhythm of walking may be in there. 00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:54.410 align:middle line:84% But I think of it as the scribbling stage. 00:12:54.410 --> 00:12:57.380 align:middle line:84% This daydreaming, I think of it as scribbling, 00:12:57.380 --> 00:13:01.940 align:middle line:84% and it lasts about a year, probably. 00:13:01.940 --> 00:13:06.770 align:middle line:84% Then revisions, where it becomes teamwork with an editor. 00:13:06.770 --> 00:13:10.530 align:middle line:84% And that's the really scary hard work stage. 00:13:10.530 --> 00:13:12.000 align:middle line:90% It's overwhelming. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:13.260 align:middle line:90% I can't do it. 00:13:13.260 --> 00:13:15.680 align:middle line:84% I have to move indoors to a computer, 00:13:15.680 --> 00:13:17.420 align:middle line:84% because my first drafts are always 00:13:17.420 --> 00:13:21.440 align:middle line:84% handwritten with pen and paper, often in beautiful surroundings 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:22.710 align:middle line:90% outdoors. 00:13:22.710 --> 00:13:25.310 align:middle line:90% So I have to really focus. 00:13:25.310 --> 00:13:27.590 align:middle line:90% It's my last chance to improve. 00:13:27.590 --> 00:13:30.780 align:middle line:84% I can't give up, as hard as it is. 00:13:30.780 --> 00:13:35.150 align:middle line:84% And on top of that, there's a deadline for revisions. 00:13:35.150 --> 00:13:43.130 align:middle line:84% Often, the editorial letter arrives on Christmas Eve, 00:13:43.130 --> 00:13:46.400 align:middle line:84% and is due in February, because editors 00:13:46.400 --> 00:13:48.500 align:middle line:90% clear their desk in December. 00:13:48.500 --> 00:13:52.790 align:middle line:84% And it moves into the kind of back in the writer's court 00:13:52.790 --> 00:13:53.687 align:middle line:90% at that stage. 00:13:53.687 --> 00:13:55.520 align:middle line:84% And then it's due in February, if the book's 00:13:55.520 --> 00:13:57.620 align:middle line:84% going to come out the following April 00:13:57.620 --> 00:13:59.130 align:middle line:90% for National Poetry Month. 00:13:59.130 --> 00:14:03.290 align:middle line:84% So even though there's more than a year left, 00:14:03.290 --> 00:14:06.320 align:middle line:84% my part of that more than a year isn't very long. 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:09.110 align:middle line:84% So deadlines are the scariest part for me. 00:14:09.110 --> 00:14:10.250 align:middle line:90% It's under pressure. 00:14:10.250 --> 00:14:13.265 align:middle line:84% And yet, it's all still my last chance 00:14:13.265 --> 00:14:15.140 align:middle line:84% to make the book as good as it's going to be, 00:14:15.140 --> 00:14:17.930 align:middle line:90% my last chance to improve. 00:14:17.930 --> 00:14:23.180 align:middle line:84% My creative writing professor, Dr. Tomas Rivera, 00:14:23.180 --> 00:14:25.490 align:middle line:84% taught me to write from the heart 00:14:25.490 --> 00:14:28.070 align:middle line:84% without worrying about publication. 00:14:28.070 --> 00:14:31.140 align:middle line:84% Some of you may know him as a poet and a writer. 00:14:31.140 --> 00:14:34.850 align:middle line:84% But he was also the first Hispanic chancellor 00:14:34.850 --> 00:14:36.890 align:middle line:84% of the University of California campus. 00:14:36.890 --> 00:14:40.100 align:middle line:84% And I took his graduate creative writing seminar 00:14:40.100 --> 00:14:44.540 align:middle line:84% while supposedly completing my PhD in botany, which I never 00:14:44.540 --> 00:14:45.290 align:middle line:90% finished. 00:14:45.290 --> 00:14:48.230 align:middle line:84% And I did get in trouble for taking a course 00:14:48.230 --> 00:14:51.380 align:middle line:90% outside of my specialty. 00:14:51.380 --> 00:14:54.590 align:middle line:84% But I treasure what he taught me, to write from the heart 00:14:54.590 --> 00:14:56.450 align:middle line:84% without worrying about publication, 00:14:56.450 --> 00:14:58.820 align:middle line:84% without thinking about publication, 00:14:58.820 --> 00:15:01.970 align:middle line:84% without thinking about being judged. 00:15:01.970 --> 00:15:03.950 align:middle line:90% All of that comes later. 00:15:03.950 --> 00:15:07.250 align:middle line:84% Of course I want to be published, 00:15:07.250 --> 00:15:09.170 align:middle line:90% and I know I have to be judged. 00:15:09.170 --> 00:15:11.150 align:middle line:84% But during the first draft is not 00:15:11.150 --> 00:15:12.650 align:middle line:90% the time to think about that. 00:15:12.650 --> 00:15:16.430 align:middle line:84% During the first draft, you are just a free spirit 00:15:16.430 --> 00:15:18.770 align:middle line:84% and you can do anything you want, 00:15:18.770 --> 00:15:20.780 align:middle line:84% and nobody can tell you not to, because they 00:15:20.780 --> 00:15:21.620 align:middle line:90% don't know about it. 00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:24.110 align:middle line:90% It's still a secret book. 00:15:24.110 --> 00:15:27.320 align:middle line:84% So my advice to young writers, if you're 00:15:27.320 --> 00:15:29.630 align:middle line:84% working with students in the schools, 00:15:29.630 --> 00:15:32.510 align:middle line:84% is to encourage them to read a lot. 00:15:32.510 --> 00:15:35.540 align:middle line:84% Because they'll get ideas by reading, 00:15:35.540 --> 00:15:40.040 align:middle line:84% and to relax a lot, because poetry 00:15:40.040 --> 00:15:44.750 align:middle line:84% flows into the quiet places in one's life. 00:15:44.750 --> 00:15:49.250 align:middle line:84% Poetry doesn't flow into your video game. 00:15:49.250 --> 00:15:52.100 align:middle line:84% It doesn't flow into your smartphone 00:15:52.100 --> 00:15:53.690 align:middle line:90% while you're doing this. 00:15:53.690 --> 00:15:59.060 align:middle line:84% It flows into those moments when you make room for it, 00:15:59.060 --> 00:16:03.320 align:middle line:84% I think of it as a mood of quiet discovery. 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:07.950 align:middle line:84% And then you can move into that exploring and scribbling stage. 00:16:07.950 --> 00:16:10.220 align:middle line:84% So in that first draft, I feel like it's 00:16:10.220 --> 00:16:14.390 align:middle line:84% important to just let the words flow without stopping 00:16:14.390 --> 00:16:17.150 align:middle line:90% too much to make corrections. 00:16:17.150 --> 00:16:23.390 align:middle line:84% Let it be fiery, not snuffy during the first stage, 00:16:23.390 --> 00:16:27.440 align:middle line:84% and you can come back later for grammar and punctuation, 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:31.200 align:middle line:90% and to see if it makes sense. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:34.100 align:middle line:84% There are all sorts of things that the first draft 00:16:34.100 --> 00:16:35.810 align:middle line:90% is going to need changes. 00:16:35.810 --> 00:16:40.490 align:middle line:84% But the first draft, as an explorer, 00:16:40.490 --> 00:16:44.210 align:middle line:84% is your exploration of uncharted territory. 00:16:44.210 --> 00:16:48.200 align:middle line:84% And I don't think that there are any shortcuts. 00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:52.210 align:middle line:84% I do think that you need to explore. 00:16:52.218 --> 00:16:55.260 align:middle line:90% Caminante, no hay camino. 00:16:55.260 --> 00:16:57.260 align:middle line:90% Se hace camino al andar. 00:16:57.290 --> 00:17:00.890 align:middle line:90% You know that poem? 00:17:00.890 --> 00:17:02.270 align:middle line:90% Machado. 00:17:02.270 --> 00:17:04.640 align:middle line:90% Walker, there is no road. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:07.490 align:middle line:84% Roads are made by walking, the great Antonio 00:17:07.490 --> 00:17:11.810 align:middle line:84% Machado from Spain, from Proverbios y cantares. 00:17:11.810 --> 00:17:14.930 align:middle line:84% So you're in uncharted territory, 00:17:14.930 --> 00:17:17.390 align:middle line:84% and you want to trail, you better 00:17:17.390 --> 00:17:21.319 align:middle line:90% start walking and make a trail. 00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:25.190 align:middle line:90% I claim the right to no rules. 00:17:25.190 --> 00:17:30.020 align:middle line:84% I do not feel like I have to follow any particular format. 00:17:30.020 --> 00:17:32.690 align:middle line:90% I keep experimenting. 00:17:32.690 --> 00:17:35.540 align:middle line:84% So there are no rules, and there are no shortcuts. 00:17:35.540 --> 00:17:38.270 align:middle line:90% Again, I'm making my job harder. 00:17:38.270 --> 00:17:40.880 align:middle line:84% There is no technological substitute 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:47.000 align:middle line:84% for the slow, gradual process of seeking and finding. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:50.390 align:middle line:84% And when you work with young people with students, 00:17:50.390 --> 00:17:55.280 align:middle line:84% you need to remind them also that writers need practice. 00:17:55.280 --> 00:17:59.570 align:middle line:84% Musicians and dancers rehearse, athletes train, 00:17:59.570 --> 00:18:02.390 align:middle line:90% and writers need to practice. 00:18:02.390 --> 00:18:06.410 align:middle line:84% We can't expect our first drafts to be perfect, 00:18:06.410 --> 00:18:12.620 align:middle line:84% and we can't expect 100% of our work to be publishable. 00:18:12.620 --> 00:18:19.340 align:middle line:84% We have to only show our best work to editors. 00:18:19.340 --> 00:18:24.680 align:middle line:84% So to summarize that statement, what I've said 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:27.290 align:middle line:90% is explorers need courage. 00:18:27.290 --> 00:18:29.660 align:middle line:84% When you go into uncharted territory like that, 00:18:29.660 --> 00:18:30.920 align:middle line:90% you do need courage. 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:33.890 align:middle line:84% While you're writing, the emotions can be scary. 00:18:33.890 --> 00:18:37.730 align:middle line:84% After publication, the critics are scary. 00:18:37.730 --> 00:18:40.910 align:middle line:84% But I love to travel, and, I, need to explore. 00:18:40.910 --> 00:18:44.020 align:middle line:90% 00:18:44.020 --> 00:18:49.660 align:middle line:84% My other books are primarily on other aspects of Cuban history, 00:18:49.660 --> 00:18:51.700 align:middle line:90% tropical secrets. 00:18:51.700 --> 00:18:56.890 align:middle line:84% Holocaust refugees in Cuba is about a time when 00:18:56.890 --> 00:19:05.260 align:middle line:84% in the late 1930s, ships turned away from New York and Toronto, 00:19:05.260 --> 00:19:07.570 align:middle line:84% took German Jewish refugees, often 00:19:07.570 --> 00:19:10.780 align:middle line:84% children traveling alone trying to be reunited 00:19:10.780 --> 00:19:14.290 align:middle line:90% with relatives in New York. 00:19:14.290 --> 00:19:18.430 align:middle line:84% When they were turned away, the ships anchored in Havana Harbor 00:19:18.430 --> 00:19:22.900 align:middle line:84% and waited through a complicated process for refugees 00:19:22.900 --> 00:19:24.400 align:middle line:90% to receive asylum. 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:27.220 align:middle line:90% Most of them did receive asylum. 00:19:27.220 --> 00:19:34.570 align:middle line:84% And I think of this story as a tale about the kindness 00:19:34.570 --> 00:19:38.380 align:middle line:84% of strangers, and asking ourselves 00:19:38.380 --> 00:19:44.065 align:middle line:84% about modern-day refugee situations as well. 00:19:44.065 --> 00:19:47.410 align:middle line:90% 00:19:47.410 --> 00:19:49.720 align:middle line:84% In The Firefly Letters, one thing 00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:52.270 align:middle line:84% that happened while I was researching both The Poet 00:19:52.270 --> 00:19:54.250 align:middle line:84% Slave Of Cuba and The Surrender Tree, 00:19:54.250 --> 00:19:57.910 align:middle line:84% and, really reading everything I could get about 19th century 00:19:57.910 --> 00:20:03.160 align:middle line:84% Cuba, I continually came across references 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:08.050 align:middle line:84% to the work of Fredrika Bremer, a Swedish woman who 00:20:08.050 --> 00:20:12.610 align:middle line:84% left the most complete known record of daily life 00:20:12.610 --> 00:20:14.860 align:middle line:90% on the island at that time. 00:20:14.860 --> 00:20:18.910 align:middle line:84% And I kept going why a Swedish woman? 00:20:18.910 --> 00:20:21.460 align:middle line:84% Well, I need to come back to that later and find out 00:20:21.460 --> 00:20:25.250 align:middle line:84% why was she the one who knew the most about Cuba's daily life. 00:20:25.250 --> 00:20:28.810 align:middle line:84% And it turns out she was a woman's rights activist, 00:20:28.810 --> 00:20:31.420 align:middle line:84% and a very early travel writer, who 00:20:31.420 --> 00:20:33.760 align:middle line:84% traveled around the world writing 00:20:33.760 --> 00:20:35.960 align:middle line:90% about the lives of women. 00:20:35.960 --> 00:20:39.970 align:middle line:90% And it just fascinated me. 00:20:39.970 --> 00:20:43.600 align:middle line:84% So I read all of her diaries and letters, 00:20:43.600 --> 00:20:49.570 align:middle line:84% and learned that in Cuba, the Swedish consulate assigned 00:20:49.570 --> 00:20:50.860 align:middle line:90% a translator to her. 00:20:50.860 --> 00:20:54.820 align:middle line:84% And the translator was actually a slave girl born in Africa 00:20:54.820 --> 00:20:57.520 align:middle line:84% who had been taught English, not Swedish. 00:20:57.520 --> 00:20:59.470 align:middle line:84% That would really get complicated to find 00:20:59.470 --> 00:21:02.290 align:middle line:84% a Swedish translator in 19th century Cuba. 00:21:02.290 --> 00:21:06.213 align:middle line:84% But they found someone who could translate into English for her, 00:21:06.213 --> 00:21:06.880 align:middle line:90% which, she knew. 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:07.660 align:middle line:90% She knew English. 00:21:07.660 --> 00:21:12.070 align:middle line:84% She actually reached Cuba after traveling through the US. 00:21:12.070 --> 00:21:15.490 align:middle line:84% And the relationship between her and her translator 00:21:15.490 --> 00:21:19.540 align:middle line:84% was a beautiful one of friendship that fascinated me. 00:21:19.540 --> 00:21:22.810 align:middle line:90% So I wanted to write about that. 00:21:22.810 --> 00:21:27.500 align:middle line:84% Hurricane Dancers, the first Caribbean pirate shipwreck. 00:21:27.500 --> 00:21:31.780 align:middle line:90% This is not a Johnny Depp story. 00:21:31.780 --> 00:21:34.840 align:middle line:84% These are not the cute, funny pirates. 00:21:34.840 --> 00:21:37.420 align:middle line:84% These were failed conquistadors who 00:21:37.420 --> 00:21:42.100 align:middle line:84% had worked all the Indians on their land grants to death, 00:21:42.100 --> 00:21:46.780 align:middle line:84% and were facing debtor's prison after going bankrupt 00:21:46.780 --> 00:21:48.140 align:middle line:90% unless they did something. 00:21:48.140 --> 00:21:55.600 align:middle line:84% So the first Caribbean pirate hijacked a ship, stole a ship, 00:21:55.600 --> 00:21:58.330 align:middle line:84% took the governor of Venezuela hostage, 00:21:58.330 --> 00:22:02.290 align:middle line:84% and then was shipwrecked during a hurricane 00:22:02.290 --> 00:22:04.180 align:middle line:84% on the South Central Coast, which is 00:22:04.180 --> 00:22:05.650 align:middle line:90% where my mother's hometown is. 00:22:05.650 --> 00:22:08.710 align:middle line:84% And their first encountered in that part of Cuba-- 00:22:08.710 --> 00:22:11.200 align:middle line:84% Columbus had gone to northern Cuba, 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:14.710 align:middle line:84% but on the South Central Coast, the first encounter 00:22:14.710 --> 00:22:18.850 align:middle line:84% with Spaniards was the shipwrecked pirate 00:22:18.850 --> 00:22:20.440 align:middle line:90% and his hostage. 00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:24.910 align:middle line:84% And it's hard to say which one of them was more of a bad guy. 00:22:24.910 --> 00:22:27.340 align:middle line:84% But I wrote it from the point of view 00:22:27.340 --> 00:22:31.360 align:middle line:84% of the first generation of mestizos, 00:22:31.360 --> 00:22:33.580 align:middle line:90% half Spanish, half Taino. 00:22:33.580 --> 00:22:37.150 align:middle line:84% And while I was doing the research for this book, 00:22:37.150 --> 00:22:40.540 align:middle line:84% the farther back in time I go, the harder 00:22:40.540 --> 00:22:42.220 align:middle line:84% it is to do the research, because there 00:22:42.220 --> 00:22:45.550 align:middle line:84% are no first person written accounts 00:22:45.550 --> 00:22:49.870 align:middle line:84% by Tainos, only by conquistadors and by priests. 00:22:49.870 --> 00:22:51.640 align:middle line:84% Fortunately, there was a priest who 00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:55.420 align:middle line:84% was very dedicated to trying to save the Tainos. 00:22:55.420 --> 00:23:00.130 align:middle line:84% And his first person accounts, Bartolomé de Las Cases', are 00:23:00.130 --> 00:23:01.630 align:middle line:90% useful. 00:23:01.630 --> 00:23:04.810 align:middle line:84% But while I was doing the research for this, 00:23:04.810 --> 00:23:07.120 align:middle line:84% and I had to imagine many details. 00:23:07.120 --> 00:23:11.230 align:middle line:84% Because only 200 words of the language 00:23:11.230 --> 00:23:13.840 align:middle line:84% had been recorded by the Spaniards. 00:23:13.840 --> 00:23:20.090 align:middle line:84% So even imagining the Taino language was very limited. 00:23:20.090 --> 00:23:24.700 align:middle line:84% The only recorded nouns, no verbs. 00:23:24.700 --> 00:23:29.140 align:middle line:84% But I was invited to become a subject of the Cuban DNA 00:23:29.140 --> 00:23:30.040 align:middle line:90% project. 00:23:30.040 --> 00:23:32.830 align:middle line:84% And when my results came back, some of you 00:23:32.830 --> 00:23:36.400 align:middle line:84% may have seen the Family Tree DNA project on National 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:38.350 align:middle line:84% Geographic Channel, it's that same-- it's 00:23:38.350 --> 00:23:40.690 align:middle line:90% a branch of that same project. 00:23:40.690 --> 00:23:42.820 align:middle line:84% When my results came back they came back 00:23:42.820 --> 00:23:46.240 align:middle line:84% with Haplogroup A, which is the same genetic marker 00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:49.600 align:middle line:84% for maternal Amerindian ancestry that's 00:23:49.600 --> 00:23:52.450 align:middle line:84% found in the Plains Indians and on up through the Bering 00:23:52.450 --> 00:23:54.790 align:middle line:84% Strait, and it shows the pattern of migration 00:23:54.790 --> 00:23:57.340 align:middle line:90% down into the Caribbean. 00:23:57.340 --> 00:24:00.670 align:middle line:84% A lot of Puerto Ricans have known for a number of years 00:24:00.670 --> 00:24:04.420 align:middle line:84% now that they carry Haplogroup A. The reason 00:24:04.420 --> 00:24:07.090 align:middle line:84% that for someone of Cuban ancestry, 00:24:07.090 --> 00:24:11.270 align:middle line:84% this was such an amazing experience, 00:24:11.270 --> 00:24:13.120 align:middle line:84% I was already emotionally involved 00:24:13.120 --> 00:24:15.160 align:middle line:90% with my mestizo character. 00:24:15.160 --> 00:24:18.730 align:middle line:84% But this made it even more personal. 00:24:18.730 --> 00:24:22.330 align:middle line:84% For 500 years, every Cuban has been 00:24:22.330 --> 00:24:28.030 align:middle line:84% taught that the Taino were extinct, from 1520. 00:24:28.030 --> 00:24:30.460 align:middle line:84% By 1520, there were no Indians left. 00:24:30.460 --> 00:24:35.500 align:middle line:84% And every history book you look at states the same thing, 00:24:35.500 --> 00:24:38.748 align:middle line:84% even history books published within the last few years. 00:24:38.748 --> 00:24:40.540 align:middle line:84% Whether they're for children or for adults, 00:24:40.540 --> 00:24:43.900 align:middle line:84% they'll say the Cuban Indians are extinct 00:24:43.900 --> 00:24:45.820 align:middle line:90% and they'll use that word. 00:24:45.820 --> 00:24:49.940 align:middle line:84% And I knew that there were survivors 00:24:49.940 --> 00:24:51.770 align:middle line:84% I knew there were survivors because I was 00:24:51.770 --> 00:24:53.900 align:middle line:90% writing the story of survivors. 00:24:53.900 --> 00:24:57.470 align:middle line:84% But then when I got the proof of it, with that Haplogroup A, 00:24:57.470 --> 00:25:02.630 align:middle line:84% I knew what I was writing about my own maternal ancestry. 00:25:02.630 --> 00:25:06.200 align:middle line:84% It proves that we don't know history. 00:25:06.200 --> 00:25:08.030 align:middle line:90% We're exploring history. 00:25:08.030 --> 00:25:10.490 align:middle line:90% We're discovering history. 00:25:10.490 --> 00:25:15.140 align:middle line:84% Once something has been stated in a history 00:25:15.140 --> 00:25:19.970 align:middle line:84% book for the next 500 years, other historians 00:25:19.970 --> 00:25:23.390 align:middle line:84% are going to repeat it, whether it's true or not. 00:25:23.390 --> 00:25:25.340 align:middle line:90% That's just how it works. 00:25:25.340 --> 00:25:29.180 align:middle line:84% And you could say the same of Wikipedia. 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:32.780 align:middle line:84% Once it's been on Wikipedia, that your name is 00:25:32.780 --> 00:25:35.750 align:middle line:84% such and such, it's going to be repeated on Wikipedia. 00:25:35.750 --> 00:25:36.350 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:25:36.350 --> 00:25:39.905 align:middle line:84% So some of these things just can't be taken at face value. 00:25:39.905 --> 00:25:44.360 align:middle line:90% 00:25:44.360 --> 00:25:49.730 align:middle line:84% The Wild Book is inspired by stories my grandmother told me 00:25:49.730 --> 00:25:54.800 align:middle line:84% about her childhood growing up in Cuba during the early 1900s, 00:25:54.800 --> 00:25:58.010 align:middle line:84% right after the period in The Surrender Tree. 00:25:58.010 --> 00:26:04.610 align:middle line:84% And the older she got, the more she told these stories. 00:26:04.610 --> 00:26:08.750 align:middle line:84% She not only lived in turbulent times, 00:26:08.750 --> 00:26:13.130 align:middle line:84% right after the US withdrew having occupied Cuba 00:26:13.130 --> 00:26:15.770 align:middle line:84% after the Spanish-American War, so that it 00:26:15.770 --> 00:26:19.280 align:middle line:84% would be as if when we pull out of Iraq, 00:26:19.280 --> 00:26:20.780 align:middle line:90% you would expect chaos. 00:26:20.780 --> 00:26:23.450 align:middle line:84% There were bandits in the countryside, 00:26:23.450 --> 00:26:25.520 align:middle line:84% and they were threatening to kidnap 00:26:25.520 --> 00:26:29.840 align:middle line:84% farmers' children unless ransom was paid in advance. 00:26:29.840 --> 00:26:34.280 align:middle line:84% My great-grandfather had so many children 00:26:34.280 --> 00:26:36.110 align:middle line:84% that he got one of these ransom notes, 00:26:36.110 --> 00:26:38.993 align:middle line:84% and he said I have too many, I can't pay for them all, 00:26:38.993 --> 00:26:40.160 align:middle line:90% and I'm not going to choose. 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:41.360 align:middle line:90% So I won't pay for any. 00:26:41.360 --> 00:26:44.390 align:middle line:84% So my grandmother lived in fear of being kidnapped, 00:26:44.390 --> 00:26:46.970 align:middle line:84% but she also had dyslexia and struggled 00:26:46.970 --> 00:26:50.885 align:middle line:84% with the inner turmoil of trying to learn to read and write. 00:26:50.885 --> 00:26:54.020 align:middle line:90% 00:26:54.020 --> 00:26:58.900 align:middle line:84% The Lightning Dreamer is biographical about Gertrudis 00:26:58.900 --> 00:27:04.640 align:middle line:84% Gómez de Avellaneda, one of Cuba's greatest poets as well 00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:08.270 align:middle line:90% as abolitionists and feminists. 00:27:08.270 --> 00:27:14.930 align:middle line:84% She combined her writing of an interracial romance 00:27:14.930 --> 00:27:19.910 align:middle line:84% novel, which was published 11 years before Uncle Tom's Cabin, 00:27:19.910 --> 00:27:23.270 align:middle line:84% and was much more daring, because it 00:27:23.270 --> 00:27:28.700 align:middle line:84% proposed in the form of a simple melodramatic story-- 00:27:28.700 --> 00:27:33.320 align:middle line:84% it proposed not just abolition, but intermarriage, 00:27:33.320 --> 00:27:38.450 align:middle line:84% and just completely normal mixed-race society, 00:27:38.450 --> 00:27:42.140 align:middle line:90% full equality in every way. 00:27:42.140 --> 00:27:44.060 align:middle line:84% She combined that with a campaign 00:27:44.060 --> 00:27:46.970 align:middle line:84% against arranged marriage for girls. 00:27:46.970 --> 00:27:53.420 align:middle line:84% The age of betrothal was 14 for Cuban young ladies 00:27:53.420 --> 00:27:58.370 align:middle line:84% of the middle and upper classes in the 1800s. 00:27:58.370 --> 00:28:02.600 align:middle line:84% And she regarded that as the marketing of teenage girls. 00:28:02.600 --> 00:28:08.090 align:middle line:84% She was actually forbidden to read and write too much 00:28:08.090 --> 00:28:14.450 align:middle line:84% by her mother, because girls who were smart 00:28:14.450 --> 00:28:17.300 align:middle line:84% lost value on the marriage market. 00:28:17.300 --> 00:28:21.830 align:middle line:84% Nobody wanted to marry it an uneducated girl. 00:28:21.830 --> 00:28:25.940 align:middle line:84% You were to learn embroidery, play the piano, 00:28:25.940 --> 00:28:32.290 align:middle line:84% tell entertaining stories, and just be generally pretty 00:28:32.290 --> 00:28:35.390 align:middle line:84% and pleasant, but not read and write. 00:28:35.390 --> 00:28:37.940 align:middle line:90% So she destroyed her early work. 00:28:37.940 --> 00:28:39.110 align:middle line:90% She burned it. 00:28:39.110 --> 00:28:42.890 align:middle line:84% From the age of 10 on, she was writing 00:28:42.890 --> 00:28:47.990 align:middle line:84% not only poetry, but vampire stories, and stories 00:28:47.990 --> 00:28:51.920 align:middle line:90% of giants 100 heads high. 00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:55.580 align:middle line:84% And she burns them so that her mother wouldn't find them. 00:28:55.580 --> 00:28:58.320 align:middle line:84% But she also did something very interesting, 00:28:58.320 --> 00:29:01.310 align:middle line:84% because within the church, there was 00:29:01.310 --> 00:29:05.690 align:middle line:84% this group of women who were allowed to read and write 00:29:05.690 --> 00:29:08.420 align:middle line:90% as much as they want, the nuns. 00:29:08.420 --> 00:29:13.670 align:middle line:84% And so when she would go to the convent to volunteer, still 00:29:13.670 --> 00:29:16.040 align:middle line:84% as a child, she was young herself, 00:29:16.040 --> 00:29:20.330 align:middle line:84% but she would volunteer to do theater for orphans. 00:29:20.330 --> 00:29:25.145 align:middle line:84% And there she was free to put her stories into-- 00:29:25.145 --> 00:29:29.470 align:middle line:90% 00:29:29.470 --> 00:29:30.928 align:middle line:84% I just want to mention real quickly 00:29:30.928 --> 00:29:32.303 align:middle line:84% I'm going to run out of time if I 00:29:32.303 --> 00:29:34.220 align:middle line:84% spend too much time on each individual book. 00:29:34.220 --> 00:29:36.070 align:middle line:84% But I do want to mention that because she 00:29:36.070 --> 00:29:42.250 align:middle line:84% was such a great poet she actually escaped 00:29:42.250 --> 00:29:44.530 align:middle line:90% two arranged marriages herself. 00:29:44.530 --> 00:29:48.010 align:middle line:84% She defied her family, refused arranged marriages, 00:29:48.010 --> 00:29:51.370 align:middle line:84% at the age of 15 was banished to country estate, 00:29:51.370 --> 00:29:54.115 align:middle line:84% where she's thought to have met the characters who became-- 00:29:54.115 --> 00:29:56.830 align:middle line:90% 00:29:56.830 --> 00:29:58.780 align:middle line:84% met the real people who became the characters 00:29:58.780 --> 00:30:02.740 align:middle line:84% in her interracial romance novel. 00:30:02.740 --> 00:30:05.530 align:middle line:84% It was banned in Cuba because there was censorship. 00:30:05.530 --> 00:30:08.590 align:middle line:84% You couldn't write about slavery in Cuba. 00:30:08.590 --> 00:30:12.880 align:middle line:84% The big difference between Cuba and the US, 00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:16.060 align:middle line:84% in terms of writing about abolition, 00:30:16.060 --> 00:30:18.190 align:middle line:90% is there was no free North. 00:30:18.190 --> 00:30:21.860 align:middle line:84% The entire island was a slave state. 00:30:21.860 --> 00:30:24.670 align:middle line:84% So there was no place to go to speak freely. 00:30:24.670 --> 00:30:28.510 align:middle line:84% You could not become a lawmaker, or an orator, 00:30:28.510 --> 00:30:30.460 align:middle line:90% you had to be a poet. 00:30:30.460 --> 00:30:33.610 align:middle line:84% You had to veil your opinions with metaphors. 00:30:33.610 --> 00:30:36.685 align:middle line:84% And all the greatest Cuban abolitionists were poets. 00:30:36.685 --> 00:30:40.220 align:middle line:90% 00:30:40.220 --> 00:30:46.330 align:middle line:84% So this is just an example of a poem from the book.