WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.640 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:03.700 align:middle line:84% This is a book about a young man who 00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:06.490 align:middle line:84% was deposited on the doorstep when he was three days old. 00:00:06.490 --> 00:00:08.680 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to see what would happen, 00:00:08.680 --> 00:00:11.500 align:middle line:84% what influences he would have, White, Indian, Mexicano, 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:14.770 align:middle line:84% Chicano, what would happen to a young child in New Mexico? 00:00:14.770 --> 00:00:18.370 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to go through a couple of passages, OK. 00:00:18.370 --> 00:00:22.330 align:middle line:84% This is section 5 of Martin, number 19. 00:00:22.330 --> 00:00:24.160 align:middle line:90% He's living on the streets. 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:31.650 align:middle line:84% And then this is what he says, "Years pass, 00:00:31.650 --> 00:00:33.870 align:middle line:84% cattle cars in the downtown freight yard 00:00:33.870 --> 00:00:36.810 align:middle line:84% squeal and groan, and sizzle and grills, 00:00:36.810 --> 00:00:40.470 align:middle line:84% steam the Barillas Coffee House cafe windows. 00:00:40.470 --> 00:00:42.390 align:middle line:84% As the railroad workers with tin hardhats 00:00:42.390 --> 00:00:45.960 align:middle line:84% stopped for coffee, hours of dawn, 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:49.440 align:middle line:84% softly click on grandfather's gold pocket watches 00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:52.890 align:middle line:84% and Louise Broadway Pawn shop hawked 00:00:52.890 --> 00:00:55.890 align:middle line:84% to get a cousin or brother out of jail. 00:00:55.890 --> 00:00:58.410 align:middle line:84% City workers, 10 carts, and long handle dust 00:00:58.410 --> 00:01:01.440 align:middle line:84% pans clatter and curb gutters as buses spew 00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:05.519 align:middle line:84% smoldering exhaust, as they in any Walgreens' neon liquor 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:08.130 align:middle line:90% sign. 00:01:08.130 --> 00:01:11.370 align:middle line:84% I lean against an office building brick wall, nothing 00:01:11.370 --> 00:01:14.550 align:middle line:90% to do, nowhere to go. 00:01:14.550 --> 00:01:17.730 align:middle line:84% Comb my hair in the blue tinted office windows, 00:01:17.730 --> 00:01:19.590 align:middle line:84% see my reflection in the glinting Chrome 00:01:19.590 --> 00:01:24.480 align:middle line:84% cars on a corner, beneath the smoke and red traffic light. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:26.550 align:middle line:90% I live. 00:01:26.550 --> 00:01:30.390 align:middle line:84% Blue beanie cap snug over my ears down to my brow, 00:01:30.390 --> 00:01:33.570 align:middle line:84% and white bottomed jean pants trimmed with red braid, 00:01:33.570 --> 00:01:38.940 align:middle line:84% I start my daily walk to the Old Town Post Office. 00:01:38.940 --> 00:01:44.070 align:middle line:84% Condemned Armijo School building, Rio Grande Playa, 00:01:44.070 --> 00:01:48.720 align:middle line:84% ditches and underpasses a detribalized Apache. 00:01:48.720 --> 00:01:51.780 align:middle line:84% Entangled in the rusty barbed wire of a society 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:54.690 align:middle line:90% I do not understand. 00:01:54.690 --> 00:01:58.260 align:middle line:84% Mexicano blood in me spattering like 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:01.950 align:middle line:90% run off water from a root canal. 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:06.000 align:middle line:84% Glistening over the lives who lived before me, like rain 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.820 align:middle line:84% over mounds of broken pottery, each day 00:02:08.820 --> 00:02:13.800 align:middle line:84% back fills with brown dirt of my dreams. 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:19.380 align:middle line:84% I lived in the streets, slept at friends' houses, spoon pozole, 00:02:19.380 --> 00:02:23.850 align:middle line:84% and wiped up the last frijoles con tortilla from my plate. 00:02:23.850 --> 00:02:28.740 align:middle line:84% Each day, my hands hurt for something to have, 00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:32.130 align:middle line:84% and a voice in me yearn to sing, and my body 00:02:32.130 --> 00:02:34.380 align:middle line:84% wanted to shed the gray skin of streets 00:02:34.380 --> 00:02:37.410 align:middle line:90% like a snake that grew wings. 00:02:37.410 --> 00:02:41.820 align:middle line:84% I wished I had a chance to be a little boy, 00:02:41.820 --> 00:02:47.220 align:middle line:84% and wished a girl had loved me, and wished I had had a family. 00:02:47.220 --> 00:02:50.490 align:middle line:84% But these were silver inlaid pieces 00:02:50.490 --> 00:02:52.980 align:middle line:84% of another man's life, whose destiny 00:02:52.980 --> 00:02:56.400 align:middle line:84% found turned over stones and Ivy of the courtyard in a fairy 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:58.860 align:middle line:90% tale somewhere. 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:03.330 align:middle line:84% Each night, I could hear the silver whittling blade 00:03:03.330 --> 00:03:08.010 align:middle line:84% of La Llorona, carving a small child on the Muddy River 00:03:08.010 --> 00:03:11.940 align:middle line:84% bottom, like a little angel carved into ancient church 00:03:11.940 --> 00:03:13.680 align:middle line:90% doors. 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:19.860 align:middle line:84% On Fridays, Jesus Christ appeared on La Vega road. 00:03:19.860 --> 00:03:22.530 align:middle line:84% Mounted on a white charger, his black robe 00:03:22.530 --> 00:03:27.750 align:middle line:84% flapping in the moonlight as he thrashed through bosque brush. 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:34.890 align:middle line:84% Sometimes, Wallei, the voice of water sang to me, and Mectallá, 00:03:34.890 --> 00:03:37.950 align:middle line:84% who lives in the fire, flew in the air. 00:03:37.950 --> 00:03:42.570 align:middle line:84% And Cuzal, the reader of rocks, spoke with a voice jagged it 00:03:42.570 --> 00:03:45.870 align:middle line:90% as my street fight knuckles. 00:03:45.870 --> 00:03:49.740 align:middle line:84% A voice in me, soft as linen, unfolded on midnight air 00:03:49.740 --> 00:03:52.350 align:middle line:90% to wipe my loneliness away. 00:03:52.350 --> 00:03:54.420 align:middle line:84% The voice blew open like a white handkerchief 00:03:54.420 --> 00:03:57.090 align:middle line:84% in the night, embroidered with red roses, 00:03:57.090 --> 00:03:59.790 align:middle line:84% waving and waving from a dark window 00:03:59.790 --> 00:04:02.820 align:middle line:84% that some lover who never returned. 00:04:02.820 --> 00:04:07.350 align:middle line:84% I became a friend of the old women who hung out by the bars 00:04:07.350 --> 00:04:13.650 align:middle line:84% on Central Broadway, Isleta and Barcelona. 00:04:13.650 --> 00:04:18.029 align:middle line:84% Blue teardrops tattooed on their cheeks, initials of ex-lovers 00:04:18.029 --> 00:04:21.660 align:middle line:84% on their hands, women drawn out from the dark piste, 00:04:21.660 --> 00:04:24.180 align:middle line:90% thinking rooms they lived in. 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:29.340 align:middle line:84% By the powerful force of the moon, whose yellow teeth tore, 00:04:29.340 --> 00:04:31.980 align:middle line:90% the alfalfa out of their hearts. 00:04:31.980 --> 00:04:36.390 align:middle line:84% And left them stubble, parched grounds, old goats 00:04:36.390 --> 00:04:40.050 align:middle line:90% of the katos and winos nibbled. 00:04:40.050 --> 00:04:44.370 align:middle line:84% All my life, the constant sound of someone's boot heels 00:04:44.370 --> 00:04:46.170 align:middle line:90% trailed behind me. 00:04:46.170 --> 00:04:51.270 align:middle line:84% Thin, hard, sharp sounds, scraping frozen ground 00:04:51.270 --> 00:04:54.630 align:middle line:90% like a shovel digging a grave. 00:04:54.630 --> 00:04:58.560 align:middle line:84% It's my guardian, following me through the broken branches 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:04.080 align:middle line:84% of the bosque to the door, as a Good Shepherd home on South 00:05:04.080 --> 00:05:07.500 align:middle line:90% Second Street for a hot meal. 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:08.000 align:middle line:90%