WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.102 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.102 --> 00:00:04.810 align:middle line:84% I do a lot of code switching in the work. 00:00:04.810 --> 00:00:07.010 align:middle line:84% I shuttle back and forth from English and Spanish. 00:00:07.010 --> 00:00:07.900 align:middle line:84% And the English is never put it-- 00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:10.300 align:middle line:84% and the Spanish is never put it in context, italicized, 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:13.130 align:middle line:84% there's no glossary at the back of the book. 00:00:13.130 --> 00:00:16.600 align:middle line:84% It's an aesthetic and also a political stance. 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:19.150 align:middle line:84% I refuse to-- language is one way we see the world, 00:00:19.150 --> 00:00:24.400 align:middle line:84% and I refuse to privilege one way over the other. 00:00:24.400 --> 00:00:28.540 align:middle line:84% This poem I want to read for the Tucson high school district, 00:00:28.540 --> 00:00:33.340 align:middle line:84% for the Mexican-American students who have been-- 00:00:33.340 --> 00:00:35.390 align:middle line:84% whose classes have been taken away from them. 00:00:35.390 --> 00:00:37.840 align:middle line:84% And this poem is also for all those Dreamers 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:39.730 align:middle line:84% across the United States, those undocumented 00:00:39.730 --> 00:00:41.860 align:middle line:84% young men and women who have shown more bravery 00:00:41.860 --> 00:00:43.960 align:middle line:84% the past year that I have ever have. 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:46.740 align:middle line:90% 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:49.110 align:middle line:84% "In Colorado, my father scoured and stacked 00:00:49.110 --> 00:00:52.110 align:middle line:90% dishes in a Tex-Mex restaurant. 00:00:52.110 --> 00:00:57.330 align:middle line:84% His co-workers, unable to utter his name, renamed him jalapeno. 00:00:57.330 --> 00:01:00.960 align:middle line:84% If I ask for a goldfish, he spits a glob of phlegm 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:03.120 align:middle line:90% into a jar of water. 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:06.960 align:middle line:84% The silver letters on his black belt spell "sangrón." 00:01:06.960 --> 00:01:12.559 align:middle line:84% Once, borracho, at dinner he said, Jesus was not a snowman. 00:01:12.559 --> 00:01:13.184 align:middle line:90% Arriba Durango. 00:01:13.184 --> 00:01:15.809 align:middle line:90% Arriba Orizaba. 00:01:16.020 --> 00:01:19.320 align:middle line:84% Packed into a car trunk, he was smuggled into the states-- 00:01:19.320 --> 00:01:21.480 align:middle line:90% frijolero, greaser. 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:24.180 align:middle line:90% In Tucson, he branded cattle. 00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:28.800 align:middle line:84% He slept in a stable, the horse blankets oddly fragrant-- wood 00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:30.780 align:middle line:90% smoke, lilac. 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:32.070 align:middle line:90% He's an illegal. 00:01:32.070 --> 00:01:33.900 align:middle line:90% I'm an illegal American. 00:01:33.900 --> 00:01:38.760 align:middle line:84% Once in a grove of saguaro, at dusk, I slept next to him. 00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:41.250 align:middle line:90% I woke with a thumb in my mouth. 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:43.720 align:middle line:90% ¿No qué no tronabas pistolita? 00:01:44.070 --> 00:01:46.530 align:middle line:84% He learned English by listening to the radio. 00:01:46.530 --> 00:01:48.540 align:middle line:84% The first four words he memorized-- 00:01:48.540 --> 00:01:50.220 align:middle line:90% "In God We Trust." 00:01:50.220 --> 00:01:52.890 align:middle line:90% The fifth-- percolate. 00:01:52.890 --> 00:01:56.190 align:middle line:84% Again and again, I borrow his clothes. 00:01:56.190 --> 00:01:58.500 align:middle line:90% He calls me scarecrow. 00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:00.240 align:middle line:90% In Oregon, he picked apples-- 00:02:00.240 --> 00:02:03.360 align:middle line:90% Braeburn, Jonagold, Cameo. 00:02:03.360 --> 00:02:06.630 align:middle line:84% Nightly, to entertain his cuates around a campfire, 00:02:06.630 --> 00:02:08.447 align:middle line:84% he strummed a guitarra, sang corridos. 00:02:08.447 --> 00:02:10.072 align:middle line:90% Arriba Durango. 00:02:10.072 --> 00:02:12.697 align:middle line:90% Arriba Orizaba. 00:02:12.990 --> 00:02:16.110 align:middle line:84% Packed into a car trunk, he was smuggled into the States-- 00:02:16.110 --> 00:02:18.390 align:middle line:90% greaser, beaner. 00:02:18.390 --> 00:02:22.110 align:middle line:84% Once, borracho, at breakfast, he said, 00:02:22.110 --> 00:02:26.220 align:middle line:84% the heart can only be broken once, like a window. 00:02:26.220 --> 00:02:27.490 align:middle line:90% ¡No mames! 00:02:27.490 --> 00:02:28.860 align:middle line:90% His favorite belt buckle-- 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:31.410 align:middle line:90% an águila perched on a nopal. 00:02:31.410 --> 00:02:34.620 align:middle line:84% If he laughs out loud, his hands tremble. 00:02:34.620 --> 00:02:37.440 align:middle line:90% Bugs Bunny wants to deport him. 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:40.350 align:middle line:84% Cesar Chavez wants to deport him. 00:02:40.350 --> 00:02:43.590 align:middle line:84% When I walk through the desert, I wear his shirt. 00:02:43.590 --> 00:02:46.920 align:middle line:84% The gaze of the moon stitches the buttons of his shirt 00:02:46.920 --> 00:02:48.480 align:middle line:90% to my skin. 00:02:48.480 --> 00:02:50.040 align:middle line:90% The snake hisses. 00:02:50.040 --> 00:02:52.550 align:middle line:90% The snake is torn." 00:02:52.550 --> 00:02:54.144 align:middle line:90%