WEBVTT

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I'd like to give my thanks
for tonight's reading

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to the Department of
Spanish and Portuguese,

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who've co-sponsored
the visit by Ben Sáenz.

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We're always happy to
have the help and support

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of other departments, especially
when money is so tight here,

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the U of A.

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Ben Sáenz is the author
of a book of poems,

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Calendar of Dust, which won the
1992 Before Columbus Foundation

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American Book Award.

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A book of short fiction,
Flowers for the Broken,

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both published by
Broken Moon Press.

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A new book of poems will
be out in the fall, Dark

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and Perfect Angels.

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Sáenz grew up in Las
Cruces, New Mexico,

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earned a master's degree in
theology from the University

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of Leuven in Belgium, and a
Master's in Creative Writing

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from the University
of Texas at El Paso.

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After that, he was awarded a
Stegner Fellowship in poetry

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from Stanford and went on
to work on a PhD there.

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His writing, we've said,
draws on his Chicano heritage

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and on the desert
landscape of the Southwest.

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Perhaps it's more
accurate to say

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he draws into that landscape
aspects of American history

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which have gone
largely unwritten.

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His sources range from
Navajo night chants

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to graffiti on a
Palo Alto restroom

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to the history of
Mexican farm workers.

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He's a writer of
witness, but he reaches

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beyond simple
documentation to seek out

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within our brutal history
the sources of healing.

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Currently, he's teaching at
the University of Texas at Paso

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where he's starting
the country's

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first bilingual creative
writing program.

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We're delighted and
honored that he's here.

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Please welcome Ben Sáenz.

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[APPLAUSE]

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