WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.750 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.750 --> 00:00:03.780 align:middle line:90% '"67 Impala Super Sport-- 00:00:03.780 --> 00:00:06.810 align:middle line:90% mayate green, a June bug dance-- 00:00:06.810 --> 00:00:10.110 align:middle line:84% that loco worked overtime, worked double time. 00:00:10.110 --> 00:00:12.240 align:middle line:84% We're talking Christmas and Easter, 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:15.660 align:middle line:84% stocking the aisles by the pallet-load. 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:18.330 align:middle line:84% Got him a promotion and a paint job-- 00:00:18.330 --> 00:00:21.120 align:middle line:84% green and gold as the silken mayates 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.720 align:middle line:84% we'd catch on mesquite bark, when the summer clouds would 00:00:24.720 --> 00:00:27.990 align:middle line:90% roil angry in the Rincons. 00:00:27.990 --> 00:00:32.880 align:middle line:84% The three coats of paint cost a grand apiece, and the wheels-- 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:34.110 align:middle line:90% olvídate. 00:00:34.110 --> 00:00:36.450 align:middle line:90% He got a deal on those. 00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:39.540 align:middle line:84% He went on dayshift and wears a tie-- 00:00:39.540 --> 00:00:42.180 align:middle line:90% assistant grocery manager. 00:00:42.180 --> 00:00:45.810 align:middle line:84% He keeps those aisles as straight as that car. 00:00:45.810 --> 00:00:47.730 align:middle line:90% Too bad, it's up for sale. 00:00:47.730 --> 00:00:51.150 align:middle line:84% He went and knocked up his novia celebrating the promotion 00:00:51.150 --> 00:00:54.600 align:middle line:84% with a case of Coors and that long backseat. 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:58.470 align:middle line:84% He keeps telling me about her black, black hair 00:00:58.470 --> 00:01:02.220 align:middle line:84% and her breath on his ear, sweet as tequila. 00:01:02.220 --> 00:01:09.610 align:middle line:84% She's a nice girl and all, pero man, to give up that car. 00:01:09.610 --> 00:01:10.690 align:middle line:90% '69 Nova--" 00:01:10.690 --> 00:01:12.850 align:middle line:90% [CLEARS THROAT] 00:01:12.850 --> 00:01:16.120 align:middle line:84% "It belonged to my Nino Ramón originally-- 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:20.470 align:middle line:84% a gift to him from my mother for his departure to college. 00:01:20.470 --> 00:01:23.860 align:middle line:84% She was working then, making good money counting 00:01:23.860 --> 00:01:27.220 align:middle line:84% money for the Capin's Department Store. 00:01:27.220 --> 00:01:29.560 align:middle line:84% Ramón installed the dual exhaust, 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:33.490 align:middle line:84% that rattled the windows from the street, and the fat, 00:01:33.490 --> 00:01:36.950 align:middle line:84% black sticker of an American flag. 00:01:36.950 --> 00:01:41.020 align:middle line:84% He grew his hair long and didn't go to Vietnam. 00:01:41.020 --> 00:01:44.170 align:middle line:84% That car, blue as lightning, crackling 00:01:44.170 --> 00:01:46.840 align:middle line:84% across the black monsoon summer sky, 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:51.340 align:middle line:84% streaking from Nogales along the dark summer highway. 00:01:51.340 --> 00:01:54.940 align:middle line:84% Years later, my father took the Nova back and forth 00:01:54.940 --> 00:01:56.800 align:middle line:90% from the air base. 00:01:56.800 --> 00:02:00.880 align:middle line:84% The blue light blanched-- blue lightning blanched and oxidized 00:02:00.880 --> 00:02:05.530 align:middle line:84% by the jealous summer sun, so my father stripped the paint down 00:02:05.530 --> 00:02:09.400 align:middle line:84% to silvered metal and primered her white as a sheet-- 00:02:09.400 --> 00:02:14.230 align:middle line:84% dull and matte as an old horse, a ghost horse. 00:02:14.230 --> 00:02:20.200 align:middle line:84% I was 15, and Tom and I had our eyes and plans on that car. 00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:23.230 align:middle line:84% But the three gears and two-- and eight cylinders 00:02:23.230 --> 00:02:26.290 align:middle line:84% were deemed too much, though I suspect 00:02:26.290 --> 00:02:28.960 align:middle line:84% my father lost the title to a full house 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:31.120 align:middle line:90% against his two-pair. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:35.650 align:middle line:84% Mine and Tom's death mobile never carried us anywhere-- 00:02:35.650 --> 00:02:38.200 align:middle line:84% not to the cinema, or stale classrooms, 00:02:38.200 --> 00:02:41.230 align:middle line:84% or to watch the Pantano fill and run, 00:02:41.230 --> 00:02:44.635 align:middle line:84% flash-flooded lightning bluing our eyes. 00:02:44.635 --> 00:02:47.310 align:middle line:90% 00:02:47.310 --> 00:02:49.920 align:middle line:90% '79 Monte Carlo-- 00:02:49.920 --> 00:02:52.410 align:middle line:90% That car was ugly-- 00:02:52.410 --> 00:02:56.850 align:middle line:84% a big steel box, but it looked good as a lowrider. 00:02:56.850 --> 00:03:00.600 align:middle line:84% Almost anything looks good as a lowrider. 00:03:00.600 --> 00:03:03.300 align:middle line:84% The Monte Carlo's one saving grace-- 00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:08.670 align:middle line:84% the front seats would swivel outward like an office chair. 00:03:08.670 --> 00:03:10.530 align:middle line:84% There's an old joke that asks why 00:03:10.530 --> 00:03:12.990 align:middle line:90% we drive so low to the ground. 00:03:12.990 --> 00:03:15.960 align:middle line:84% It makes it easier to pick lettuce, ese. 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:19.470 align:middle line:84% Why else would we put a hydraulic suspension on a car? 00:03:19.470 --> 00:03:21.690 align:middle line:84% Go pick your own fucking lettuce, 00:03:21.690 --> 00:03:24.870 align:middle line:84% and we'll pick up the pretty girls, cruise the boulevard, 00:03:24.870 --> 00:03:30.220 align:middle line:84% and celebrate this life, ripe with summer. 00:03:30.220 --> 00:03:35.380 align:middle line:84% '82 El Camino-- it was Tio Cosme's last quixotic 00:03:35.380 --> 00:03:39.460 align:middle line:84% wish that we load his coffin in the bed of the El Camino 00:03:39.460 --> 00:03:44.020 align:middle line:84% to drive him to the grave, draped with the American flag 00:03:44.020 --> 00:03:46.960 align:middle line:90% he'd served all his life. 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:49.930 align:middle line:84% That El Camino sliding tan and immaculate 00:03:49.930 --> 00:03:51.730 align:middle line:90% through the streets of Nogales. 00:03:51.730 --> 00:03:55.960 align:middle line:84% Everyone crossed themselves as Cosme motored by. 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:58.780 align:middle line:84% Renee in the driver's seat, taking his brother 00:03:58.780 --> 00:04:01.990 align:middle line:90% for one last ride, the air-- 00:04:01.990 --> 00:04:05.710 align:middle line:84% so hot and heavy in May, and the seven guns flaring 00:04:05.710 --> 00:04:10.300 align:middle line:84% their three-toned salute, and the flag to my tia-- 00:04:10.300 --> 00:04:16.240 align:middle line:84% a dark triangle of midnight, and I couldn't, for anything, 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:19.139 align:middle line:84% remember the last time it rained." 00:04:19.139 --> 00:04:20.000 align:middle line:90%