WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.634 align:middle line:90% So, without further ado, Manuel. 00:00:03.634 --> 00:00:09.480 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:11.520 align:middle line:90% How's the height and the sound? 00:00:11.520 --> 00:00:13.320 align:middle line:90% Cybele, are we good? 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:15.890 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.890 --> 00:00:18.980 align:middle line:84% Because Matt and I are the same height. 00:00:18.980 --> 00:00:22.160 align:middle line:84% So you hear me-- you hear me, you'll hear him. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:24.680 align:middle line:90% 00:00:24.680 --> 00:00:27.830 align:middle line:84% First of all, thank you Ander for all the work 00:00:27.830 --> 00:00:30.080 align:middle line:84% that you've done to get the Prose 00:00:30.080 --> 00:00:32.360 align:middle line:90% Series going for the year. 00:00:32.360 --> 00:00:34.160 align:middle line:84% And everybody at the Poetry Center 00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:35.770 align:middle line:84% for making this such a great event. 00:00:35.770 --> 00:00:38.630 align:middle line:84% I love the fact that we opened up those walls 00:00:38.630 --> 00:00:40.490 align:middle line:84% to show how big we can really get. 00:00:40.490 --> 00:00:42.920 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:46.790 align:middle line:84% I have been confused for Matt Mendez, 00:00:46.790 --> 00:00:53.930 align:middle line:84% at least, twice since I arrived at the U of A. Twice, 00:00:53.930 --> 00:00:56.570 align:middle line:90% but I'm not complaining. 00:00:56.570 --> 00:00:58.610 align:middle line:90% He is taller. 00:00:58.610 --> 00:01:01.160 align:middle line:90% He is more handsome. 00:01:01.160 --> 00:01:03.710 align:middle line:90% He is better dressed. 00:01:03.710 --> 00:01:06.890 align:middle line:90% He's a Bread Loaf Fellow. 00:01:06.890 --> 00:01:09.650 align:middle line:84% And most important, he's in possession 00:01:09.650 --> 00:01:15.380 align:middle line:84% of a very keen talent and a voice that is all his own. 00:01:15.380 --> 00:01:19.880 align:middle line:84% Chicano writers might look the same to some people 00:01:19.880 --> 00:01:23.360 align:middle line:84% but we certainly don't sound the same. 00:01:23.360 --> 00:01:24.980 align:middle line:84% And I'm here to tell you, though, 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:28.760 align:middle line:84% that Matt's lineage, if he lets me call it that, 00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:30.710 align:middle line:84% comes right from the seeds planted 00:01:30.710 --> 00:01:35.840 align:middle line:84% by none other than the great Chicano ironist Dagoberto Gilb. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:40.490 align:middle line:84% Like Gilb, Matt's first collection, Twitching Heart, 00:01:40.490 --> 00:01:44.150 align:middle line:84% features and honors the complications 00:01:44.150 --> 00:01:46.970 align:middle line:90% of working class lives. 00:01:46.970 --> 00:01:51.110 align:middle line:84% What to wear to court, for example, as if an impression 00:01:51.110 --> 00:01:55.280 align:middle line:84% can be made when it's already too late with the judge. 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:58.610 align:middle line:84% Where to turn when you're a smart, dreamy kid 00:01:58.610 --> 00:02:02.210 align:middle line:84% like the young Efrén who's bombed out of World history 00:02:02.210 --> 00:02:05.780 align:middle line:84% and he looks to the moon for guidance. 00:02:05.780 --> 00:02:08.690 align:middle line:84% Or how to describe the pain of distance and longing 00:02:08.690 --> 00:02:12.380 align:middle line:84% as the troubled Tomás must do from continents away 00:02:12.380 --> 00:02:15.710 align:middle line:84% in a really magnificent story called Airman. 00:02:15.710 --> 00:02:19.850 align:middle line:84% When you've got nothing but the pen in your hand. 00:02:19.850 --> 00:02:22.490 align:middle line:84% In all of these cases Matt's first collection 00:02:22.490 --> 00:02:27.440 align:middle line:84% reaffirms a central tenet of Chicano literature, which is, 00:02:27.440 --> 00:02:32.150 align:middle line:84% to reflect the most recognizable aspects of life 00:02:32.150 --> 00:02:37.130 align:middle line:84% when everywhere the world doesn't reflect you. 00:02:37.130 --> 00:02:40.610 align:middle line:90% And to allow a book to serve. 00:02:40.610 --> 00:02:44.120 align:middle line:84% To serve as a moment in which those of us who rarely 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:48.080 align:middle line:84% see ourselves on the page might discover what literature 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:50.000 align:middle line:90% can be for. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:54.170 align:middle line:84% That it can fill a private need to reflect 00:02:54.170 --> 00:02:58.760 align:middle line:84% and, for a lot of us, can enact the urgency of art 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:02.540 align:middle line:84% at the very crucial stage of literacy. 00:03:02.540 --> 00:03:05.810 align:middle line:84% And I mention this because lineage is as important to me 00:03:05.810 --> 00:03:08.030 align:middle line:90% as it is to Matt. 00:03:08.030 --> 00:03:10.340 align:middle line:84% It is one of the reasons that when I say, 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:13.670 align:middle line:84% I truly mean it's an honor to introduce him tonight 00:03:13.670 --> 00:03:16.940 align:middle line:84% as a fellow Chicano writer and a peer. 00:03:16.940 --> 00:03:21.680 align:middle line:84% There are others here tonight who taught Matt 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:23.450 align:middle line:84% and to whom Matt himself would agree 00:03:23.450 --> 00:03:28.670 align:middle line:84% he's in debt to for guidance, and goodwill, and mentorship. 00:03:28.670 --> 00:03:33.830 align:middle line:84% Aurelie, Alison, Elizabeth, Buzz himself. 00:03:33.830 --> 00:03:35.690 align:middle line:84% All of them witnessed him develop 00:03:35.690 --> 00:03:38.540 align:middle line:84% as an undergraduate with promise, 00:03:38.540 --> 00:03:42.320 align:middle line:84% ushered him as a talent through our MFA graduate program, 00:03:42.320 --> 00:03:45.380 align:middle line:84% and they now honor him, all of us, honor him, this time, 00:03:45.380 --> 00:03:47.690 align:middle line:90% as a published writer. 00:03:47.690 --> 00:03:52.040 align:middle line:84% His work is as connected on the page as it is to his dedication 00:03:52.040 --> 00:03:55.940 align:middle line:84% to local literacy causes, to his work in support 00:03:55.940 --> 00:03:58.640 align:middle line:84% of Mexican-American studies at Tucson High-- 00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:00.710 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Matt, for that-- 00:04:00.710 --> 00:04:03.890 align:middle line:84% and to young writers at Pima Community College. 00:04:03.890 --> 00:04:05.960 align:middle line:84% So on behalf of everyone in the program 00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:09.080 align:middle line:84% I'm delighted and proud to welcome back, 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:11.390 align:middle line:90% to welcome home, Matt Mendez. 00:04:11.390 --> 00:04:13.240 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:15.467 align:middle line:90%