WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.050 --> 00:00:03.670 align:middle line:90% Hello. 00:00:03.670 --> 00:00:04.780 align:middle line:90% Everybody hear me OK? 00:00:04.780 --> 00:00:05.280 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:06.060 align:middle line:90% Good. 00:00:06.060 --> 00:00:07.530 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:07.530 --> 00:00:11.220 align:middle line:84% It is always interesting to be back here in Tucson, 00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:13.380 align:middle line:84% because I fucking crossed the border through here-- 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:14.730 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:14.730 --> 00:00:16.950 align:middle line:90% --and I'll start with this one. 00:00:16.950 --> 00:00:20.140 align:middle line:90% 00:00:20.140 --> 00:00:22.105 align:middle line:90% "Let Me Try Again. 00:00:22.105 --> 00:00:25.090 align:middle line:90% 00:00:25.090 --> 00:00:29.740 align:middle line:84% I could bore you with the sunset, the way water tasted 00:00:29.740 --> 00:00:36.100 align:middle line:84% after so many days without it, the trees, the breed of dogs. 00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:39.010 align:middle line:84% But I can't say there were 40 people when 00:00:39.010 --> 00:00:43.720 align:middle line:84% we found the ranch with the thin, white man, his dogs, 00:00:43.720 --> 00:00:45.890 align:middle line:90% and his shotgun. 00:00:45.890 --> 00:00:49.310 align:middle line:84% Until this 5:00 AM, I couldn't remember there 00:00:49.310 --> 00:00:53.690 align:middle line:90% were only five or seven people. 00:00:53.690 --> 00:00:56.240 align:middle line:84% We have separated by the palo verdes. 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:00.620 align:middle line:84% "We," meaning four people, not 40-- 00:01:00.620 --> 00:01:03.930 align:middle line:90% the rest, I don't know. 00:01:03.930 --> 00:01:07.200 align:middle line:84% They weren't there when the thin white man 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:11.670 align:middle line:84% let us drink from a hose while pointing his shotgun. 00:01:11.670 --> 00:01:16.950 align:middle line:84% In pocho Spanish, he told us si correr, perros atacar. 00:01:16.950 --> 00:01:22.450 align:middle line:90% If run dogs trained attack. 00:01:22.450 --> 00:01:25.780 align:middle line:84% When la migra arrived, an officer 00:01:25.780 --> 00:01:30.610 align:middle line:84% who probably called himself Hispanic at best, not 00:01:30.610 --> 00:01:35.890 align:middle line:84% "Mexicano," like we called him, said buenos noches and gave us 00:01:35.890 --> 00:01:38.980 align:middle line:90% pan dulce y chocolate. 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:41.770 align:middle line:84% Procedure says he should have taken us back 00:01:41.770 --> 00:01:46.680 align:middle line:84% to the station, checked our fingerprints, et cetera. 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:50.430 align:middle line:84% He must have remembered his family over the border, 00:01:50.430 --> 00:01:53.850 align:middle line:84% or the border coming over them, because he 00:01:53.850 --> 00:02:00.270 align:middle line:84% drove us to the border and told us "next time rest at least 00:02:00.270 --> 00:02:01.830 align:middle line:90% five days. 00:02:01.830 --> 00:02:05.880 align:middle line:84% Don't trust anyone calling themselves coyotes. 00:02:05.880 --> 00:02:10.970 align:middle line:84% Bring more tortillas, sardines, Alhambra." 00:02:10.970 --> 00:02:17.045 align:middle line:84% He knew we would try again and again, like everyone does." 00:02:17.045 --> 00:02:23.600 align:middle line:90% 00:02:23.600 --> 00:02:26.870 align:middle line:84% This is my second time since 1999 that I'm in town, 00:02:26.870 --> 00:02:30.140 align:middle line:84% and it's the first time that I have a green card. 00:02:30.140 --> 00:02:32.240 align:middle line:84% Before that I was undocumented, and it 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:35.420 align:middle line:84% would have been too dangerous for me to be here because we're 00:02:35.420 --> 00:02:36.890 align:middle line:90% so close to the border. 00:02:36.890 --> 00:02:39.510 align:middle line:84% And I just want to acknowledge that, as I'm speaking, 00:02:39.510 --> 00:02:42.470 align:middle line:84% there are people trying to cross the border, 00:02:42.470 --> 00:02:44.910 align:middle line:84% I don't know, 30 miles away from here, 60 miles-- 00:02:44.910 --> 00:02:46.010 align:middle line:90% I don't fucking know. 00:02:46.010 --> 00:02:51.770 align:middle line:84% And so finally I went with somebody 00:02:51.770 --> 00:02:55.520 align:middle line:84% that's kind of like this poem, it's based on a true attempt 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:56.850 align:middle line:90% by crossing the border. 00:02:56.850 --> 00:03:00.650 align:middle line:84% And there are some nice border patrol agents out there-- 00:03:00.650 --> 00:03:01.820 align:middle line:90% they're very few. 00:03:01.820 --> 00:03:03.590 align:middle line:84% And then I went with a friend of mine 00:03:03.590 --> 00:03:06.230 align:middle line:84% who is an ex-border patrol agent, 00:03:06.230 --> 00:03:07.880 align:middle line:90% and I didn't really know. 00:03:07.880 --> 00:03:09.890 align:middle line:84% There's also a poem here about saguaro, 00:03:09.890 --> 00:03:13.790 align:middle line:84% which now I think it's not true, because where I crossed, 00:03:13.790 --> 00:03:17.270 align:middle line:84% I finally understood that it's in between Naco and Agua 00:03:17.270 --> 00:03:21.420 align:middle line:90% Prieta, so that was grateful. 00:03:21.420 --> 00:03:24.120 align:middle line:84% But then I went back to the Mexican side, 00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:27.830 align:middle line:84% and because of the new policy that Trump just 00:03:27.830 --> 00:03:31.550 align:middle line:84% passed yesterday, on the way back, 00:03:31.550 --> 00:03:37.280 align:middle line:84% there was a Honduran kid, a teenager, trying to get here, 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:42.170 align:middle line:84% but they wouldn't allow him to even come and declare or claim 00:03:42.170 --> 00:03:43.760 align:middle line:90% refugee status. 00:03:43.760 --> 00:03:46.970 align:middle line:84% And so that's interesting of being here, 00:03:46.970 --> 00:03:49.310 align:middle line:84% and I hope no one in this room is 00:03:49.310 --> 00:03:52.100 align:middle line:84% an asshole towards immigrants, and that we all believe 00:03:52.100 --> 00:03:53.750 align:middle line:90% that we are human beings. 00:03:53.750 --> 00:03:58.640 align:middle line:84% And it's very strange that I am here in front of you, 00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:01.060 align:middle line:90% and now you're listening to me.