WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.870 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.870 --> 00:00:06.810 align:middle line:84% What you're going to hear is a scene of one 00:00:06.810 --> 00:00:10.380 align:middle line:84% of the lettuce workers in Watsonville, California, 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:12.660 align:middle line:90% named Vicente. 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:15.060 align:middle line:84% I don't know everything about him yet, 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:18.180 align:middle line:84% but I know that he knew Fermin Tovera, 00:00:18.180 --> 00:00:21.210 align:middle line:84% and it's likely that he lived in the same bunkhouse 00:00:21.210 --> 00:00:23.250 align:middle line:90% as Fermin Tovera. 00:00:23.250 --> 00:00:25.620 align:middle line:84% These men were excellent dancers. 00:00:25.620 --> 00:00:28.920 align:middle line:84% I grew up as a B-boy myself, and that was part of the thing, 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:30.840 align:middle line:90% I think, that called me. 00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:36.100 align:middle line:90% 00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:39.320 align:middle line:84% I started to talk to them, and they started to talk to me. 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:43.420 align:middle line:84% And this is a record of some of the things 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:46.870 align:middle line:90% that they've reported to me. 00:00:46.870 --> 00:00:50.050 align:middle line:84% Vicente here is in the bunkhouse, 00:00:50.050 --> 00:00:52.150 align:middle line:90% and he's making a kite. 00:00:52.150 --> 00:00:54.790 align:middle line:84% And in the process of making the kite, 00:00:54.790 --> 00:00:58.420 align:middle line:84% he's remembering the first kite that he ever 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:01.180 align:middle line:84% made, which was back in the Philippines 00:01:01.180 --> 00:01:05.305 align:middle line:84% during the American occupation of the islands. 00:01:05.305 --> 00:01:07.180 align:middle line:84% There's a whole history that's involved there 00:01:07.180 --> 00:01:09.250 align:middle line:90% that I can't get into now. 00:01:09.250 --> 00:01:11.950 align:middle line:84% It's part of a collage of texts that happens here. 00:01:11.950 --> 00:01:15.790 align:middle line:84% But I'm happy to answer questions afterwards. 00:01:15.790 --> 00:01:19.330 align:middle line:84% And there's tons of stuff online for you to learn about it. 00:01:19.330 --> 00:01:21.490 align:middle line:84% And I'm just going to go as long as I can, probably 00:01:21.490 --> 00:01:24.880 align:middle line:90% for the next 10 minutes, tops. 00:01:24.880 --> 00:01:27.400 align:middle line:84% And then I'll just stop wherever I stop. 00:01:27.400 --> 00:01:32.410 align:middle line:90% 00:01:32.410 --> 00:01:36.220 align:middle line:84% He's called Centi as a nickname for Vicente. 00:01:36.220 --> 00:01:40.060 align:middle line:84% And the other character is Tomás, 00:01:40.060 --> 00:01:43.570 align:middle line:84% who was the older Filipino in the Philippines who taught him 00:01:43.570 --> 00:01:46.570 align:middle line:90% how to make kites. 00:01:46.570 --> 00:01:50.560 align:middle line:84% "But Centi, because he has been in California for more than a 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:52.540 align:middle line:84% week, more than a year, more than 00:01:52.540 --> 00:01:56.290 align:middle line:84% he can remember without counting how many farms he's worked 00:01:56.290 --> 00:01:58.810 align:middle line:84% and the growers who own them, the land-- 00:01:58.810 --> 00:02:02.260 align:middle line:84% I mean, own the land, the land of the house, 00:02:02.260 --> 00:02:04.450 align:middle line:84% the land of the fields, the land that 00:02:04.450 --> 00:02:08.350 align:middle line:84% marks where their land begins and ends, if it ends. 00:02:08.350 --> 00:02:10.539 align:middle line:84% Do they not own the land, even in the middle 00:02:10.539 --> 00:02:13.060 align:middle line:84% of the night, when no one is standing inside of it, 00:02:13.060 --> 00:02:15.160 align:middle line:90% on top of it, buried beneath it? 00:02:15.160 --> 00:02:18.490 align:middle line:84% If a bullet passes through the field, who owns the bullet? 00:02:18.490 --> 00:02:19.870 align:middle line:90% No one will say. 00:02:19.870 --> 00:02:22.630 align:middle line:84% Do the growers not own time itself? 00:02:22.630 --> 00:02:25.150 align:middle line:84% Do they not own every day of planting 00:02:25.150 --> 00:02:26.950 align:middle line:90% and every day of harvesting? 00:02:26.950 --> 00:02:29.920 align:middle line:84% Who owns a man's hands, his back, his feet? 00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:31.990 align:middle line:84% And what of all their scrapes and aches? 00:02:31.990 --> 00:02:35.020 align:middle line:84% Where does a man begin and end-- his fingertips? 00:02:35.020 --> 00:02:36.220 align:middle line:90% His ruddy toes? 00:02:36.220 --> 00:02:37.390 align:middle line:90% Parched tongue? 00:02:37.390 --> 00:02:39.400 align:middle line:84% Or can a man make himself nothing? 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:43.750 align:middle line:84% He can be a mind flying now over the valley and dunes 00:02:43.750 --> 00:02:46.270 align:middle line:84% at the edge of the continent, soaring over 00:02:46.270 --> 00:02:47.500 align:middle line:90% the foaming crests. 00:02:47.500 --> 00:02:50.260 align:middle line:84% Can a man who no longer thinks about how to grip 00:02:50.260 --> 00:02:52.870 align:middle line:84% the handle or the angle of a knife's edge 00:02:52.870 --> 00:02:56.770 align:middle line:84% own himself if he gives up his body and keeps his dream? 00:02:56.770 --> 00:03:00.490 align:middle line:84% If he can, if he does, how much is his body worth? 00:03:00.490 --> 00:03:01.660 align:middle line:90% Who will buy him? 00:03:01.660 --> 00:03:03.490 align:middle line:90% What will he get in return? 00:03:03.490 --> 00:03:07.390 align:middle line:84% When, if at all, does he become a part of the land? 00:03:07.390 --> 00:03:10.030 align:middle line:84% Or is he simply converted into the coffers 00:03:10.030 --> 00:03:12.700 align:middle line:84% that the land fills up when a man learns 00:03:12.700 --> 00:03:16.150 align:middle line:84% to work quick, but not too quick, when he stands straight, 00:03:16.150 --> 00:03:19.880 align:middle line:84% finally, slowly, painfully, at the end of a day, 00:03:19.880 --> 00:03:22.240 align:middle line:84% can he give himself back to himself? 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:24.220 align:middle line:90% Does his mind come back? 00:03:24.220 --> 00:03:28.540 align:middle line:84% Can he call it, sing for its return, summon it? 00:03:28.540 --> 00:03:31.960 align:middle line:84% Can he reel in the long, thin, tenuous line, 00:03:31.960 --> 00:03:33.850 align:middle line:90% or has he lost it now? 00:03:33.850 --> 00:03:36.730 align:middle line:84% If he gets it back, can he ask the kite 00:03:36.730 --> 00:03:41.290 align:middle line:84% what it says to the sky, what it sings to the sea? 00:03:41.290 --> 00:03:44.200 align:middle line:84% Vicente is undoing one of the bottom corners, 00:03:44.200 --> 00:03:46.510 align:middle line:90% a special stitch for the tail. 00:03:46.510 --> 00:03:49.450 align:middle line:84% He tells me Tomás, when he was an adolescent, 00:03:49.450 --> 00:03:51.580 align:middle line:84% used to follow the Americans around, 00:03:51.580 --> 00:03:54.550 align:middle line:84% not long after the soldiers arrived in the northern regions 00:03:54.550 --> 00:03:58.090 align:middle line:84% of the island, and began to patrol the larger towns. 00:03:58.090 --> 00:04:01.150 align:middle line:84% At first, the Americans would shoo Tomás away. 00:04:01.150 --> 00:04:04.090 align:middle line:84% But the boy was curious and kept circling just 00:04:04.090 --> 00:04:06.700 align:middle line:84% to watch the strange, sweaty men who, 00:04:06.700 --> 00:04:10.150 align:middle line:84% when he got close enough to them, smelled like goats. 00:04:10.150 --> 00:04:13.840 align:middle line:84% One day-- Centi says 'one day' in English-- 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:17.050 align:middle line:84% the Americans asked Tomás where they might fish and go 00:04:17.050 --> 00:04:18.760 align:middle line:90% for a swim. 00:04:18.760 --> 00:04:21.940 align:middle line:84% So Tomás led them to a deep, clear pond. 00:04:21.940 --> 00:04:25.090 align:middle line:84% The soldiers stripped down and jumped into the water, 00:04:25.090 --> 00:04:27.700 align:middle line:84% trying to catch, bare-handed, the catfish 00:04:27.700 --> 00:04:29.980 align:middle line:90% flapping in the mud. 00:04:29.980 --> 00:04:33.850 align:middle line:84% As days went by, the soldiers asked Tomás to run errands 00:04:33.850 --> 00:04:34.510 align:middle line:90% for them. 00:04:34.510 --> 00:04:37.630 align:middle line:84% The boy bartered his services for trinkets, 00:04:37.630 --> 00:04:40.000 align:middle line:84% brass buttons, an empty matchbox, 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.370 align:middle line:84% and, once, a full can of hardtack. 00:04:42.370 --> 00:04:45.280 align:middle line:84% He didn't even seem to mind when one of the soldiers 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:47.980 align:middle line:84% pinched or slapped him just for laughs. 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:51.430 align:middle line:84% And it didn't take long for the boy to learn some English. 00:04:51.430 --> 00:04:53.980 align:middle line:84% Sometimes, he even translated the soldiers' orders 00:04:53.980 --> 00:04:56.020 align:middle line:90% to the Filipinos. 00:04:56.020 --> 00:05:03.280 align:middle line:84% One night, the Americans confiscated two large burnai 00:05:03.280 --> 00:05:07.210 align:middle line:84% of arak, which is a kind of alcohol, from Tito Carlos. 00:05:07.210 --> 00:05:09.580 align:middle line:84% The soldiers got drunk out of their minds. 00:05:09.580 --> 00:05:12.970 align:middle line:84% They built a huge fire and stomped around it, shirtless, 00:05:12.970 --> 00:05:15.220 align:middle line:84% screeching like warring chickens. 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:18.190 align:middle line:84% One of the skinny soldiers left the carousing fellows 00:05:18.190 --> 00:05:19.270 align:middle line:90% to dump a load. 00:05:19.270 --> 00:05:21.400 align:middle line:90% The rest joined in on a song. 00:05:21.400 --> 00:05:26.500 align:middle line:84% 'Damn, damn, damn the Filipinos, cross-eyed kackiak ladrones. 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:30.460 align:middle line:84% Underneath our starry flag, civilize them with a Krag, 00:05:30.460 --> 00:05:33.670 align:middle line:84% and return us to our beloved homes.' 00:05:33.670 --> 00:05:36.940 align:middle line:84% Their arms were flung wide open, drool spilling 00:05:36.940 --> 00:05:37.810 align:middle line:90% from their mouths. 00:05:37.810 --> 00:05:43.900 align:middle line:84% Tomás turned to run away, but he saw the skinny soldier was 00:05:43.900 --> 00:05:46.570 align:middle line:84% behind him with a sloshing bucket. 00:05:46.570 --> 00:05:50.590 align:middle line:84% The American's eyes widened, and he was smiling gleefully 00:05:50.590 --> 00:05:56.170 align:middle line:84% with his mouth open as he flung the shit water on the boy. 00:05:56.170 --> 00:05:58.030 align:middle line:90% Tomás flew into the hills. 00:05:58.030 --> 00:06:00.910 align:middle line:84% The titas said maybe he was ashamed to come back 00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:01.810 align:middle line:90% to the village. 00:06:01.810 --> 00:06:05.050 align:middle line:84% Centi says the boy spent his days and nights 00:06:05.050 --> 00:06:08.200 align:middle line:84% catching frogs and fishing alone and hanging out 00:06:08.200 --> 00:06:11.390 align:middle line:84% in a clearing on a slope overlooking his village. 00:06:11.390 --> 00:06:14.710 align:middle line:84% He couldn't get the image of the Americans laughing out 00:06:14.710 --> 00:06:17.110 align:middle line:84% of his head, the awful shit water dripping 00:06:17.110 --> 00:06:21.230 align:middle line:84% from his eyebrows, slithering over his lips. 00:06:21.230 --> 00:06:26.620 align:middle line:84% Tomás gathered some sticks and old coconut husks. 00:06:26.620 --> 00:06:28.900 align:middle line:90% He tied them together. 00:06:28.900 --> 00:06:34.720 align:middle line:84% He fashioned two arms and two legs and a neck. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:37.780 align:middle line:84% He had a vine with which to do it, too. 00:06:37.780 --> 00:06:41.230 align:middle line:84% It looked enough like a man, a soldier even, 00:06:41.230 --> 00:06:44.680 align:middle line:84% that Tomás could throw the figure in the river to watch it 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:45.940 align:middle line:90% drown. 00:06:45.940 --> 00:06:50.390 align:middle line:84% Or he could burn it, or he could hang it from a tree. 00:06:50.390 --> 00:06:52.960 align:middle line:84% He giggled out loud at his own cleverness, 00:06:52.960 --> 00:06:55.870 align:middle line:84% fastening the vine around the effigy's neck. 00:06:55.870 --> 00:06:58.510 align:middle line:84% But then, seeing it, how the sticks and leaves 00:06:58.510 --> 00:07:02.590 align:middle line:84% looked just real enough to make him shake his head. 00:07:02.590 --> 00:07:06.190 align:middle line:84% He couldn't even bring himself to hang a poor version 00:07:06.190 --> 00:07:07.810 align:middle line:90% of a man who did him wrong. 00:07:07.810 --> 00:07:11.260 align:middle line:84% He could not hang it by its neck. 00:07:11.260 --> 00:07:13.630 align:middle line:84% Not long after the Americans arrived, 00:07:13.630 --> 00:07:17.530 align:middle line:84% Tomás had seen a real man swinging from a tree 00:07:17.530 --> 00:07:23.170 align:middle line:84% at a distance, a Filipino, an acquaintance of his father's. 00:07:23.170 --> 00:07:25.600 align:middle line:84% He remembered the American soldiers standing 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.900 align:middle line:84% around the body, leaning on their guns. 00:07:28.900 --> 00:07:32.080 align:middle line:84% Tomás looked at the magnificent trunk in front of him 00:07:32.080 --> 00:07:35.470 align:middle line:84% and remembered the bani tree from which the Americans hanged 00:07:35.470 --> 00:07:36.910 align:middle line:90% his father's friend. 00:07:36.910 --> 00:07:40.870 align:middle line:84% He looked at his makeshift doll and thought of the swinging man 00:07:40.870 --> 00:07:44.260 align:middle line:84% and how his father neither cried nor laughed, 00:07:44.260 --> 00:07:46.960 align:middle line:90% not once, after the hanging. 00:07:46.960 --> 00:07:52.840 align:middle line:84% Tomás dropped the vine, which was when he heard someone call 00:07:52.840 --> 00:07:54.490 align:middle line:90% his own name-- 00:07:54.490 --> 00:07:58.090 align:middle line:90% Tomás, an American voice. 00:07:58.090 --> 00:08:01.390 align:middle line:84% The skinny soldier who threw the shit water into the boy's face 00:08:01.390 --> 00:08:04.000 align:middle line:84% and eyes stepped into the clearing. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.960 align:middle line:84% Tomás remembered this man as the one who laughed so hard, 00:08:07.960 --> 00:08:11.050 align:middle line:84% he gripped his own belly and opened his mouth like 00:08:11.050 --> 00:08:12.340 align:middle line:90% a drowning man. 00:08:12.340 --> 00:08:14.890 align:middle line:84% Even small choking sounds came out, 00:08:14.890 --> 00:08:18.520 align:middle line:84% the soldier shaking and shaking with drunk and soundless 00:08:18.520 --> 00:08:20.020 align:middle line:90% laughter. 00:08:20.020 --> 00:08:23.950 align:middle line:84% The American drove the butt of his rifle into the boy's ribs. 00:08:23.950 --> 00:08:28.480 align:middle line:84% Tomás dropped, his chin catching the soldier's boot flying up, 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:30.910 align:middle line:90% and everything went black. 00:08:30.910 --> 00:08:34.900 align:middle line:84% When Tomás woke, a wicked agony roped through his back 00:08:34.900 --> 00:08:37.929 align:middle line:84% as if the wing bones had been torn out of his body. 00:08:37.929 --> 00:08:41.320 align:middle line:84% The pain ran up and around his neck to his temples 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:43.840 align:middle line:90% and out the top of his head. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:47.650 align:middle line:84% It was Centi's father who found Tomás hanging from the tree, 00:08:47.650 --> 00:08:49.720 align:middle line:84% which stood in the small clearing, 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:53.290 align:middle line:84% the clearing where the boy had made the scraggly doll, 00:08:53.290 --> 00:08:56.500 align:middle line:84% its limp arms and legs, its awful head, 00:08:56.500 --> 00:09:00.340 align:middle line:84% where the boy dropped the vine, where stood the tree from which 00:09:00.340 --> 00:09:04.540 align:middle line:84% the boy did not make real his dream of killing, 00:09:04.540 --> 00:09:08.050 align:middle line:84% the clearing where the soldier left the boy hanging 00:09:08.050 --> 00:09:09.760 align:middle line:90% by the neck. 00:09:09.760 --> 00:09:13.000 align:middle line:84% Tomás healed well enough to walk, 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:15.430 align:middle line:84% but his back and head stooped now, 00:09:15.430 --> 00:09:19.600 align:middle line:84% as if to avoid some low doorway or invisible branch, 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:21.940 align:middle line:84% or as if he were about to cut something loose from 00:09:21.940 --> 00:09:23.140 align:middle line:90% the ground. 00:09:23.140 --> 00:09:25.180 align:middle line:90% Tomás looked no one in the eye. 00:09:25.180 --> 00:09:28.810 align:middle line:84% He mostly moaned and cried and sang his nonsense 00:09:28.810 --> 00:09:30.010 align:middle line:90% into his hands. 00:09:30.010 --> 00:09:34.630 align:middle line:84% On good days, he made brooms the titas could sell in the market. 00:09:34.630 --> 00:09:36.610 align:middle line:84% A steady breeze came through the road 00:09:36.610 --> 00:09:38.410 align:middle line:84% where he was making those brooms. 00:09:38.410 --> 00:09:41.080 align:middle line:84% And when he picked up some of the ones that had blown over, 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:43.720 align:middle line:84% he noticed how the broom's fine palm 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:47.200 align:middle line:84% midribs, stripped of their leaves, bent in the wind. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:50.260 align:middle line:84% That was when he remembered the pleasure of making 00:09:50.260 --> 00:09:53.680 align:middle line:84% [SPEAKING FILIPINO],, the gentle curve of the slender stick 00:09:53.680 --> 00:09:57.400 align:middle line:84% crossed by another, the unruly tangle of the twine. 00:09:57.400 --> 00:10:00.890 align:middle line:84% That was the day he made his first kite, 00:10:00.890 --> 00:10:04.300 align:middle line:84% the first kite since the Americans came for land, 00:10:04.300 --> 00:10:06.100 align:middle line:90% came for war. 00:10:06.100 --> 00:10:10.090 align:middle line:84% Tomás walked out into the road carrying this simple marvel, 00:10:10.090 --> 00:10:14.140 align:middle line:84% so light, as if air itself were lent the shape and the color 00:10:14.140 --> 00:10:18.310 align:middle line:84% of sand, the gentle breeze bobbing Tomás' invention as he 00:10:18.310 --> 00:10:21.850 align:middle line:84% held it gently by the tethers to bear it into the fallow peanut 00:10:21.850 --> 00:10:22.540 align:middle line:90% field. 00:10:22.540 --> 00:10:26.140 align:middle line:84% And the fascinated children followed him in small leaps. 00:10:26.140 --> 00:10:30.490 align:middle line:84% Tomás placed the kite on the ground at the edge of the field 00:10:30.490 --> 00:10:34.030 align:middle line:84% because he couldn't run fast enough to get any lift. 00:10:34.030 --> 00:10:38.140 align:middle line:84% A younger boy of the barrio came close to Tomás and put his hand 00:10:38.140 --> 00:10:38.800 align:middle line:90% out. 00:10:38.800 --> 00:10:44.140 align:middle line:84% Tomás handed him the reel, and the boy named Vicente ran. 00:10:44.140 --> 00:10:47.290 align:middle line:84% When the young Centi took the kite from the man's hands 00:10:47.290 --> 00:10:49.570 align:middle line:84% and ran through the field, the kite 00:10:49.570 --> 00:10:53.230 align:middle line:84% flew so high above the balete trees and the salingbobog 00:10:53.230 --> 00:10:55.550 align:middle line:84% trees and the bani, for a moment, 00:10:55.550 --> 00:10:57.970 align:middle line:84% the whole village was looking up. 00:10:57.970 --> 00:11:01.960 align:middle line:90% [SPEAKING FILIPINO] 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:04.420 align:middle line:84% The villagers could have been looking through the kite 00:11:04.420 --> 00:11:06.550 align:middle line:90% like a window into the sky. 00:11:06.550 --> 00:11:09.220 align:middle line:84% They could have been looking through all the rain gathering 00:11:09.220 --> 00:11:12.520 align:middle line:84% in the heavens, into all the burnished coins of the stars, 00:11:12.520 --> 00:11:14.710 align:middle line:84% into the whole black night throbbing 00:11:14.710 --> 00:11:18.310 align:middle line:84% with the songs of every ghost, one moment of wonder like that 00:11:18.310 --> 00:11:22.210 align:middle line:84% shared by a whole village, all its children and elders 00:11:22.210 --> 00:11:24.010 align:middle line:90% and workers and murderers. 00:11:24.010 --> 00:11:26.320 align:middle line:84% Even a pale American soldier made 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:30.220 align:middle line:84% a poor salute, hand to brow, to watch the kite float 00:11:30.220 --> 00:11:31.620 align:middle line:90% and jerk and rise. 00:11:31.620 --> 00:11:33.870 align:middle line:84% And if anyone cared to follow the kite, 00:11:33.870 --> 00:11:36.300 align:middle line:84% they would have been led to a field of children 00:11:36.300 --> 00:11:39.630 align:middle line:84% jumping up and down, gazing over the trees. 00:11:39.630 --> 00:11:41.400 align:middle line:84% They would have seen a stooped man 00:11:41.400 --> 00:11:44.700 align:middle line:84% with his fingers over his mouth swaying on his haunches 00:11:44.700 --> 00:11:48.720 align:middle line:84% as if the wind moved him, too, but could not knock him over. 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:51.090 align:middle line:84% And the younger boy, Vicente, who 00:11:51.090 --> 00:11:54.000 align:middle line:84% ran through the gnarly furrows so the kite could fly, 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.850 align:middle line:84% stood now with a string dangling from his wrist 00:11:56.850 --> 00:12:00.690 align:middle line:84% and the long curve of the twine guiding the eye up 00:12:00.690 --> 00:12:02.010 align:middle line:90% and up and up. 00:12:02.010 --> 00:12:05.460 align:middle line:84% And you already know that a liar can lie to a liar, 00:12:05.460 --> 00:12:07.560 align:middle line:84% and a thief can steal from a thief, 00:12:07.560 --> 00:12:11.160 align:middle line:84% and an assassin can cut an assassin down, and each of them 00:12:11.160 --> 00:12:12.600 align:middle line:90% can still sing. 00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:15.030 align:middle line:84% The kite maker is tired of his story. 00:12:15.030 --> 00:12:16.320 align:middle line:90% He is going to sleep. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:19.080 align:middle line:84% He is turning onto his belly and shutting his eyes. 00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:21.810 align:middle line:84% He may very well dream of kites tonight. 00:12:21.810 --> 00:12:24.150 align:middle line:84% He may dream of them not in the sky 00:12:24.150 --> 00:12:27.450 align:middle line:84% but thousands floating on the Bay of Monterey, 00:12:27.450 --> 00:12:29.250 align:middle line:90% the cold American waters. 00:12:29.250 --> 00:12:31.560 align:middle line:84% Vicente may very well dream of the man 00:12:31.560 --> 00:12:34.410 align:middle line:84% with a crooked walk who sobbed into his hands, whom 00:12:34.410 --> 00:12:36.490 align:middle line:84% the aunties pitied and gossiped about. 00:12:36.490 --> 00:12:39.540 align:middle line:84% Vicente may dream of the sky and blackbirds 00:12:39.540 --> 00:12:41.640 align:middle line:84% with orange collars zipping through the field 00:12:41.640 --> 00:12:42.660 align:middle line:90% of his first kite. 00:12:42.660 --> 00:12:43.590 align:middle line:90% It's OK. 00:12:43.590 --> 00:12:45.780 align:middle line:84% He knows dreaming is another making. 00:12:45.780 --> 00:12:48.960 align:middle line:84% He knows he has already invented the image of an ocean 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:51.120 align:middle line:84% and invented the sloppy calendar he 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:55.050 align:middle line:84% kept in his head of all the days it took to cross that ocean. 00:12:55.050 --> 00:12:57.360 align:middle line:84% He has already invented the horse-like grunts 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.330 align:middle line:84% of the white men who checked his palms and knuckles 00:13:00.330 --> 00:13:03.450 align:middle line:84% and counted all his fingers and the white men in charge 00:13:03.450 --> 00:13:06.810 align:middle line:84% of the boat bearing him and other men from his province. 00:13:06.810 --> 00:13:09.570 align:middle line:84% But Centi did not invent the memory 00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:11.370 align:middle line:90% of the kite of his childhood. 00:13:11.370 --> 00:13:17.310 align:middle line:84% I'm coming to understand he may have even invented me. 00:13:17.310 --> 00:13:19.680 align:middle line:90% Here is a lie. 00:13:19.680 --> 00:13:21.420 align:middle line:84% The kite maker and his companions 00:13:21.420 --> 00:13:24.540 align:middle line:84% get up under an orange-blue dawn. 00:13:24.540 --> 00:13:27.000 align:middle line:90% They work hard and sleep well. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:30.870 align:middle line:84% When they wake, they sometimes smell the sea. 00:13:30.870 --> 00:13:33.360 align:middle line:84% They open their eyes and lift their chins 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:36.060 align:middle line:84% as if there were an escape route above them, 00:13:36.060 --> 00:13:39.210 align:middle line:84% a way to float up and out of the dream that comes back 00:13:39.210 --> 00:13:42.870 align:middle line:84% time to time and fills the valley from the Pajaro Dunes 00:13:42.870 --> 00:13:47.190 align:middle line:84% to Morgan Hill for weeks on end, the weird underwater visions 00:13:47.190 --> 00:13:49.500 align:middle line:84% of roosters thrashing in the ocean 00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:52.080 align:middle line:84% deep enough that they can't make their way to air 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:55.770 align:middle line:84% but not so deep that they aren't cast in stormy hues 00:13:55.770 --> 00:13:57.630 align:middle line:90% bearing down from the sky. 00:13:57.630 --> 00:14:00.660 align:middle line:84% Their beaks agape, they can't breathe but can't 00:14:00.660 --> 00:14:04.650 align:middle line:84% seem to die, either, the birds' blades still shining, 00:14:04.650 --> 00:14:06.070 align:middle line:90% tied to their ankles. 00:14:06.070 --> 00:14:08.460 align:middle line:84% They kick their feet, clawing in circles, 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:11.370 align:middle line:84% scratching at saltwater, turning in the swirls 00:14:11.370 --> 00:14:13.980 align:middle line:84% of gray-blue undercurrent, the gorgeous rust 00:14:13.980 --> 00:14:16.800 align:middle line:84% and green of their wings at beatific angles. 00:14:16.800 --> 00:14:19.740 align:middle line:84% And the dreamers, these men, they always wake 00:14:19.740 --> 00:14:23.280 align:middle line:84% before they find out if the cocks drown or grow 00:14:23.280 --> 00:14:26.790 align:middle line:84% fins or gills or get swooped up by nets 00:14:26.790 --> 00:14:29.580 align:middle line:84% and dropped back into a yard, someplace 00:14:29.580 --> 00:14:33.210 align:middle line:84% they make more sense, a place like a valley in summer, 00:14:33.210 --> 00:14:34.860 align:middle line:90% like these fields. 00:14:34.860 --> 00:14:40.830 align:middle line:84% Sometimes I can see them so clearly from here, like now. 00:14:40.830 --> 00:14:45.510 align:middle line:84% Sometimes I get close enough to them I can ask them questions. 00:14:45.510 --> 00:14:50.300 align:middle line:90% 00:14:50.300 --> 00:14:52.640 align:middle line:90% He doesn't look my way. 00:14:52.640 --> 00:14:56.360 align:middle line:84% He doesn't take his eyes off the hills or the road behind it 00:14:56.360 --> 00:14:58.363 align:middle line:84% or the sea behind the road behind the hill, 00:14:58.363 --> 00:14:59.030 align:middle line:90% for that matter. 00:14:59.030 --> 00:15:02.040 align:middle line:90% 00:15:02.040 --> 00:15:06.420 align:middle line:84% He goes on to answer a question I haven't even begun to ask. 00:15:06.420 --> 00:15:10.830 align:middle line:84% He tells me there was a time when he first arrived he 00:15:10.830 --> 00:15:13.710 align:middle line:90% had to be careful, deliberate. 00:15:13.710 --> 00:15:16.170 align:middle line:84% He had to look real hard at the lettuce, 00:15:16.170 --> 00:15:19.080 align:middle line:84% comparing the first one he cut to the next, 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:22.230 align:middle line:84% making sure he got the whole head. 00:15:22.230 --> 00:15:24.360 align:middle line:84% Another mano says it doesn't take more than a 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:26.880 align:middle line:84% week to stop thinking about what you're doing. 00:15:26.880 --> 00:15:29.190 align:middle line:84% Your body just carries on without you, 00:15:29.190 --> 00:15:31.750 align:middle line:84% and your mind heads out on its own. 00:15:31.750 --> 00:15:36.010 align:middle line:84% Another man says he remembers the faces he left behind. 00:15:36.010 --> 00:15:41.320 align:middle line:84% He says he names them quietly with every hack of the knife 00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:44.370 align:middle line:84% so it becomes a kind of silent song. 00:15:44.370 --> 00:15:48.270 align:middle line:84% Even his enemies, he'll sing their names, too. 00:15:48.270 --> 00:15:51.210 align:middle line:84% And another mano dreams how happy his sister and father 00:15:51.210 --> 00:15:53.280 align:middle line:84% will be to see him again, how he'll 00:15:53.280 --> 00:15:55.680 align:middle line:84% build his family a big house in the barrio 00:15:55.680 --> 00:15:59.760 align:middle line:84% and buy so many fat pigs and goats and cows, 00:15:59.760 --> 00:16:02.610 align:middle line:90% he'll feed all the children. 00:16:02.610 --> 00:16:05.280 align:middle line:90% You caught me lying again. 00:16:05.280 --> 00:16:10.140 align:middle line:84% The men, when they are in the fields, are thinking of sleep, 00:16:10.140 --> 00:16:12.720 align:middle line:84% or they're thinking of an uncle who mocked them the day 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:14.610 align:middle line:90% before they left the village. 00:16:14.610 --> 00:16:18.930 align:middle line:84% No, they are thinking of slitting the foreman's neck. 00:16:18.930 --> 00:16:22.260 align:middle line:84% They are thinking of hanging themselves from a tree. 00:16:22.260 --> 00:16:24.960 align:middle line:84% They are thinking of swimming in the ocean, 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:27.180 align:middle line:84% tasting the water's salt, which is 00:16:27.180 --> 00:16:30.690 align:middle line:84% different from the spicy, muddy salt of their own heads 00:16:30.690 --> 00:16:32.040 align:middle line:90% and armpits. 00:16:32.040 --> 00:16:35.940 align:middle line:84% They are thinking of swimming all the way back home. 00:16:35.940 --> 00:16:38.990 align:middle line:84% They are thinking no one will remember their names. 00:16:38.990 --> 00:16:42.120 align:middle line:84% They are thinking of changing their names, anyway. 00:16:42.120 --> 00:16:44.250 align:middle line:90% Edison is a good name. 00:16:44.250 --> 00:16:47.460 align:middle line:84% They are thinking of going back to another province 00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:52.230 align:middle line:84% and finding a wife who will call them Edison, a famous name, 00:16:52.230 --> 00:16:54.780 align:middle line:84% as if a name could change a face. 00:16:54.780 --> 00:16:58.320 align:middle line:84% The name of the kite maker is Vicente. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:00.210 align:middle line:90% No one weeps anymore. 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:02.880 align:middle line:90% That is my last lie." 00:17:02.880 --> 00:17:03.720 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:07.370 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:17:07.370 --> 00:17:08.000 align:middle line:90%