WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.440 align:middle line:84% I want to thank you for being here and signing for us. 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:05.860 align:middle line:90% That's really beautiful. 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:08.220 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:08.220 --> 00:00:09.990 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to start with a poem 00:00:09.990 --> 00:00:13.500 align:middle line:84% to my mom, which is from my book, Migratory Birds, New 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:15.060 align:middle line:90% and Noted Poems. 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:18.570 align:middle line:84% And the reason I'm going to start with that piece 00:00:18.570 --> 00:00:23.670 align:middle line:84% is because it's Fall, and that's when our family who 00:00:23.670 --> 00:00:26.850 align:middle line:90% were farm workers would stop. 00:00:26.850 --> 00:00:28.770 align:middle line:84% Once the final harvest was over, then they 00:00:28.770 --> 00:00:32.610 align:middle line:84% were able to go back from Illinois back to Tejas 00:00:32.610 --> 00:00:36.750 align:middle line:84% and take care of whatever situation was going on there 00:00:36.750 --> 00:00:38.490 align:middle line:90% in the ancestral lands. 00:00:38.490 --> 00:00:43.225 align:middle line:84% And people say, what about farm work? 00:00:43.225 --> 00:00:45.600 align:middle line:84% And why did you start working for the United Farm Workers 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:46.320 align:middle line:90% union? 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:49.620 align:middle line:84% And it's because of the stories that I used to hear as a child. 00:00:49.620 --> 00:00:53.370 align:middle line:84% My mom used to say, seven of us used to work for a whole day 00:00:53.370 --> 00:00:54.780 align:middle line:90% and get a dollar. 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:56.670 align:middle line:84% And there would be no toilets, and we'd 00:00:56.670 --> 00:00:58.320 align:middle line:90% have to go behind some trees. 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:01.140 align:middle line:84% And we'd always wear pants as women under our skirts 00:01:01.140 --> 00:01:05.040 align:middle line:84% because we didn't want to just wear pants, 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:07.560 align:middle line:84% because we knew we'd have to go to the restroom 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:09.450 align:middle line:90% behind some trees. 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:11.940 align:middle line:90% And so this poem is about that. 00:01:11.940 --> 00:01:13.050 align:middle line:90% My mom's at rest now. 00:01:13.050 --> 00:01:16.890 align:middle line:84% She passed away in 2013, but I wanted to start out 00:01:16.890 --> 00:01:19.020 align:middle line:90% this reading remembering her. 00:01:19.020 --> 00:01:22.320 align:middle line:84% And I think all the poems that I write are poetry of resistance 00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:25.410 align:middle line:84% because they're about the stories about my family, 00:01:25.410 --> 00:01:26.650 align:middle line:90% and they're about me. 00:01:26.650 --> 00:01:31.160 align:middle line:84% And I think that all my life, I've been resisting. 00:01:31.160 --> 00:01:33.500 align:middle line:90% "Migratory Birds." 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:36.950 align:middle line:84% "You were born to gypsies, though you didn't want to be. 00:01:36.950 --> 00:01:40.310 align:middle line:84% Every Spring, when orange blossom's perfume 00:01:40.310 --> 00:01:45.020 align:middle line:84% filled the air, your world was packed into a few bundles. 00:01:45.020 --> 00:01:49.790 align:middle line:84% Then your family was off, living in tents, trailers, dirt floor 00:01:49.790 --> 00:01:50.960 align:middle line:90% shacks. 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:54.140 align:middle line:84% You were born to nomads, though you didn't want to be. 00:01:54.140 --> 00:01:57.080 align:middle line:84% Longed to live with the settled and the straight, 00:01:57.080 --> 00:02:02.030 align:middle line:84% work in the five-and-dime, go to school, play tennis. 00:02:02.030 --> 00:02:06.230 align:middle line:84% But every time you found a friend, it was time to go, 00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:13.190 align:middle line:84% another town, another round in a world that made you dizzy. 00:02:13.190 --> 00:02:15.860 align:middle line:84% You were born to migrants, though you didn't want to be. 00:02:15.860 --> 00:02:20.300 align:middle line:84% From Texas to Illinois, living a blur out a car window, 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:25.340 align:middle line:84% roads endless as fields of crops to be picked by the piece. 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:29.210 align:middle line:84% Never making enough to eat, let alone for the trip back home. 00:02:29.210 --> 00:02:34.490 align:middle line:84% Pleading for the traveling to stop, words in the wind 00:02:34.490 --> 00:02:37.550 align:middle line:84% whooshing by ears of the gypsy king. 00:02:37.550 --> 00:02:42.050 align:middle line:84% You were born to wanderers, though you didn't want to be. 00:02:42.050 --> 00:02:44.060 align:middle line:84% And when you got the chance, you planted 00:02:44.060 --> 00:02:47.150 align:middle line:84% yourself deep in concrete and steel 00:02:47.150 --> 00:02:49.100 align:middle line:84% to make sure you or your offspring 00:02:49.100 --> 00:02:51.800 align:middle line:84% wouldn't branch out too far from home. 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:55.310 align:middle line:90% You were settled forever. 00:02:55.310 --> 00:02:58.820 align:middle line:84% I was born to a life of never change, though I 00:02:58.820 --> 00:03:00.050 align:middle line:90% didn't want to be. 00:03:00.050 --> 00:03:03.950 align:middle line:84% Same familiar streets, same people, 00:03:03.950 --> 00:03:08.750 align:middle line:84% year after year, until one sweltering Chicago summer 00:03:08.750 --> 00:03:13.340 align:middle line:84% night, the moon full, color of sun reflecting off 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:16.610 align:middle line:84% fields of green, and the sweet scent of lilacs 00:03:16.610 --> 00:03:20.120 align:middle line:84% from our backyard helped me to sprout wings 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:23.420 align:middle line:90% so that I could fly away." 00:03:23.420 --> 00:03:25.240 align:middle line:90% Thank you.