WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.405 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:00:02.405 --> 00:00:05.780 align:middle line:90%


00:00:05.780 --> 00:00:09.170 align:middle line:84%
Sometimes I'm asked
questions about that poem

00:00:09.170 --> 00:00:14.030 align:middle line:84%
that I'm hoping that these
few little excerpts of prose

00:00:14.030 --> 00:00:18.110 align:middle line:84%
in the photography
book will help with.

00:00:18.110 --> 00:00:19.130 align:middle line:90%
There are four of them.

00:00:19.130 --> 00:00:23.330 align:middle line:90%
I'll just pause between them.

00:00:23.330 --> 00:00:26.600 align:middle line:84%
"The woman is thin
like a tree in winter.

00:00:26.600 --> 00:00:30.890 align:middle line:84%
Her hands fly out from her
like two birds as she speaks.

00:00:30.890 --> 00:00:33.920 align:middle line:84%
She is wearing her
apron, but unties it

00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:37.190 align:middle line:84%
as she comes in and digs
through one of her pockets

00:00:37.190 --> 00:00:41.480 align:middle line:84%
for the photograph she has
folded several times so

00:00:41.480 --> 00:00:46.160 align:middle line:84%
that a crease now
divides the face in two.

00:00:46.160 --> 00:00:48.290 align:middle line:90%
This is my son.

00:00:48.290 --> 00:00:52.460 align:middle line:84%
This is him as he looked
before they took him away.

00:00:52.460 --> 00:00:54.170 align:middle line:90%
It was at night.

00:00:54.170 --> 00:00:58.280 align:middle line:84%
He had been cleaning the
church after school."

00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:02.240 align:middle line:90%
How long ago did he disappear?

00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:05.180 align:middle line:84%
She looks helplessly
at each of us.

00:01:05.180 --> 00:01:09.590 align:middle line:90%
Two, maybe almost three years.

00:01:09.590 --> 00:01:14.450 align:middle line:84%
My friend says what it is
possible to say with the eyes.

00:01:14.450 --> 00:01:16.970 align:middle line:84%
Don't tell her what
you think, tell

00:01:16.970 --> 00:01:18.530 align:middle line:90%
her you will look for him."

00:01:18.530 --> 00:01:21.300 align:middle line:90%


00:01:21.300 --> 00:01:26.040 align:middle line:84%
"When someone joins a death
squad, he is in for life.

00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:30.270 align:middle line:84%
If you quit, you
might talk, and no one

00:01:30.270 --> 00:01:34.350 align:middle line:84%
wants to be fingered
later for these crimes.

00:01:34.350 --> 00:01:38.020 align:middle line:84%
The first time such a man
goes out on an operation,

00:01:38.020 --> 00:01:40.770 align:middle line:90%
he is tested by the others.

00:01:40.770 --> 00:01:45.360 align:middle line:84%
They tell him he must rape the
victim in front of them, then

00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:48.330 align:middle line:84%
cut off certain
pieces of the body.

00:01:48.330 --> 00:01:51.780 align:middle line:84%
They want to see if he
has the stomach for this.

00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:57.390 align:middle line:84%
After that, he is as guilty
as the others and he is in.

00:01:57.390 --> 00:02:00.660 align:middle line:90%
His reward is usually money.

00:02:00.660 --> 00:02:04.020 align:middle line:84%
Why isn't it enough
to kill a victim?

00:02:04.020 --> 00:02:08.130 align:middle line:84%
Why must each also
suffer mutilation?

00:02:08.130 --> 00:02:12.210 align:middle line:84%
The death squad members must
all be guilty of every murder.

00:02:12.210 --> 00:02:15.300 align:middle line:84%
So one rapes, another
strikes blows,

00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:17.800 align:middle line:84%
another uses the
machete, and so on,

00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:20.100 align:middle line:84%
until it would be impossible
to determine which

00:02:20.100 --> 00:02:22.440 align:middle line:90%
action had caused the death.

00:02:22.440 --> 00:02:25.590 align:middle line:84%
And the squad members are
protected from each other

00:02:25.590 --> 00:02:30.540 align:middle line:84%
by mutual guilt. Also,
when mere death no longer

00:02:30.540 --> 00:02:34.590 align:middle line:84%
instills fear in the population,
the stakes must be raised.

00:02:34.590 --> 00:02:38.280 align:middle line:84%
The people must be made to see
that not only will they die

00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:42.650 align:middle line:90%
but die slowly and brutally."

00:02:42.650 --> 00:02:46.800 align:middle line:84%
"El Playon is a
lava bed, a skirt

00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:51.810 align:middle line:84%
of black sponge-like stone
in the lap of the volcano.

00:02:51.810 --> 00:02:54.840 align:middle line:90%
There is a graveyard beside it.

00:02:54.840 --> 00:03:00.510 align:middle line:84%
El Playon, the beach, is a
rock strewn with refuge and sea

00:03:00.510 --> 00:03:05.790 align:middle line:84%
rack, a body, a tin
spoon, bottle glass purple

00:03:05.790 --> 00:03:10.770 align:middle line:84%
from the sun, paint
cans, a skull with hair,

00:03:10.770 --> 00:03:13.410 align:middle line:84%
a shoelace, trousers,
more bodies,

00:03:13.410 --> 00:03:16.170 align:middle line:84%
flocks of vultures
fattening themselves

00:03:16.170 --> 00:03:20.220 align:middle line:84%
on the ground, a stripped
spine, a broken plate,

00:03:20.220 --> 00:03:23.580 align:middle line:90%
a palm open to the rain.

00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:26.970 align:middle line:90%
El Playon is a body dump."

00:03:26.970 --> 00:03:31.200 align:middle line:84%
Yo lo vie Goya wrote
beside his sketches.

00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:36.590 align:middle line:84%
"I saw it, and this,
and also this."

00:03:36.590 --> 00:03:38.000 align:middle line:90%