WEBVTT

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[APPLAUSE]

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Did you have a good time?

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[CHEERING]

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Sandra, that was fantastic,
funny, wonderful.

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But I wanted to have
a quick Q&A with you

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to ask you a couple
of questions,

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but also to remind
everybody after the Q&A

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to invite you to a book
signing, which will

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be in the back of the room.

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There will be a
lot of people who

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I'm sure that want to have
some moments with Sandra.

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But it will be right over to the
left after the end of the Q&A.

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We'll keep it,
we'll keep it brief.

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But I just wanted to start
with one of the poems--

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given the theme tonight--

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puro amor-- and your
phrase "what if my heart."

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I called it the humble simile.

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And I was wondering if you could
talk about why the simile is

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so important to your poetry

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Oh, I didn't know that.

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Yeah.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I don't think like that.

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I just-- well, that's not true.

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I do think like that, but I
don't think of the question.

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I see things as a one
thing like another.

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My whole life, even
as a little kid,

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I always feel things and
compare them to something else

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without knowing
that I was a poet.

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I was a very quiet child.

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I was very shy.

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I was the little girl
that never spoke in class.

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I was the little girl
who thought she was ugly.

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I was the little girl who
didn't get chosen for things.

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I was the girl who
disappeared and was invisible.

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So it made me so happy to
hear that you all came out--

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to see you all-- because
I lived a childhood where

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I didn't have a voice.

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And then in different
times in my life,

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I lost my public voice as well--

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graduate school,
most of college.

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And people think I wrote
House on Mango Street

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while I was at Iowa.

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I did write it, but not for
credit and not for my class.

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It was a side thing that I
did to keep my spirit alive--

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and yes, to help me to find
my voice and my direction.

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So I think I've always been
that little kid that was--

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no one paid attention
to in class.

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My teachers wouldn't guess
that I would be here.

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I was the most surprised.

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I'm the most surprised.

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In terms of your life as
a poet and for the writers

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out in the room who are
maybe having conversations

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with their family about
their life choices

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in their directions,
I'm thinking

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about something you wrote
in your acknowledgments

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and got a memo.

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You said, one of the most
important moments of your life

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is my father's opposition
to my life as a writer

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and my mother's
support of my choice.

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Can you talk a little
bit about that?

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Yeah, my father didn't really
understand what I was doing.

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But he wanted me
to go to college

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since the first moment I
spoke and made that intention.

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I was in middle
school-- and I don't

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know where I got the
idea-- but I told my father

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I wanted to go to college.

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And he always
supported me then--

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all the way through.

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Except when I finished, and
he said, all that education

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and still no husband.

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So he thought I was going
to do like the Mexican women

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of his class-- he's
from middle class

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and Mexican middle class
women go to college to major

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in marriage, you know.

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And so he thought I wasted all
that and never got married.

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So that was his idea.

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My mom, on the other hand, just
was always very supportive.

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They both regretted
that they had not

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finished their schooling.

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My mother never
finished ninth grade.

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My father never finished
his first year of college.

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And as a result, he
had to learn how to--

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he had to learn a craft.

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And my father was
an upholsterer,

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and he was always exhausted.

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He would show us his blistered
hands and his feet with corns.

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And he would say, study
hard and use this, not this.

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And so, you know, he
wanted us to go to school.

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But me as the only
girl, he just thought

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I would find someone who
could take care of me.

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And I had this selfish dream.

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I would pray that my father
lived long enough to understand

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why I had made all
the sacrifices, why

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I had to move twice a year
in my 30s and follow jobs,

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and why I was poor and
slept on the floor.

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You know, I just
wanted my father

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to live long enough
to understand.

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And you know, my father
was always saying,

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oh, pobrecita Sandra.

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Ojalá que se case.

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If she would only get married.

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Oh, poor Sandra.

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And he would think
I didn't hear this

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because I'd be asleep on the
couch in the living room.

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He'd talk above me,
and I could hear him.

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And I just-- he just wanted
me to have kids and get--

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get married and have
kids, not have kids--

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get married and have kids.

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And I was such a
failure in his eyes.

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My brother, the doctor,
was the success story.

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But when I won the
MacArthur Award,

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my father couldn't believe it.

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He thought about-- he said,
how many years I would have

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had to work to make this sum.

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And he told me, mija,
don't get married.

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He'll just take your centavos.

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[LAUGHTER]

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He lived long enough, but then
I knew destiny gives and takes.

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I knew, OK, now
he's going to go.

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And that's how it was.

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Then he got sick and left.

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Yeah.

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But he's still here.

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You know, my father
is here tonight.

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He's here in spirit.

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And if you're Mexican, the
dead live alongside you.

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And I've written
about that, and I'm

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so happy that my
father's love-- this is

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something I've written about.

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I wanted to share
it with you tonight,

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but we didn't have time--
that love never dies.

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That's the most
wonderful thing if you

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have experienced a death.

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You learn if you're connected
to things of the spirit,

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if your heart is
open and you listen,

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you will see that
love never dies.

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And that's a wonderful thing.

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They should put that on CNN.

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You know, that's
a wonderful thing

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that I learned with
my father's death.

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It's a wonderful segue to one
of the questions I had here--

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What is that?

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--which is to tell us about two
things-- the Macondo Writers

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Workshop and the Alfredo
Cisneros Del Moral Foundation.

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And what those two names
mean, and what kind of work

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is being done under
those two names.

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Well, first, I have to tell you
that when I moved to Mexico six

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years ago, I closed the Alfredo
Cisneros because I didn't want

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to keep doing all the
paperwork and the fundraising

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and all that.

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But we had a good run-- like,
15 years, something like that.

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That's a good run.

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And Macondo Foundation
is still in existence.

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It's a writers' workshop for
writers who are activists.

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And I learned that I didn't
belong in the academy

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when I was teaching at Berkeley.

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And I wanted to skip class
but I was the instructor.

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[LAUGHTER]

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You know?

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That's not good.

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That's not a good sign.

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And I said, now why do you
not want to go to class?

00:07:42.520 --> 00:07:43.780 align:middle line:90%
I don't like it.

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Why don't you like it, Sandra?

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Because they aren't
really there to write,

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they just want to
raise their GPA.

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I said, OK, well, one day
when you can afford to,

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you're going to start
your own workshop

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and no one will be allowed to
come unless you invite them.

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And you will only
work with people

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who are serving
their communities

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and making the world better.

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That's who you
need to work with.

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You do that one day.

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[APPLAUSE]

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And we're going on 25 years.

00:08:11.770 --> 00:08:13.270 align:middle line:90%
25 years.

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And there are two
Macondo writers here.

00:08:15.730 --> 00:08:18.520 align:middle line:90%
And Diana Delgado and Marisol.

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Where's Marisol?

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Here you go.

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Stand up.

00:08:21.910 --> 00:08:22.930 align:middle line:90%
Stand up.

00:08:22.930 --> 00:08:25.050 align:middle line:90%
Maconistas stand!

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Yay!

00:08:25.610 --> 00:08:26.110 align:middle line:90%
Macondo!

00:08:26.110 --> 00:08:30.010 align:middle line:90%


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And you could be any color,
any age to apply for Macondo.

00:08:34.510 --> 00:08:38.230 align:middle line:84%
But the members, themselves,
read your applications

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and decide who gets in.

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It's just for a couple
of days in the summer,

00:08:42.190 --> 00:08:46.210 align:middle line:90%
and we have a wonderful family--

00:08:46.210 --> 00:08:50.710 align:middle line:84%
it's a-- our chosen family
that supports and understands

00:08:50.710 --> 00:08:53.650 align:middle line:84%
our writing and
knows it's important.

00:08:53.650 --> 00:08:56.823 align:middle line:84%
And we network, and so--
if anything happened to me,

00:08:56.823 --> 00:08:58.240 align:middle line:84%
even if I hadn't
written a book, I

00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:02.140 align:middle line:84%
would be proud because of
Macondo and the work it does.

00:09:02.140 --> 00:09:04.960 align:middle line:84%
It's going on its 25th
year, and we're always

00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:06.490 align:middle line:90%
looking for donations.

00:09:06.490 --> 00:09:07.990 align:middle line:90%
So any millionaires out there--

00:09:07.990 --> 00:09:10.570 align:middle line:90%


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On that note, in terms of
thinking about the academy

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and our belonging
in it, I still,

00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:19.720 align:middle line:84%
again, for the students
in the audience,

00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:25.300 align:middle line:84%
there were some people you met
early on in your career who

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were important to how you
shaped yourself and thought

00:09:27.730 --> 00:09:29.170 align:middle line:90%
about yourself as a poet.

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I'm thinking of people
like Norma Alarcón.

00:09:31.570 --> 00:09:32.260 align:middle line:90%
Yes.

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Could you talk about some of
those people to those students

00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:35.590 align:middle line:90%
from the audience?

00:09:35.590 --> 00:09:38.800 align:middle line:84%
I think that we have people
that come in our lives that

00:09:38.800 --> 00:09:42.940 align:middle line:84%
are like our spirit mothers and
our spirit fathers, our spirit

00:09:42.940 --> 00:09:44.200 align:middle line:90%
brothers and sisters.

00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:46.520 align:middle line:84%
And Dr. Norma Alarcón,
when I met her,

00:09:46.520 --> 00:09:48.190 align:middle line:90%
was just Norma Alarcón.

00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:52.840 align:middle line:84%
She was a graduate student
at Bloomington, Indiana,

00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:55.970 align:middle line:84%
and I did a reading there
and that's how I met her.

00:09:55.970 --> 00:09:58.030 align:middle line:84%
And I stayed overnight
at her house,

00:09:58.030 --> 00:09:59.440 align:middle line:90%
because we didn't have money.

00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:02.950 align:middle line:84%
And then she said, can I come
and visit you in Chicago?

00:10:02.950 --> 00:10:05.770 align:middle line:84%
And I said, yeah, you can
come and stay with me.

00:10:05.770 --> 00:10:07.990 align:middle line:84%
And she did something
real strange

00:10:07.990 --> 00:10:10.060 align:middle line:84%
for someone who
came to visit me.

00:10:10.060 --> 00:10:12.700 align:middle line:90%
She started opening my closets.

00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:13.420 align:middle line:90%
You know?

00:10:13.420 --> 00:10:17.470 align:middle line:84%
She was opening the closet,
she was like looking in rooms.

00:10:17.470 --> 00:10:18.490 align:middle line:90%
She was looking around.

00:10:18.490 --> 00:10:21.620 align:middle line:84%
I thought, what's
she looking for?

00:10:21.620 --> 00:10:25.610 align:middle line:90%
She said, you live here alone?

00:10:25.610 --> 00:10:27.260 align:middle line:90%
I said, yeah, yeah.

00:10:27.260 --> 00:10:32.500 align:middle line:84%
And then she said,
how did you do it?

00:10:32.500 --> 00:10:35.110 align:middle line:84%
Now she knew as a
Latina woman how hard

00:10:35.110 --> 00:10:39.280 align:middle line:84%
it had been for me to live
without being married,

00:10:39.280 --> 00:10:42.490 align:middle line:90%
no man around, no baby toys.

00:10:42.490 --> 00:10:44.500 align:middle line:84%
And when she said
that, I just felt

00:10:44.500 --> 00:10:45.850 align:middle line:90%
the tears come out of my eyes.

00:10:45.850 --> 00:10:48.520 align:middle line:84%
And that was the beginning
of my consciousness

00:10:48.520 --> 00:10:50.590 align:middle line:90%
as a woman of color feminism.

00:10:50.590 --> 00:10:52.030 align:middle line:90%
So she was instrumental.

00:10:52.030 --> 00:10:54.670 align:middle line:84%
And what she did is she
invested her whole life

00:10:54.670 --> 00:10:57.100 align:middle line:84%
without really
getting recognition

00:10:57.100 --> 00:10:58.450 align:middle line:90%
for creating a press--

00:10:58.450 --> 00:11:00.730 align:middle line:90%
Third Woman Press that and--

00:11:00.730 --> 00:11:05.540 align:middle line:84%
journal that published me and
Ana Castillo and Cherríe Moraga

00:11:05.540 --> 00:11:08.440 align:middle line:84%
and Helena Viramontes
and Gloria Anzaldu--.

00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:09.850 align:middle line:90%
Nobody knew who we were.

00:11:09.850 --> 00:11:13.840 align:middle line:84%
And she just lay down
her life to do this work.

00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:18.730 align:middle line:84%
And she's in fragile health
now, and I want her to know--

00:11:18.730 --> 00:11:22.690 align:middle line:84%
I always tell her that
she planted the seeds

00:11:22.690 --> 00:11:25.500 align:middle line:90%
and we are her harvest.

00:11:25.500 --> 00:11:26.000 align:middle line:90%
Yeah.

00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.283 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:11:29.283 --> 00:11:32.570 align:middle line:90%


00:11:32.570 --> 00:11:35.330 align:middle line:84%
Honoring the people
who helped us along

00:11:35.330 --> 00:11:37.490 align:middle line:90%
or poets who inspired us.

00:11:37.490 --> 00:11:39.530 align:middle line:84%
I mentioned in my
introduction, and you

00:11:39.530 --> 00:11:43.700 align:middle line:84%
write in House of My
Own, beautiful essays

00:11:43.700 --> 00:11:46.520 align:middle line:84%
about Luis Omar Salinas
and Gwendolyn Brooks.

00:11:46.520 --> 00:11:49.340 align:middle line:84%
If you could tell us anything
about those two poets,

00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:51.170 align:middle line:84%
we would love to hear
the [? cuentas. ?]

00:11:51.170 --> 00:11:56.060 align:middle line:84%
Luis Omar Salinas, I invited
him when I became the literature

00:11:56.060 --> 00:11:59.810 align:middle line:84%
director at the Guadalupe
Cultural Arts Center

00:11:59.810 --> 00:12:03.740 align:middle line:90%
in San Antonio, Texas, in 1984.

00:12:03.740 --> 00:12:06.620 align:middle line:84%
I was a director, and I brought
people like Cherríe Moraga,

00:12:06.620 --> 00:12:07.440 align:middle line:90%
Helena Viramontes.

00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:08.930 align:middle line:90%
That that's how I met them--

00:12:08.930 --> 00:12:12.590 align:middle line:90%
Luis Omar Salinas, Alberto Ríos.

00:12:12.590 --> 00:12:15.290 align:middle line:84%
And I brought a
whole bunch of people

00:12:15.290 --> 00:12:17.390 align:middle line:84%
that I thought were
at the forefront.

00:12:17.390 --> 00:12:20.300 align:middle line:84%
But unfortunately, I
also had to bring people

00:12:20.300 --> 00:12:23.060 align:middle line:84%
that my boss wanted
me to bring that I

00:12:23.060 --> 00:12:24.890 align:middle line:90%
wasn't so happy with bringing.

00:12:24.890 --> 00:12:29.150 align:middle line:84%
I had the position, but I
didn't really have the power.

00:12:29.150 --> 00:12:31.790 align:middle line:84%
But at least I got to meet--
like half of the people

00:12:31.790 --> 00:12:33.800 align:middle line:84%
I invited were people
that I admired,

00:12:33.800 --> 00:12:36.260 align:middle line:84%
and the other people I
was obliged to invite.

00:12:36.260 --> 00:12:41.090 align:middle line:84%
But I still felt very proud and
happy to meet these writers,

00:12:41.090 --> 00:12:43.820 align:middle line:90%
to photograph them, to--

00:12:43.820 --> 00:12:46.250 align:middle line:90%
many times I interviewed them--

00:12:46.250 --> 00:12:48.590 align:middle line:90%
Pat Mora, Ana Castillo.

00:12:48.590 --> 00:12:49.790 align:middle line:90%
I interviewed each one.

00:12:49.790 --> 00:12:51.830 align:middle line:84%
I still have those tapes
there in my archives.

00:12:51.830 --> 00:12:53.990 align:middle line:84%
Now they're still on
little cassettes, you know,

00:12:53.990 --> 00:12:55.310 align:middle line:90%
but they're there.

00:12:55.310 --> 00:12:58.590 align:middle line:84%
And later-- Miss Brooks
on the other hand--

00:12:58.590 --> 00:13:01.850 align:middle line:84%
we always call her Miss Brooks
even though she was Mrs.--

00:13:01.850 --> 00:13:04.850 align:middle line:84%
but Miss Brooks--
Gwendolyn Brooks--

00:13:04.850 --> 00:13:08.960 align:middle line:84%
I met her before she
knew me as a writer

00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:13.160 align:middle line:84%
when I was teaching at Latino
Youth Alternative High School.

00:13:13.160 --> 00:13:15.530 align:middle line:84%
She would have an
annual poetry contest

00:13:15.530 --> 00:13:17.480 align:middle line:84%
to promote the arts
to kindergarteners

00:13:17.480 --> 00:13:18.620 align:middle line:90%
all the way to high school.

00:13:18.620 --> 00:13:22.010 align:middle line:84%
And our school was
like 50 students.

00:13:22.010 --> 00:13:23.090 align:middle line:90%
We didn't have any money.

00:13:23.090 --> 00:13:25.725 align:middle line:84%
If you wanted chalk, you
had to bring your own chalk.

00:13:25.725 --> 00:13:28.100 align:middle line:84%
At the end of the class you
had to put it in your pocket.

00:13:28.100 --> 00:13:29.420 align:middle line:90%
It was that kind of school.

00:13:29.420 --> 00:13:34.970 align:middle line:84%
And for three years, my students
won the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry

00:13:34.970 --> 00:13:36.560 align:middle line:90%
Award in our poor little school.

00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:40.700 align:middle line:84%
Five of my students won,
I'm very proud to say.

00:13:40.700 --> 00:13:42.890 align:middle line:84%
And she would have
this wonderful luncheon

00:13:42.890 --> 00:13:44.750 align:middle line:90%
at the University of Chicago.

00:13:44.750 --> 00:13:46.790 align:middle line:84%
But then I realized,
oh man, I'm getting

00:13:46.790 --> 00:13:50.240 align:middle line:84%
famous for being a
teacher of writers.

00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:55.138 align:middle line:84%
And I knew it was time for me
to let go and work on my own.

00:13:55.138 --> 00:13:56.430 align:middle line:90%
So that's how I first knew her.

00:13:56.430 --> 00:13:58.950 align:middle line:84%
Later, we would read
on the same stage.

00:13:58.950 --> 00:14:03.690 align:middle line:84%
But I write about running
into her at a bakery--

00:14:03.690 --> 00:14:07.020 align:middle line:84%
a supermarket, and
she was buying a cake.

00:14:07.020 --> 00:14:11.370 align:middle line:84%
And I couldn't believe
that poets bought cakes.

00:14:11.370 --> 00:14:14.310 align:middle line:84%
I said, what are you
doing here, Miss Brooks?

00:14:14.310 --> 00:14:18.410 align:middle line:90%
She said, I'm buying a cake.

00:14:18.410 --> 00:14:20.310 align:middle line:90%
But you could read the essay.

00:14:20.310 --> 00:14:21.850 align:middle line:90%
I love that story.

00:14:21.850 --> 00:14:23.550 align:middle line:84%
I love that Gwendolyn
Brooks story.

00:14:23.550 --> 00:14:28.170 align:middle line:84%
I wanted to see is Matt
Mendez still in the audience?

00:14:28.170 --> 00:14:29.610 align:middle line:90%
Could you stand up, Matt?

00:14:29.610 --> 00:14:30.540 align:middle line:90%
Oh, Matt's here?

00:14:30.540 --> 00:14:31.180 align:middle line:90%
He is here.

00:14:31.180 --> 00:14:33.690 align:middle line:84%
He's the author-- he's
the author of Barely

00:14:33.690 --> 00:14:34.920 align:middle line:90%
Missing Everything.

00:14:34.920 --> 00:14:37.080 align:middle line:84%
Because I wanted to
mention that novel.

00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:38.610 align:middle line:90%
And I blurbed that book.

00:14:38.610 --> 00:14:40.230 align:middle line:84%
Yeah, and another
book you blurbed,

00:14:40.230 --> 00:14:42.190 align:middle line:84%
which is, for those
of you who don't know,

00:14:42.190 --> 00:14:45.810 align:middle line:84%
this is Sabrina & Corina from
Kali Fajardo-Anstine, who's

00:14:45.810 --> 00:14:49.660 align:middle line:84%
a finalist for the National
Book Award in fiction this year.

00:14:49.660 --> 00:14:51.630 align:middle line:84%
And the reason I mentioned
both of those books

00:14:51.630 --> 00:14:54.990 align:middle line:84%
is I was wondering if you
could speak to us about what

00:14:54.990 --> 00:14:57.360 align:middle line:84%
do you think has changed
in the literary community

00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:00.900 align:middle line:84%
since you started with
Mango Press and Bad Boys

00:15:00.900 --> 00:15:01.740 align:middle line:90%
all that time ago?

00:15:01.740 --> 00:15:07.020 align:middle line:84%
Well, I think something that's
changed is that the students--

00:15:07.020 --> 00:15:09.870 align:middle line:84%
writers are taking their
writing seriously and studying

00:15:09.870 --> 00:15:11.250 align:middle line:90%
with other writers.

00:15:11.250 --> 00:15:12.720 align:middle line:90%
And that's really important.

00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:17.340 align:middle line:84%
Because back in the day, I had
an argument with a very famous

00:15:17.340 --> 00:15:19.080 align:middle line:84%
Chicano writer-- who
will go unnamed--

00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:21.960 align:middle line:84%
and he didn't like
the Chicano writing.

00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:23.160 align:middle line:90%
He just felt it was bad.

00:15:23.160 --> 00:15:25.050 align:middle line:84%
I said it's not bad,
it's not finished.

00:15:25.050 --> 00:15:26.640 align:middle line:90%
It's just not finished.

00:15:26.640 --> 00:15:30.180 align:middle line:84%
And I feel as if the
writers now coming up

00:15:30.180 --> 00:15:31.440 align:middle line:90%
are finishing their work.

00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:34.410 align:middle line:84%
And they're not looking
at just each other's work,

00:15:34.410 --> 00:15:36.250 align:middle line:84%
they're looking at
world literature.

00:15:36.250 --> 00:15:38.940 align:middle line:84%
So the writing is coming up
to world-literature standards.

00:15:38.940 --> 00:15:40.770 align:middle line:84%
That's the beautiful
thing that I see.

00:15:40.770 --> 00:15:43.260 align:middle line:84%
I also think that
they're studying

00:15:43.260 --> 00:15:45.570 align:middle line:90%
with writers like you--

00:15:45.570 --> 00:15:49.980 align:middle line:84%
writers of color that don't baby
them and kick them in the butt

00:15:49.980 --> 00:15:52.800 align:middle line:84%
and understand what they're
saying and make them

00:15:52.800 --> 00:15:53.490 align:middle line:90%
work harder.

00:15:53.490 --> 00:15:55.430 align:middle line:84%
I think that's-- I don't
know what you think,

00:15:55.430 --> 00:15:56.430 align:middle line:90%
but that's what I think.

00:15:56.430 --> 00:15:58.440 align:middle line:84%
It's getting to be a
golden age, I have to say.

00:15:58.440 --> 00:15:59.640 align:middle line:90%
It's a Renaissance.

00:15:59.640 --> 00:16:00.570 align:middle line:90%
It really is.

00:16:00.570 --> 00:16:03.870 align:middle line:84%
And I think it's a
Renaissance for poetry too.

00:16:03.870 --> 00:16:08.790 align:middle line:84%
Because when you have turmoil
as we're having and division

00:16:08.790 --> 00:16:11.760 align:middle line:84%
in the world and people
saying this is not true

00:16:11.760 --> 00:16:16.590 align:middle line:84%
and that's a lie, poets come to
the fore and speak the truth.

00:16:16.590 --> 00:16:18.283 align:middle line:90%
Because that's what poetry is.

00:16:18.283 --> 00:16:20.700 align:middle line:84%
You have to tell the truth--
if it doesn't tell the truth,

00:16:20.700 --> 00:16:21.750 align:middle line:90%
it's not poetry.

00:16:21.750 --> 00:16:25.110 align:middle line:84%
And that's why, for me,
it's an exciting time

00:16:25.110 --> 00:16:28.560 align:middle line:84%
to buy books of
poetry, to read poetry.

00:16:28.560 --> 00:16:33.030 align:middle line:84%
Because you notice that when
there's trouble in the White

00:16:33.030 --> 00:16:35.655 align:middle line:90%
House, they don't invite poets.

00:16:35.655 --> 00:16:37.980 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:16:37.980 --> 00:16:39.270 align:middle line:90%
You know?

00:16:39.270 --> 00:16:40.440 align:middle line:90%
Because they tell the truth!

00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:43.770 align:middle line:90%


00:16:43.770 --> 00:16:46.560 align:middle line:84%
You know, Sandra, when you
were here about a year ago

00:16:46.560 --> 00:16:49.860 align:middle line:84%
and we had a chance
to visit, I got

00:16:49.860 --> 00:16:52.740 align:middle line:84%
wind of a project you were
doing where you were collecting

00:16:52.740 --> 00:16:53.910 align:middle line:90%
some testimonios.

00:16:53.910 --> 00:16:57.000 align:middle line:84%
And you were speaking
to me about why

00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:58.950 align:middle line:84%
it's important to not
just tell stories,

00:16:58.950 --> 00:17:00.550 align:middle line:90%
but to start listening to them.

00:17:00.550 --> 00:17:03.180 align:middle line:84%
Yeah, I think we're in a
time when nobody's listening.

00:17:03.180 --> 00:17:10.619 align:middle line:84%
And I got a Ford Fellowship,
and I've been taping people--

00:17:10.619 --> 00:17:13.589 align:middle line:84%
stories of people that are
undocumented, people that

00:17:13.589 --> 00:17:16.319 align:middle line:84%
hire the undocumented,
people that

00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:20.369 align:middle line:84%
don't want the undocumented,
people that are from and pro.

00:17:20.369 --> 00:17:25.050 align:middle line:84%
I just decided I'm going
to listen, and it's a--

00:17:25.050 --> 00:17:27.480 align:middle line:90%
was an important lesson for me.

00:17:27.480 --> 00:17:29.370 align:middle line:84%
Because usually I'm
just used to saying,

00:17:29.370 --> 00:17:30.780 align:middle line:90%
oh, I have to tell you this.

00:17:30.780 --> 00:17:34.170 align:middle line:84%
To listen-- and I still
have all the tapes.

00:17:34.170 --> 00:17:36.750 align:middle line:84%
I'm still working on
creating something with it,

00:17:36.750 --> 00:17:40.770 align:middle line:84%
but it's a good lesson for us to
sit down with people who don't

00:17:40.770 --> 00:17:43.380 align:middle line:90%
think like us and listen--

00:17:43.380 --> 00:17:46.560 align:middle line:84%
and listen with a
compassionate heart,

00:17:46.560 --> 00:17:50.070 align:middle line:84%
so we can understand one
another and respect each other.

00:17:50.070 --> 00:17:51.396 align:middle line:90%
Yeah, con puro amor.

00:17:51.396 --> 00:17:53.560 align:middle line:90%
Con puro amor, there you go.

00:17:53.560 --> 00:17:55.980 align:middle line:84%
And really, as the
last question before we

00:17:55.980 --> 00:17:58.380 align:middle line:84%
move on to book signing,
it's an easy one

00:17:58.380 --> 00:18:00.660 align:middle line:90%
but I think it's a joyous one.

00:18:00.660 --> 00:18:06.210 align:middle line:84%
I want to know your
favorite word in Spanish.

00:18:06.210 --> 00:18:08.460 align:middle line:90%
O, yo, yoi.

00:18:08.460 --> 00:18:11.550 align:middle line:90%
I like fufurufo.

00:18:11.550 --> 00:18:12.570 align:middle line:90%
Not guango?

00:18:12.570 --> 00:18:13.470 align:middle line:90%
I thought guango.

00:18:13.470 --> 00:18:15.150 align:middle line:90%
I like guango too.

00:18:15.150 --> 00:18:16.510 align:middle line:90%
Fufurufo is a good one.

00:18:16.510 --> 00:18:18.090 align:middle line:90%
Guango.

00:18:18.090 --> 00:18:20.310 align:middle line:90%
You know what guango is?

00:18:20.310 --> 00:18:22.770 align:middle line:84%
Guango is like when you
wear underwear too much

00:18:22.770 --> 00:18:24.940 align:middle line:84%
and the elastic
gets all stretched.

00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:25.440 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:29.820 align:middle line:84%
It gets guango, guango,
isn't that a great word?

00:18:29.820 --> 00:18:33.240 align:middle line:84%
It's like when things get all
stretched out and worn out, too

00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:33.840 align:middle line:90%
wide.

00:18:33.840 --> 00:18:35.160 align:middle line:90%
Those are Calzones guango.

00:18:35.160 --> 00:18:38.520 align:middle line:90%


00:18:38.520 --> 00:18:41.550 align:middle line:84%
It wasn't a trick
question, but if you

00:18:41.550 --> 00:18:45.600 align:middle line:84%
delve into Sandra's
poetry, into her work,

00:18:45.600 --> 00:18:48.030 align:middle line:84%
there's many, many, many
Spanish words that you can--

00:18:48.030 --> 00:18:49.740 align:middle line:84%
Well, you know I'm
living in Mexico now.

00:18:49.740 --> 00:18:51.660 align:middle line:90%
I'm dreaming in Spanish.

00:18:51.660 --> 00:18:54.240 align:middle line:90%
I talk to myself in Spanish now.

00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:56.840 align:middle line:84%
And the poems are
coming out in Spanish,

00:18:56.840 --> 00:18:59.450 align:middle line:84%
and I have to translate
them into English.

00:18:59.450 --> 00:19:01.340 align:middle line:90%
But I make a lot of mistakes.

00:19:01.340 --> 00:19:04.040 align:middle line:84%
Liliana Valenzuela,
my translator,

00:19:04.040 --> 00:19:06.770 align:middle line:84%
she corrects the
mistakes I make--

00:19:06.530 --> 00:19:09.890 align:middle line:84%
Porque si no,
salen puro guangos.

00:19:09.890 --> 00:19:11.090 align:middle line:90%
Pero muy bonito.

00:19:11.090 --> 00:19:12.690 align:middle line:90%
Espero que sí, gracias.

00:19:12.690 --> 00:19:17.630 align:middle line:84%
Even though they're all
baburros, you know?

00:19:17.630 --> 00:19:20.340 align:middle line:84%
I have my [? Saturnino ?]
postcard on my fridge.

00:19:20.340 --> 00:19:20.840 align:middle line:90%
Yeah?

00:19:20.840 --> 00:19:21.470 align:middle line:90%
Yes, I do.

00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:22.400 align:middle line:90%
Yes, I do.

00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:26.080 align:middle line:84%
But anyway, Sandra, thank you
so much for gracing us with--

00:19:26.080 --> 00:19:27.050 align:middle line:90%
Oh thank you so much--

00:19:27.050 --> 00:19:28.110 align:middle line:90%
--appreciate it so much.

00:19:28.110 --> 00:19:29.510 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:19:29.510 --> 00:19:31.670 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:19:31.670 --> 00:19:32.570 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:19:32.570 --> 00:19:35.620 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:19:35.620 --> 00:19:37.000 align:middle line:90%