[APPLAUSE]
Thank you so much.
Where you going?
I'm not going anywhere.
I asked Farid, where are you going?
Thank you so much.
Farid put a lot of time into this--
this new book, and everyone that participated.
And most of all, let's thank the Poetry Center for its growth,
and how it serves all of us, and how it inspires all of us,
and all those cool books in there.
There are really cool books in there,
and chapbooks, and book books, and art.
So it happens to be here in Tucson, Arizona.
So a big mano, a big hand.
[APPLAUSE]
And I also want to thank the University of Arizona Press,
that actually catapulted me, and took my manuscripts,
and looked at them, and published them.
You know how that is.
You turn something in, and you go,
I might as well go eat some old tacos because that's not
going to come.
So it's not going to work out for me.
[CHUCKLES]
But it did work out.
Really, really kind and inspiring editors.
And Chris, where are you Chris?
Chris is here.
And she was one of our-- one of my editors, one
of my first editors.
And she's right there.
Let's give her a big mano right there.
Yes.
[APPLAUSE]
And everybody that works at the Center.
A big mano for everybody that works at the Center.
Let's do that.
Let's do that, also.
[APPLAUSE]
And of those songs and words that we
carry, from our childhood, that our mothers, and grandfathers,
and grandmothers, and family gave us, and brought us up
with, remember those words?
They could have been just a few words.
They could have been a little song or a rhyme
or a saying or a story or a photograph
that our parents or mothers said, look.
Look this is your uncle here, Beto.
And this is your uncle right here, Chente.
And they went to Fort Bliss.
And here, they're all dressed up in their outfit, the army
outfit, and it's 1920, Juanito.
And they did this because they were
trying to help grandmother Juanita, and me,
and your tía Lela cross the border from Juárez.
And given that they were in the army, maybe
that helped us, Juan.
So remember them, and here's the photograph.
And she did that with all the photographs,
from all those early years.
And they became stories for me.
And they became poems for me.
So let's thank our parents and family
for telling us their stories that we still have.
[APPLAUSE]
Yes.
And that's what it is.
That's the fire right there.
That's the fire.
That's the intensity.
That's what moves us.
And all we have to do is put our hands on paper.
All we have to do is put our hands on paper,
and just let the hands flow, and the words will come.
And there it is, there's that poem, and there's that story.
That's right.
And you have them.
And that's the goal, that's the beauty, that's the spirit,
and that's one generation to another generation.
And that's how we continue.
How beautiful that is.
And each one of you has those stories.
Each one of you has those poems and songs.
So we're here to appreciate you.
And we're here to say, hello, again,
to your family in time through time.
And that's how it was for me.
So I thank my mother and my father,
who played the harmonica, and I forgot to bring mine.
And all our families.
So this is for our families, too.