How we doing?
Great.
Slightly overwhelming, I'm sorry.
No.
OK, I think I'll stop the screen and go to just reading.
"En las primeras décadas del nuevo siglo"
Cenex se puso en marcha.
Pero en ese siglo betún había cometido un delito digno
de castigo, un robo de arroz y café, o una deuda de grano,
ron y tierra.
La justicia, siempre excelsa, le encontró
a pie en el camino real, sediento de fuente.
Y aunque en artículo uno quedaba prohibida la extracción
de esclavos sin permiso real en el artículo 2.1 exceptuaba los
sentenciados por los tribunales.
La transportaron-- se transportaron ante
aquel cajón de la sastra con su estalactita pendiente,
donde la guardia revisaban los reclusos.
Una detallaba los procedimientos,
y la otra los desvestía.
La española, con voz callada, explicaba mientras
la Gringa supervisaba la fila.
Una repetía con tono compareciente, y la otra
los miraba con odio fijo y manoseo firme.
La estructura en sí se debatía.
El estilo neomudéjar con su afán secular contenía un corazón
vacío de reforma, una gran plaza de ciudad española sembrada de
flores fugitivas.
And some of the verses here are actually
extractions from codes that were established both during
and after the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico,
pertaining to who could get arrested.
And la libreta o jornal.
So even after slavery was abolished,
Puerto Ricans were forced to carry a notebook around
specifying-- those who [INAUDIBLE]----
the ex-enslaved were forced to carry a notebook around saying
who they worked for.
Otherwise, they would get arrested.
And so a lot of these are a combination of things written
about the prison and things written in these codes,
these legal codes, that established who was allowed
to work and be free, and who wasn't.
Cenex began their march, but in this bitumen century
they had committed a felony worth
punishment of theft of rice, or coffee, or a debt
of grain, rum, or land.
Justice, always lofty, found Cenex on the royal road thirsty
for a source.
And although Article I states that the extraction of slaves
is prohibited without royal decree,
article 2.1 makes an exemption for those
sentenced by tribunals.
They were transported before that crate of harvest,
with its dangling stalactite, where
the guards checked inmates.
One detailed the procedures, and the other handling undressing.
The Spaniard, with a [? carved ?] voice,
explained, while the Gringa supervised the line.
One repeated a tone appearing before the other
with a fixed hate and a firm hand.
The structure itself debated.
The neomudéjar style, its secular toil,
contained a heart free of reform,
a great plaza for a Spanish city planted with fugitive flowers.