WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.540 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:02.460 align:middle line:84%
This one is called
They Shall Not Pass

00:00:02.460 --> 00:00:06.540 align:middle line:84%
and this is about
an ordinary Joe who

00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:09.340 align:middle line:84%
in the 30s, who
decides to sign up,

00:00:09.340 --> 00:00:12.090 align:middle line:84%
fight in the Spanish
Civil War, and his father

00:00:12.090 --> 00:00:18.240 align:middle line:84%
had been a member of them, the
Labor movement and everything.

00:00:18.240 --> 00:00:20.550 align:middle line:90%
It's called They Shall Not Pass.

00:00:20.550 --> 00:00:23.190 align:middle line:84%
Above me the sky is
all Atlantic and I

00:00:23.190 --> 00:00:25.470 align:middle line:84%
taste vinegar salt
and those hot yellow

00:00:25.470 --> 00:00:29.160 align:middle line:84%
peppers Natividad used to
eat with tamales and beer,

00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:32.460 align:middle line:84%
and the sweat above her
lip, I can taste that too.

00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:34.710 align:middle line:84%
And I have to
remind myself why I

00:00:34.710 --> 00:00:38.100 align:middle line:84%
left Mexico, why I'm
dying here in Madrid

00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:42.040 align:middle line:84%
when I should be standing,
thumbs hooked in my belt loops,

00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:45.520 align:middle line:84%
a Lucky Strike caught in
the corner of my mouth.

00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:48.630 align:middle line:84%
I was a wobbly like my
father, and like him

00:00:48.630 --> 00:00:50.610 align:middle line:90%
I always bought two drinks,

00:00:50.610 --> 00:00:54.600 align:middle line:84%
one for myself, and one for the
ghost of universal brotherhood,

00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:58.110 align:middle line:84%
with his tattered suitcase,
checkered tie, and a thirst

00:00:58.110 --> 00:01:00.090 align:middle line:90%
for handshakes, and hammers,

00:01:00.090 --> 00:01:03.780 align:middle line:84%
always leaning at the bar
when I'd arrive, with his Joe,

00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:06.060 align:middle line:90%
buy me a drink, just one more.

00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:08.520 align:middle line:84%
He was in Veracruz
the night I left.

00:01:08.520 --> 00:01:11.250 align:middle line:84%
He stood on a deck
with me before I sail,

00:01:11.250 --> 00:01:14.880 align:middle line:84%
squinting at the dock, pointing
out the ones who were his,

00:01:14.880 --> 00:01:19.560 align:middle line:84%
while I stood there empty of
everything but what I believed:

00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:21.420 align:middle line:84%
that your brother
was your brother,

00:01:21.420 --> 00:01:23.220 align:middle line:90%
and you had to spare a dime.

00:01:23.220 --> 00:01:26.220 align:middle line:84%
That when you went down the
next man would stand up,

00:01:26.220 --> 00:01:28.200 align:middle line:84%
hand in his pocket;
that there were

00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:30.450 align:middle line:84%
angels who walked
among the honored dead

00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:34.380 align:middle line:84%
carrying red sickles; that
Joe Stalin sat like old King

00:01:34.380 --> 00:01:36.150 align:middle line:90%
Cole, top of the world,

00:01:36.150 --> 00:01:40.200 align:middle line:84%
And I'd sit next to him some day
with the back pay of a thousand

00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:42.150 align:middle line:90%
years in my own hands.

00:01:42.150 --> 00:01:44.760 align:middle line:84%
I had a heart like
a goddamn sponge.

00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:48.510 align:middle line:84%
You could fill me with slogans,
with songs, and marches,

00:01:48.510 --> 00:01:51.030 align:middle line:90%
with dead men like sunshine.

00:01:51.030 --> 00:01:54.840 align:middle line:84%
He was next to me when he split
up the middle, out of luck, out

00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:58.830 align:middle line:84%
of dimes; when there was
terror no one told me existed:

00:01:58.830 --> 00:02:01.680 align:middle line:84%
betrayers, idealists;
hysterical,

00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:03.270 align:middle line:90%
and uneven fighters.

00:02:03.270 --> 00:02:05.880 align:middle line:90%
Only this: they shall not pass.

00:02:05.880 --> 00:02:08.370 align:middle line:84%
I said it over
and over to myself

00:02:08.370 --> 00:02:11.160 align:middle line:84%
as we defended the
University of Madrid,

00:02:11.160 --> 00:02:13.860 align:middle line:84%
even as I took the
slow glide down,

00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:17.340 align:middle line:84%
my blood like thick bolts
of cloth hitting the ground

00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:20.550 align:middle line:84%
as I fell, while the
layers of ice and ash

00:02:20.550 --> 00:02:23.910 align:middle line:90%
floated down from kingdom come.

00:02:23.910 --> 00:02:27.510 align:middle line:84%
A chrome ship slides across
the sky's smooth surface,

00:02:27.510 --> 00:02:31.410 align:middle line:84%
and Franco himself lifts
the Stars and Stripes sail.

00:02:31.410 --> 00:02:33.300 align:middle line:90%
My whole face is numb.

00:02:33.300 --> 00:02:35.580 align:middle line:84%
I wanted to hit
the coast of Spain

00:02:35.580 --> 00:02:38.640 align:middle line:84%
like a fist ramming
an old man's belly,

00:02:38.640 --> 00:02:40.830 align:middle line:84%
but instead found
what's his name

00:02:40.830 --> 00:02:44.910 align:middle line:84%
in the first bar I stepped
into, wearing a St Patrick's Day

00:02:44.910 --> 00:02:47.970 align:middle line:84%
smile: cold sober,
Joe, he said, and he

00:02:47.970 --> 00:02:50.010 align:middle line:90%
spat on the sawdust floor.

00:02:50.010 --> 00:02:51.240 align:middle line:90%
I'm my own man,

00:02:51.240 --> 00:02:53.970 align:middle line:84%
first time in years,
you should try it.

00:02:53.970 --> 00:02:57.000 align:middle line:84%
Then he told me, a man
can kill without hate,

00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:58.770 align:middle line:90%
that that's how it's done.

00:02:58.770 --> 00:03:02.650 align:middle line:84%
That Jesus Christ is the bullet
that makes everything right.

00:03:02.650 --> 00:03:06.540 align:middle line:84%
But it doesn't matter now
that the glorious perfumed air

00:03:06.540 --> 00:03:11.130 align:middle line:84%
is filled with butterflies which
have men's faces, men's feet.

00:03:11.130 --> 00:03:15.210 align:middle line:84%
Now that the cocoon of flesh
that held me splits apart

00:03:15.210 --> 00:03:18.540 align:middle line:84%
and I step left, right,
left and what's his name

00:03:18.540 --> 00:03:22.110 align:middle line:84%
swaggers head of the line,
and his voice floats over us

00:03:22.110 --> 00:03:23.700 align:middle line:90%
like the Holy Ghost:

00:03:23.700 --> 00:03:28.530 align:middle line:84%
Victory, friends, brothers,
as we match all in a row

00:03:28.530 --> 00:03:30.315 align:middle line:90%
into the motionless sea.

00:03:30.315 --> 00:03:33.678 align:middle line:90%


00:03:33.678 --> 00:03:36.168 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:36.168 --> 00:03:39.660 align:middle line:90%


00:03:39.660 --> 00:03:44.010 align:middle line:84%
I heard MacArthur on a tape once
it was probably on that Lowell

00:03:44.010 --> 00:03:47.100 align:middle line:84%
Thomas show, I don't
remember the name of it,

00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:51.300 align:middle line:84%
but it was like some speech,
West Point or something

00:03:51.300 --> 00:03:53.490 align:middle line:90%
and it was so ghostly.

00:03:53.490 --> 00:03:56.220 align:middle line:84%
It was like honor,
glory, country,

00:03:56.220 --> 00:03:59.550 align:middle line:90%
but it was so disembodied.

00:03:59.550 --> 00:04:04.250 align:middle line:84%
I always hear that voice when I
say victory, friends, brothers.

00:04:04.250 --> 00:04:05.000 align:middle line:90%