WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.750 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.750 --> 00:00:04.920 align:middle line:84%
My family lives in Mexicali,
right across the border,

00:00:04.920 --> 00:00:07.530 align:middle line:90%
the California-Mexico border.

00:00:07.530 --> 00:00:10.440 align:middle line:84%
And my brother
and my father used

00:00:10.440 --> 00:00:13.260 align:middle line:84%
to tell me about this
crazy mortician that

00:00:13.260 --> 00:00:15.420 align:middle line:90%
lived right down the street.

00:00:15.420 --> 00:00:18.450 align:middle line:84%
This crazy mortician,
apparently, every month

00:00:18.450 --> 00:00:24.780 align:middle line:84%
he would throw this elaborate
party, more- in this parlor.

00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:26.490 align:middle line:90%
And everybody was invited.

00:00:26.490 --> 00:00:28.770 align:middle line:84%
It was sort of his
way to celebrate life.

00:00:28.770 --> 00:00:30.450 align:middle line:84%
I mean, how does
one celebrate life?

00:00:30.450 --> 00:00:34.920 align:middle line:84%
Somebody who deals with death
so often and in so many ways,

00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:37.170 align:middle line:84%
and somebody who takes
care of his neighbors,

00:00:37.170 --> 00:00:40.480 align:middle line:84%
you know, in many
different ways as well.

00:00:40.480 --> 00:00:42.450 align:middle line:84%
And I never attended
any these parties,

00:00:42.450 --> 00:00:45.390 align:middle line:84%
but my brother did,
and so did my father.

00:00:45.390 --> 00:00:49.320 align:middle line:84%
And they would tell me this
guy was crazy, very crazy.

00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:54.090 align:middle line:84%
But what's so ironic about this
was when the mortician died

00:00:54.090 --> 00:00:58.170 align:middle line:84%
and his son took over,
took over his position,

00:00:58.170 --> 00:01:02.310 align:middle line:84%
and the mortician was taken
care of in his own parlor.

00:01:02.310 --> 00:01:05.489 align:middle line:84%
And I always wondered,
you know, what sort

00:01:05.489 --> 00:01:08.550 align:middle line:90%
of secrets this mortician kept.

00:01:08.550 --> 00:01:10.890 align:middle line:84%
And I'm sure there
are probably hundreds.

00:01:10.890 --> 00:01:14.315 align:middle line:84%
And now I'll share with you
four of the mortician's secrets.

00:01:14.315 --> 00:01:19.620 align:middle line:90%


00:01:19.620 --> 00:01:24.750 align:middle line:84%
First secret, the most
righteous part of the body

00:01:24.750 --> 00:01:29.010 align:middle line:84%
is the armpit with its
delicate growth of hair.

00:01:29.010 --> 00:01:32.040 align:middle line:84%
The armpit has
withheld more gossip.

00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:35.340 align:middle line:84%
It has kept quiet more
than our privates,

00:01:35.340 --> 00:01:42.310 align:middle line:84%
complacent in a corner that when
exposed we choose to ignore.

00:01:42.310 --> 00:01:45.450 align:middle line:84%
That's how it
became so respected.

00:01:45.450 --> 00:01:49.050 align:middle line:84%
It took advantage of our
faces turned sideways,

00:01:49.050 --> 00:01:55.290 align:middle line:84%
our embarrassed looks, and
then imitated that humility.

00:01:55.290 --> 00:02:02.070 align:middle line:84%
Second secret, mouths always
spit out their final sentences.

00:02:02.070 --> 00:02:04.680 align:middle line:84%
Until then, the jaws
remained locked as if

00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:10.050 align:middle line:84%
biting down on that last word,
the location of the car keys,

00:02:10.050 --> 00:02:11.770 align:middle line:90%
a cry for help.

00:02:11.770 --> 00:02:14.640 align:middle line:84%
The name of the face
the dying recognized

00:02:14.640 --> 00:02:18.840 align:middle line:84%
and thought they could
pronounce before closing shut.

00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:22.710 align:middle line:84%
The dead sometimes do
this purposely and attempt

00:02:22.710 --> 00:02:26.280 align:middle line:84%
at grasping the world they
feared to leave behind

00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:29.220 align:middle line:84%
and holding on to
a memento which

00:02:29.220 --> 00:02:33.330 align:middle line:84%
could comfort them when pressed
slightly against the tongue.

00:02:33.330 --> 00:02:38.220 align:middle line:84%
Sometimes it is accidental
that the word is there at all,

00:02:38.220 --> 00:02:40.830 align:middle line:84%
having been abandoned
or compressed

00:02:40.830 --> 00:02:45.060 align:middle line:84%
within the throat at
the moment of death.

00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:49.200 align:middle line:84%
Either way, the mouth
eventually lets go.

00:02:49.200 --> 00:02:53.400 align:middle line:84%
The word, turned solid as
the marble or a broken tooth,

00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:56.910 align:middle line:84%
surrenders to the
quietest of hours.

00:02:56.910 --> 00:02:59.850 align:middle line:84%
The word squeezes
through the lips

00:02:59.850 --> 00:03:03.480 align:middle line:84%
and reclaims its
ascension back to sound.

00:03:03.480 --> 00:03:07.470 align:middle line:84%
When it bounces off the
chin, a bead of sweat

00:03:07.470 --> 00:03:09.540 align:middle line:90%
melting on the griddle.

00:03:09.540 --> 00:03:14.160 align:middle line:90%
A blue kiss coming up for air.

00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:20.940 align:middle line:84%
Third secret, a woman's ash
tastes different from a man's.

00:03:20.940 --> 00:03:25.530 align:middle line:84%
Remember how as children we
shook the sawdust of old church

00:03:25.530 --> 00:03:27.660 align:middle line:90%
floorboards with our weight.

00:03:27.660 --> 00:03:31.380 align:middle line:84%
While on our knees, we reached
down to draw obscene figures,

00:03:31.380 --> 00:03:34.440 align:middle line:90%
then licked our fingers clean.

00:03:34.440 --> 00:03:37.110 align:middle line:84%
A man's ash will
remind us of the days

00:03:37.110 --> 00:03:41.550 align:middle line:84%
we mixed those pictures with
the host of catechism days,

00:03:41.550 --> 00:03:44.250 align:middle line:84%
when we spread the
orange coating of bricks

00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:48.300 align:middle line:84%
to affect the bloody tongue
during silent prayer.

00:03:48.300 --> 00:03:53.580 align:middle line:84%
A man's ash tastes of old
pinole, of common dust,

00:03:53.580 --> 00:03:56.760 align:middle line:84%
bedroom dust,
sucked in excitedly

00:03:56.760 --> 00:03:59.340 align:middle line:90%
within the fury of sheets.

00:03:59.340 --> 00:04:03.780 align:middle line:84%
But a woman's ash is
not as easily compared.

00:04:03.780 --> 00:04:06.840 align:middle line:84%
I can't explain it with
anything I've tasted

00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:11.520 align:middle line:84%
but certainly with elements
I never dared to touch.

00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:14.280 align:middle line:84%
Taking her ash was
like discovering

00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:16.800 align:middle line:84%
the outlines of
a woman's fingers

00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:21.329 align:middle line:84%
in the glove, of the
head beneath the hair.

00:04:21.329 --> 00:04:25.740 align:middle line:84%
It was finally knowing the
taste of sugarcane pulp

00:04:25.740 --> 00:04:29.580 align:middle line:84%
a woman discreetly
spits inside her napkin.

00:04:29.580 --> 00:04:34.320 align:middle line:84%
It was digging out the thin
crust of dirt between her toes

00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:37.410 align:middle line:84%
and around the
curve of her heel.

00:04:37.410 --> 00:04:42.270 align:middle line:84%
It is something not quite
forbidden or inaccessible.

00:04:42.270 --> 00:04:45.570 align:middle line:84%
It is the flavor of
what could have been,

00:04:45.570 --> 00:04:50.980 align:middle line:84%
and which I savor even
more because it wasn't.

00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:56.590 align:middle line:84%
Fourth secret, before the
bodies leave the parlor,

00:04:56.590 --> 00:04:59.410 align:middle line:90%
I dress them in my coat.

00:04:59.410 --> 00:05:04.060 align:middle line:84%
Not my black mortician's coat
with its heavy scent of lily

00:05:04.060 --> 00:05:08.350 align:middle line:84%
stems and tarnish, but
my blue one, the one I

00:05:08.350 --> 00:05:10.870 align:middle line:90%
haven't worn myself.

00:05:10.870 --> 00:05:14.050 align:middle line:84%
It's not a body in my
coat that excites me

00:05:14.050 --> 00:05:17.500 align:middle line:84%
but rather that of
my fleshed-out coat

00:05:17.500 --> 00:05:19.780 align:middle line:90%
inside a coffin.

00:05:19.780 --> 00:05:23.500 align:middle line:84%
Its collar and shoulders
pushed out against the lining,

00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:26.650 align:middle line:84%
as if with the weight
of the coat's deep color

00:05:26.650 --> 00:05:29.200 align:middle line:90%
and not of the corpse.

00:05:29.200 --> 00:05:31.960 align:middle line:90%
In my coat, the body vanishes.

00:05:31.960 --> 00:05:35.170 align:middle line:90%
The face becomes an afterimage.

00:05:35.170 --> 00:05:39.010 align:middle line:84%
The gold buttons show
through the crossed hands.

00:05:39.010 --> 00:05:42.460 align:middle line:84%
I'm persuading my burial
coat to be selfish,

00:05:42.460 --> 00:05:47.680 align:middle line:84%
to want its own space,
to keep itself company.

00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:48.910 align:middle line:90%
I'm reaching it.

00:05:48.910 --> 00:05:51.820 align:middle line:84%
I'm teaching it to
be its own body.

00:05:51.820 --> 00:05:55.060 align:middle line:84%
And like the body,
insists on reshaping

00:05:55.060 --> 00:05:59.140 align:middle line:84%
the edges of the coat on
its own and on demanding

00:05:59.140 --> 00:06:04.990 align:middle line:84%
to twist and bend all objects
in the parlor toward itself.

00:06:04.990 --> 00:06:08.470 align:middle line:84%
Already the lapel
rejects flowers whose

00:06:08.470 --> 00:06:11.560 align:middle line:90%
petals don't fade into blue.

00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:16.510 align:middle line:84%
When I die, I will dress
my death in that coat

00:06:16.510 --> 00:06:21.880 align:middle line:84%
and allow my absence to
become the main attraction.

00:06:21.880 --> 00:06:22.390 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:06:22.390 --> 00:06:23.230 align:middle line:90%
Muchas gracias.

00:06:23.230 --> 00:06:26.580 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:06:26.580 --> 00:06:43.000 align:middle line:90%