WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.750 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.750 --> 00:00:03.210 align:middle line:84% Does anyone have a book of mine called Junior College which 00:00:03.210 --> 00:00:04.500 align:middle line:90% is not available here? 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:07.062 align:middle line:84% Maybe someone brought it from home. 00:00:07.062 --> 00:00:08.145 align:middle line:90% You don't have it at home. 00:00:08.145 --> 00:00:09.038 align:middle line:90% Hmm. 00:00:09.038 --> 00:00:12.210 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:12.210 --> 00:00:12.710 align:middle line:90% 00:00:12.710 --> 00:00:14.645 align:middle line:90% I'm quite hurt now. 00:00:14.645 --> 00:00:17.640 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:18.140 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:22.130 align:middle line:84% This is a poem called "The Effects of Abstract Art." 00:00:22.130 --> 00:00:25.460 align:middle line:84% And I changed the name but it actually 00:00:25.460 --> 00:00:31.010 align:middle line:84% the name is Ernie in life but it changes to Charlie. 00:00:31.010 --> 00:00:36.530 align:middle line:84% And the first Chicano artist is this guy named Ernie Palomino 00:00:36.530 --> 00:00:38.750 align:middle line:90% from Fresno, California. 00:00:38.750 --> 00:00:42.740 align:middle line:84% They think he's the first Chicano artist. 00:00:42.740 --> 00:00:45.800 align:middle line:84% And I'll explain that maybe later a little later. 00:00:45.800 --> 00:00:48.260 align:middle line:84% But I have to explain the poem before I even read it 00:00:48.260 --> 00:00:52.667 align:middle line:84% because he was a very fine artist. 00:00:52.667 --> 00:00:54.500 align:middle line:84% He would be able to-- he was able to capture 00:00:54.500 --> 00:00:59.180 align:middle line:84% the world as a Dutch painter would, very exact, detailed, 00:00:59.180 --> 00:01:00.560 align:middle line:90% it looked like life. 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:02.300 align:middle line:90% Some would call it realism. 00:01:02.300 --> 00:01:08.050 align:middle line:84% And then he discovered cubist art. 00:01:08.050 --> 00:01:13.060 align:middle line:84% "Charlie, our one hope, called the Chucos from Braley Street 00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:15.160 align:middle line:90% to line up. 00:01:15.160 --> 00:01:17.860 align:middle line:90% Chucos are like pachucos. 00:01:17.860 --> 00:01:20.020 align:middle line:90% Since half had been in-- 00:01:20.020 --> 00:01:23.350 align:middle line:84% since half had been in road camp shackled and such, 00:01:23.350 --> 00:01:26.680 align:middle line:84% they followed his orders, and had their faces 00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:28.060 align:middle line:90% drawn in charcoal. 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:31.690 align:middle line:84% These thugs went away smiling at their portraits 00:01:31.690 --> 00:01:33.700 align:middle line:90% and Charlie too went away. 00:01:33.700 --> 00:01:37.060 align:middle line:84% Three months later he was in Paris, 00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:40.270 align:middle line:84% Fresno still stamped on his furrowed brow 00:01:40.270 --> 00:01:43.960 align:middle line:84% and dripping farm water behind his ears. 00:01:43.960 --> 00:01:48.760 align:middle line:84% Charlie walked on snow, and ate bread, and cheese in Paris. 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:53.913 align:middle line:84% He drank coffee at outdoor cafes and accordion homelessness 00:01:53.913 --> 00:01:57.620 align:middle line:84% [AUDIO OUT] its dull mirror of ice. 00:01:57.620 --> 00:01:59.720 align:middle line:90% And suddenly in a heated-- 00:01:59.720 --> 00:02:03.230 align:middle line:84% heat-less room, he was going abstract. 00:02:03.230 --> 00:02:06.230 align:middle line:84% The chair's no longer chairs, but buckled 00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:08.509 align:middle line:90% wood and jets of timber. 00:02:08.509 --> 00:02:11.420 align:middle line:84% He painted a Nazi with a boot for a head, 00:02:11.420 --> 00:02:15.890 align:middle line:84% and a cathedral leaning in an atomic wind. 00:02:15.890 --> 00:02:20.030 align:middle line:84% The river thawed from hot human tears. 00:02:20.030 --> 00:02:22.790 align:middle line:84% The fish drank that brew and hopped on 00:02:22.790 --> 00:02:24.710 align:middle line:90% to the dinner plates." 00:02:24.710 --> 00:02:26.180 align:middle line:90% That's Picasso there. 00:02:26.180 --> 00:02:32.120 align:middle line:84% "This according to Charlie's suddenly twisted cubist art. 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:34.800 align:middle line:84% Back in Fresno after three months, 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:38.060 align:middle line:84% he showed the Chucos, the pachucos his new art. 00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:39.770 align:middle line:90% The crooked lines. 00:02:39.770 --> 00:02:44.690 align:middle line:84% The negative space, and every face beautifully out of whack. 00:02:44.690 --> 00:02:48.620 align:middle line:84% Man, the Chucos couldn't understand this. 00:02:48.620 --> 00:02:54.260 align:middle line:84% Charlie drawing so good just months before 00:02:54.260 --> 00:02:57.740 align:middle line:84% and now the eyes of farmers dripping like eggs. 00:02:57.740 --> 00:03:00.810 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:00.810 --> 00:03:01.310 align:middle line:90% 00:03:01.310 --> 00:03:05.120 align:middle line:90% Man, was Charlie a wino now? 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:07.320 align:middle line:90% A myopic young man? 00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:10.790 align:middle line:84% Had existentialism weakened his blood? 00:03:10.790 --> 00:03:13.670 align:middle line:84% My uncle looked over at Charlie's fingers. 00:03:13.670 --> 00:03:17.270 align:middle line:84% Poor guy, no telling when a train ran them over." 00:03:17.270 --> 00:03:18.240 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLES] 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:20.180 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:20.180 --> 00:03:23.500 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:24.000 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:26.550 align:middle line:90% 00:03:26.550 --> 00:03:27.050 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:03:27.050 --> 00:03:30.740 align:middle line:84% And so when Ernie Palomino came back from Paris, 00:03:30.740 --> 00:03:33.840 align:middle line:84% he discovered cubist art and so he thought he was really cool. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:35.980 align:middle line:84% And he showed my dad like what he was doing. 00:03:35.980 --> 00:03:38.382 align:middle line:84% I said, man, Ernie, you got worse. 00:03:38.382 --> 00:03:40.340 align:middle line:84% And he thought, of course, he's supposed to get 00:03:40.340 --> 00:03:42.200 align:middle line:90% better as time went along. 00:03:42.200 --> 00:03:44.050 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER]