WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.360 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.360 --> 00:00:05.760 align:middle line:90% I'm short. 00:00:05.760 --> 00:00:06.700 align:middle line:90% So is Balam. 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:08.200 align:middle line:90% We should be fine. 00:00:08.200 --> 00:00:11.760 align:middle line:84% So yes, I will read the poems in English 00:00:11.760 --> 00:00:14.560 align:middle line:84% after Balam reads them in Spanish one by one. 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:18.280 align:middle line:84% But first, it's my honor and privilege 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:21.800 align:middle line:84% to introduce to you Balam Rodrigo. 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:25.880 align:middle line:84% I first encountered his work in a bookstore in San Cristobal 00:00:25.880 --> 00:00:28.680 align:middle line:84% de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, where 00:00:28.680 --> 00:00:32.220 align:middle line:84% I was spending a few weeks with writers from Mexico, Canada, 00:00:32.220 --> 00:00:35.560 align:middle line:84% and the US, thanks to Michael Spurgeon and the Borchard 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:36.720 align:middle line:90% Foundation. 00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:40.400 align:middle line:84% I asked the storekeeper what poet from the region 00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:42.000 align:middle line:90% should I be reading? 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.800 align:middle line:84% She leapt to say, Balam Rodrigo's 00:00:45.800 --> 00:00:48.560 align:middle line:84% Central American Book of the Dead. 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:54.040 align:middle line:84% I pulled it off the shelf and was staggered by its power. 00:00:54.040 --> 00:00:58.080 align:middle line:84% The book is a palimpsest based on the work of Dominican friar 00:00:58.080 --> 00:01:02.960 align:middle line:84% Bartolomé de las Casas, who in 1552 addressed 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:07.300 align:middle line:84% Prince Philip of Spain, with a brief account of the destruction 00:01:07.300 --> 00:01:08.820 align:middle line:90% of the Indies. 00:01:08.820 --> 00:01:13.540 align:middle line:84% A testimony to the atrocities inflicted on Indigenous people 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:17.220 align:middle line:84% in Mexico by the Spanish invasion, and a call 00:01:17.220 --> 00:01:19.940 align:middle line:90% for defending human rights. 00:01:19.940 --> 00:01:25.820 align:middle line:84% Rodrigo knew that 500 years later, the injustices continue, 00:01:25.820 --> 00:01:29.380 align:middle line:84% so he reworked passages of Bartolomé's text 00:01:29.380 --> 00:01:34.100 align:middle line:84% as a framework for giving voice to contemporary migrants 00:01:34.100 --> 00:01:37.540 align:middle line:84% suffering brutalities and violence, those 00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:41.660 align:middle line:84% who had died because of the violence and injustice committed 00:01:41.660 --> 00:01:46.200 align:middle line:84% by authorities, cartels, smugglers, coyotes, traffickers, 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:47.660 align:middle line:90% exploiters, police. 00:01:47.660 --> 00:01:51.860 align:middle line:84% In short, all those involved in the systemic violation 00:01:51.860 --> 00:01:55.220 align:middle line:90% of these people's human rights. 00:01:55.220 --> 00:01:58.980 align:middle line:84% Rodrigo refuses to let them be disappeared, 00:01:58.980 --> 00:02:02.900 align:middle line:84% bringing their voices into community with the living, 00:02:02.900 --> 00:02:07.560 align:middle line:84% even marking with precise GPS coordinates the places where 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:11.440 align:middle line:84% their remains or bodies were found. 00:02:11.440 --> 00:02:16.360 align:middle line:84% We sometimes speak of such work as documentary poetics, 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:19.920 align:middle line:84% but Rodrigo's work is a work of the heart. 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:24.560 align:middle line:84% He communes with the sacred Mayan text, the Popol Vuh. 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:28.280 align:middle line:84% And like the twin heroes of that narrative, 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:31.040 align:middle line:84% he must swim in the underworld of the dead 00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:35.080 align:middle line:84% to bring their stories back to life and affirm 00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:38.000 align:middle line:90% that every life is sacred. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.160 align:middle line:84% The work is made personal by bringing his family story. 00:02:41.160 --> 00:02:43.900 align:middle line:84% When he was growing up in Chiapas and Guatemala, 00:02:43.900 --> 00:02:46.720 align:middle line:84% his mother and father welcomed to their house and table 00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:50.360 align:middle line:84% more than 300 people from Central America. 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:55.000 align:middle line:84% He speaks for people he knows, tracing their journeys, 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:58.680 align:middle line:84% feeling for their suffering and giving them stories 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:01.880 align:middle line:90% by which to be remembered. 00:03:01.880 --> 00:03:07.880 align:middle line:84% A host of migrant tongues, he writes, whispers in my ear. 00:03:07.880 --> 00:03:10.630 align:middle line:84% Rey Rodríguez writes in his wonderful interview 00:03:10.630 --> 00:03:13.550 align:middle line:84% with Balam at the Institute of American Indian Arts 00:03:13.550 --> 00:03:15.990 align:middle line:84% that Rodrigo's work is not an archive 00:03:15.990 --> 00:03:17.650 align:middle line:90% in the traditional sense. 00:03:17.650 --> 00:03:21.690 align:middle line:90% It is more like an altar. 00:03:21.690 --> 00:03:27.790 align:middle line:84% Balam Rodrigo Perez Hernandez, born in Villa de Comaltitlán, 00:03:27.790 --> 00:03:33.110 align:middle line:84% Chiapas, is a biologist, writer, and former professional soccer 00:03:33.110 --> 00:03:34.550 align:middle line:90% player. 00:03:34.550 --> 00:03:37.130 align:middle line:84% He's one of Mexico's most distinguished poets, 00:03:37.130 --> 00:03:38.990 align:middle line:90% the author of more than-- 00:03:38.990 --> 00:03:44.630 align:middle line:84% I don't know, 49 volumes of poetry and essays. 00:03:44.630 --> 00:03:46.830 align:middle line:84% I'm excited for his most recent book 00:03:46.830 --> 00:03:50.350 align:middle line:84% of essays that leans into his chops as a biologist-- 00:03:50.350 --> 00:03:55.410 align:middle line:84% Kraken: Evolutionary Mythopoetics, Literary Taxonomy, 00:03:55.410 --> 00:04:00.310 align:middle line:84% Lyrical Cryptozoology, and Biological Autopoiesis 00:04:00.310 --> 00:04:03.230 align:middle line:90% of the Giant Squid. 00:04:03.230 --> 00:04:08.070 align:middle line:84% He's been awarded numerous prizes, including the Sor Juana 00:04:08.070 --> 00:04:12.010 align:middle line:84% Inés de la Cruz international literary competition, the José 00:04:12.010 --> 00:04:15.810 align:middle line:84% Emilio Pacheco National Poetry Prize, the Tijuana National 00:04:15.810 --> 00:04:20.649 align:middle line:84% Poetry Prize, and Aguascalientes Fine Arts Poetry Prize. 00:04:20.649 --> 00:04:24.610 align:middle line:84% His work has been translated into English, French, Italian, 00:04:24.610 --> 00:04:30.330 align:middle line:84% Macedonian, Polish, Portuguese and Zapotec. 00:04:30.330 --> 00:04:34.050 align:middle line:84% Dan Bellm's translation into English of the Central American 00:04:34.050 --> 00:04:37.730 align:middle line:84% Book of the Dead was a finalist for the National Translation 00:04:37.730 --> 00:04:41.950 align:middle line:84% Award of the American Literary Translators Association. 00:04:41.950 --> 00:04:44.530 align:middle line:90% 00:04:44.530 --> 00:04:49.610 align:middle line:84% How do we measure the distance between government policy 00:04:49.610 --> 00:04:52.770 align:middle line:90% and human suffering? 00:04:52.770 --> 00:05:01.530 align:middle line:84% Data cannot do it, poetry can, awakening a clarion call 00:05:01.530 --> 00:05:06.330 align:middle line:84% for compassion, community, and justice. 00:05:06.330 --> 00:05:09.910 align:middle line:84% Please join me in welcoming Balam Rodrigo. 00:05:09.910 --> 00:05:13.260 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:05:13.260 --> 00:05:16.000 align:middle line:90%