WEBVTT

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"Alonso."

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Y antes de que continúe,
decirles que más de 300

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centroamericanas y
centroamericanos vivieron en

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casa a lo largo de
más o menos 20 años.

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More than 300 of
Centroamericanos lived with my

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family and me in my town
and my home in Chiapas.

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We have no resources, only
human condition, agape,

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love for these people.

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They are my family
too, like Alonso.

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"Entró a la casa con
la procesión húmeda,

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cansada de fieles hondureños.

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Al invitarlos a la mesa
para tomar café con pan,

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uno de ellos dijo que
le gustaba así amargo,

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y se bebió la taza rápido con
2 tortillas recién alzadas

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del fogón.

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El azúcar se nos había
terminado una tarde antes,

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de esas que huelen a hornos
craquelados por las brasas de

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un fuego hecho con leña musical
de árboles de cedro y de

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marimbo.

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Era el tiempo del trópico
más rojo del corazón quemado.

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Volví del tendejón de la
muda con la bolsa de azúcar.

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Al verla, aquel muchacho dijo,
'Bueno, me gusta un poco'.

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Y le echó cuatro grandes
cucharadas a la taza cuando

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volvimos a servirle café, lo
que desató el huracán de la risa

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entre todos.

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El aguacero en carcajadas de
aquella media docena de hombres

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apagó los ruidos de la lluvia.

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Alonso decidió quedarse
a trabajar en la bananera

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del pueblo, entre matas
de guineos de seda,

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manzano y plátano Roatan,
cargando por 10 horas las pencas

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verdes y llenas de etileno que
embarcaban en bolsas de plástico

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hacia Estados Unidos.

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¿Quien fuera una penca de
guineo para llegar al otro lado,

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sin más papeles que un periódico
con el corazón verde y dormido,

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cadáver dentro de 4 tablas
en una caja de madera?

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Alonso ahorraba la miseria de su
paga y esperaba por las tardes a

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la orilla del campo de fútbol el
paso de los trenes y el zumbido

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como de avispas atrapadas dentro
de un frasco de vidrio que hacen

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los rieles al chirriar, cuando
la locomotora guillotina en

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seco, el aire húmedo y
el andamiaje de acero.

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Una tarde, al llegar
de la escuela primaria,

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mi hermano Aldo y yo nos
enteramos que Alonso había

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encontrado a Canek,
entonces de 6 años,

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caminando hacia el
norte, lejos de la casa,

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por la orilla de la carretera.

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'Ya no quiero ir a la escuela.

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Me quiero ir a trabajar
a Estados Unidos,

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como ustedes', le confesó
al hondureño con firmeza.

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Alonso dio aviso a mi madre, que
alcanzó muy pronto al migrante

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que yacía sentado bajo
unos árboles de mango,

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cansado del fuego redondo
de la tarde y su aire espeso

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y caliente, en esa hora infernal
en la que todo el pueblo dice

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hasta suena el sol.

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Mi hermano nunca perdonó a
Alonso por haberlo delatado,

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pues al enterarse, mi
padre enderezó con una vara

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el carácter curvo de aquel
muchacho necio que amenazaba con

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torcerse como árbol de
mangle dentro de su pecho.

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A la misma hora, en el parque,
bajo una tromba de plumas

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y el griterío de los niños,
lloraban los pájaros.

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Semanas después visitamos la
bananera donde Alonso trabajaba

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y nos dio de comer tantos
guineos que nos hartamos de

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una vez por todas para
esta y cualquier otra vida.

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Masticábamos ruidosamente
la carne color hueso de

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los guineos, y el agua del río
nos desataba los pastosos nudos

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del pescuezo.

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Reíamos y apedreábamos la sombra
de los peces que saltaban con

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siluetas gordas y plateadas,
buscando salvarse entre

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las raíces de bronce
de los amates.

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Alonso y los muchachos partieron
una tarde cuando el sol

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pardeaba, cazando al tren de
carga para colgarse al ramaje de

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los fierros.

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Mi madre les hizo algunos tacos
que llevaban en bolsas amarradas

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a la cintura.

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Nos despedimos de sus rostros
más allá del túmulo del andén,

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entre el olor de los tamarindos
y sus vainas podridas,

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hasta que todos se subieron a
los vagones y se hundieron para

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siempre en la maraña
de trapos de la noche.

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En el pueblo aún prenden los
hornos con leña de mangos

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y marimbos para cocer
el pan de lluvia.

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Aún madura el etileno,
las pencas de guineo en

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las bananeras.

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Aún chirrían los trenes,
profundos gritos de óxido,

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al pasar sobre los rieles,
tajando cuerpos dormidos

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y cansados.

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Aún suben la sombra de
los muchachos en racimos

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y la cuelgan en góndolas
cariadas hasta perderse con

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el bramar de los silbatos.

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Aún."

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[APLAUSOS]

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"Alonso."

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"He came into the house in a
line of sweat-damp, worn-out,

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dependable men from Honduras
when we called them to the table

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for a meal.

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One of them said he liked
his coffee this way, bitter,

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and drank the cup down fast,
with two tortillas just taken

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off the fire.

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We'd run out of
sugar the day before,

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an afternoon that smelled
of cedar and rosewood,

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ovens crackling with
the music of live calls,

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the reddest time of
all in the tropics,

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the season of burnt hearts.

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But when I returned from the
store at La Muda with a bag of

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sugar, the boy said, 'All right,
I'll take just a little,' and

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tossed four big spoonful into
his coffee when we served him

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another cup, setting
off a storm of laughter,

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a downpour out of those half
dozen men that drowned out the

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sound of the rain.

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Alonso decided to stay and work
at the banana plantation in town

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among the groves of green and
yellow fruit, 10 hours a day,

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lugging loads of green
stalks packed in ethylene,

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to be shipped in plastic
bags to the United States.

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And who wouldn't be a banana
stalk and reach the other side

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with no more papers than
the news he's wrapped in,

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a green and sleeping heart, a
corpse inside four planks of a

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wooden box?

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Alonso saved his miserable pay.

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And afternoons, he'd wait at the
edge of the football field for

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the passing trains and
the roar the rails made,

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like wasps trapped in a jar,
screeching when the locomotive

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all at once guillotined that
framework of steel and the humid

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air.

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One afternoon, coming
home from school,

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my brother Aldo and I found out
that Alonso had caught Kanek,

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aged six, walking north along
the highway far from home.

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'I don't want to go to school
anymore,' he'd confided firmly

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to Alonso. 'I'm going to work in
Estados Unidos, just like you.'

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Alonso told my mother, who
soon enough caught that migrant

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sitting under some mango trees
tired out from the afternoon

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heat, the thickness of the air,
that hell hour when people say

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the sun even makes a sound.

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My brother never forgave Alonso
for telling on him because when

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our father found out, he
straightened out that twisted

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stubborn boy with a switch.

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While in the park, in a
whirlwind of feathers and

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children's cries,
the birds all wept.

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Weeks later, we visited
Alonso at the plantation,

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and he fed us so many bananas,
we got our fill of them for the

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rest of this life and any other.

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We noisily chewed the
fruit's bone-colored flesh,

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and river water loosened
the knots in our throats.

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We laughed and throw stones
at the silvery shadows of fat

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leaping fish that scurried for
cover among the fig tree roots.

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Alonso and the boys left one
day as the sun was going down,

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chasing that freight train to
hang from its branches of steel.

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My mother made them some tacos
they tied in bags to their

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belts.

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And we bade those faces farewell
from beyond the mound of the

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tracks, in the reek of the
rotting pods of the tamarind

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trees, until they had all hopped
the cars and plunged forever

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into the tangled thick of night.

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In our town, even now, they
still fire up the ovens with

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mango and rosewood to
cook the pan de lluvia.

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Ethylene still ripens the
bunches of plantation bananas.

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The deep rusty cries of the
trains still screech over the

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tracks, packing up
exhausted sleeping bodies.

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The shadows of young men in
bunches still rise and hang on

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to rotting box cars, until
they're lost with the

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whistle's roar.

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Even now."

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[APLAUSOS]

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