WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.500 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:01.440 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:01.440 --> 00:00:03.260 align:middle line:90% How can I live up to that? 00:00:03.260 --> 00:00:05.120 align:middle line:90% Oh, boy. 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:08.680 align:middle line:84% This is a format that we're trying 00:00:08.680 --> 00:00:12.840 align:middle line:84% because it's difficult to read sometimes, I think, 00:00:12.840 --> 00:00:14.340 align:middle line:90% in terms of eyesight. 00:00:14.340 --> 00:00:15.440 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:15.440 --> 00:00:17.920 align:middle line:84% Tick tock, and I don't mean the app. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:20.400 align:middle line:90% I mean the old tick tock. 00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:26.800 align:middle line:84% As we have a saying in Spanish, Los años no perdonan a nadie-- 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:29.600 align:middle line:90% the years don't forgive anyone. 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:31.840 align:middle line:90% So they haven't forgiven me. 00:00:31.840 --> 00:00:33.700 align:middle line:90% And so I've lost eyesight. 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:40.000 align:middle line:84% And it's hard to read and negotiate lines of text. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.520 align:middle line:90% But I'm not going to give up. 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:44.020 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:44.020 --> 00:00:45.640 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:46.700 align:middle line:90% As I said, la lucha. 00:00:46.700 --> 00:00:48.000 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:50.260 align:middle line:90% So we'll have some conversation. 00:00:50.260 --> 00:00:51.860 align:middle line:84% That's the reason for this format. 00:00:51.860 --> 00:00:54.020 align:middle line:84% There's some conversations, some questions. 00:00:54.020 --> 00:00:55.800 align:middle line:84% And really, the book is organized 00:00:55.800 --> 00:01:00.080 align:middle line:84% in a way that lets us do that, because as I said in the intro, 00:01:00.080 --> 00:01:03.070 align:middle line:90% it's an arc of a life. 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:06.230 align:middle line:84% Could you start us with a poem about your childhood 00:01:06.230 --> 00:01:07.810 align:middle line:90% in the Dominican Republic? 00:01:07.810 --> 00:01:11.990 align:middle line:84% There's one called Recitation that opens this book. 00:01:11.990 --> 00:01:14.070 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:14.070 --> 00:01:17.930 align:middle line:84% When I came to this country, and I wasn't a bookish kid, 00:01:17.930 --> 00:01:20.750 align:middle line:84% I wasn't a bookworm, I hated school. 00:01:20.750 --> 00:01:22.430 align:middle line:90% And I got very-- 00:01:22.430 --> 00:01:26.070 align:middle line:84% I fell in love with the poetry in English 00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:28.890 align:middle line:84% because it was a way to keep speaking Spanish and English. 00:01:28.890 --> 00:01:34.590 align:middle line:84% It was musical, had cadence, it reminded me of my native tongue. 00:01:34.590 --> 00:01:38.430 align:middle line:84% And I always thought it started when I came to this country 00:01:38.430 --> 00:01:39.710 align:middle line:90% and into English. 00:01:39.710 --> 00:01:44.610 align:middle line:84% Then I realized that really, the seed was there before, 00:01:44.610 --> 00:01:50.230 align:middle line:84% because as little kids in my family, when there was company, 00:01:50.230 --> 00:01:54.150 align:middle line:84% my mother and her friends would play canasta, and at the end, 00:01:54.150 --> 00:01:56.490 align:middle line:84% they would have the children come out. 00:01:56.490 --> 00:01:59.950 align:middle line:84% And we each had a certain repertoire. 00:01:59.950 --> 00:02:04.730 align:middle line:90% And I loved this recitation. 00:02:04.730 --> 00:02:09.650 align:middle line:84% So that really-- that's my root system in an oral culture. 00:02:09.650 --> 00:02:13.690 align:middle line:84% I fell in love with poetry as an oral art. 00:02:13.690 --> 00:02:16.390 align:middle line:84% And we were living then in a dictatorship, 00:02:16.390 --> 00:02:19.210 align:middle line:84% and I didn't know that was the backdrop. 00:02:19.210 --> 00:02:21.970 align:middle line:84% So there was a lot of tension in the family. 00:02:21.970 --> 00:02:26.330 align:middle line:84% And somehow, this all gets into this poem. 00:02:26.330 --> 00:02:31.970 align:middle line:84% So it's Recitation: Ciudad Trujillo, 1950s. 00:02:31.970 --> 00:02:35.530 align:middle line:84% And the dictator had changed the name 00:02:35.530 --> 00:02:38.250 align:middle line:84% of our capital city, Santo Domingo, 00:02:38.250 --> 00:02:41.410 align:middle line:84% to his own name, Ciudad Trujillo. 00:02:41.410 --> 00:02:46.510 align:middle line:84% So for the whole 31 years that he was our dictator, 00:02:46.510 --> 00:02:48.130 align:middle line:90% it was Ciudad Trujillo. 00:02:48.130 --> 00:02:52.450 align:middle line:84% So that's why you won't find it on a map anymore-- thank God-- 00:02:52.450 --> 00:02:54.730 align:middle line:90% but it's called Ciudad Trujillo. 00:02:54.730 --> 00:02:57.330 align:middle line:90% Recitation. 00:02:57.330 --> 00:03:00.690 align:middle line:84% Here I am starting again where I first 00:03:00.690 --> 00:03:06.080 align:middle line:84% began, in a pink party dress with a flaring crinoline line, 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:10.400 align:middle line:84% waiting to entertain my mother's friends after their afternoon 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:13.280 align:middle line:90% game of canasta is over. 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:16.920 align:middle line:84% The rise and fall of their voices as they gossip 00:03:16.920 --> 00:03:21.280 align:middle line:84% reminds me, waiting to make my entrance of a finely 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:24.920 align:middle line:84% tuned machine, sorting the information it 00:03:24.920 --> 00:03:28.080 align:middle line:90% receives into discrete piles. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:30.340 align:middle line:90% What can be openly spoken? 00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:32.360 align:middle line:90% What cannot be overheard? 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:37.280 align:middle line:84% Over-the-shoulder glances, just in case an informant, maid, 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:40.400 align:middle line:90% or a bored child is listening. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:44.320 align:middle line:84% In the early evening light before darkness falls, 00:03:44.320 --> 00:03:47.480 align:middle line:90% Mami calls out, we're ready. 00:03:47.480 --> 00:03:51.960 align:middle line:84% And out I come, my starched taffeta dress rustling 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:57.120 align:middle line:84% with each step, a self-important sound I love to make. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:00.040 align:middle line:84% Until that moment, one more anonymous 00:04:00.040 --> 00:04:03.400 align:middle line:84% girl in a clan of too many girls. 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:08.590 align:middle line:84% The sash at my waist like a leash on a prancing thoroughbred 00:04:08.590 --> 00:04:10.290 align:middle line:90% keeps me in check. 00:04:10.290 --> 00:04:14.230 align:middle line:84% I can barely catch my breath, it is tied so tight. 00:04:14.230 --> 00:04:17.430 align:middle line:84% How will I ever remember every line 00:04:17.430 --> 00:04:21.790 align:middle line:84% to avoid the downward curve of my mother's mouth? 00:04:21.790 --> 00:04:25.510 align:middle line:90% I long for a radiant smile. 00:04:25.510 --> 00:04:31.710 align:middle line:84% The little O of forefinger and thumb, perfecto, in the air. 00:04:31.710 --> 00:04:36.810 align:middle line:84% That first step into the room to unearned applause annoys me. 00:04:36.810 --> 00:04:39.710 align:middle line:90% Let me deliver first. 00:04:39.710 --> 00:04:43.350 align:middle line:84% They seem relieved to see me take my place, 00:04:43.350 --> 00:04:46.470 align:middle line:84% having concluded their litany of complaints-- 00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:50.750 align:middle line:84% the maids they can never seem to train to make a hospital corner 00:04:50.750 --> 00:04:54.870 align:middle line:84% or serve on the proper side, the way that children are always 00:04:54.870 --> 00:04:59.470 align:middle line:84% catching colds, the husbands out too late and surly 00:04:59.470 --> 00:05:02.150 align:middle line:90% when asked where they have been. 00:05:02.150 --> 00:05:04.630 align:middle line:84% I remember their beautiful faces, 00:05:04.630 --> 00:05:09.380 align:middle line:84% their liquid eyes so deep I will surely drown. 00:05:09.380 --> 00:05:11.420 align:middle line:90% How can I look away? 00:05:11.420 --> 00:05:15.700 align:middle line:84% I'll have to swim those seas in the years to come. 00:05:15.700 --> 00:05:19.300 align:middle line:84% Soon, we will hear the hum of their chauffeured cars 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:20.940 align:middle line:90% coming to pick them up. 00:05:20.940 --> 00:05:24.660 align:middle line:84% The headlights on high, interrogating the streets 00:05:24.660 --> 00:05:27.060 align:middle line:90% with their searchlight eyes. 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:30.440 align:middle line:84% Taking them back to their husbands, servants, 00:05:30.440 --> 00:05:33.920 align:middle line:84% kids, a world that will never be improved. 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:38.580 align:middle line:84% [CLEARS THROAT] But for the moment, in and out of time, 00:05:38.580 --> 00:05:42.220 align:middle line:84% prettied and prepped like a small divinity, 00:05:42.220 --> 00:05:45.820 align:middle line:84% or a fairy child, presented as a prize 00:05:45.820 --> 00:05:49.420 align:middle line:84% to a jaded ruler with half lidded eyes, 00:05:49.420 --> 00:05:52.740 align:middle line:84% I am to make the difference, turn the tide 00:05:52.740 --> 00:05:57.580 align:middle line:84% on the darkness massing round as the night drops down. 00:05:57.580 --> 00:05:59.740 align:middle line:90% Our time is almost up. 00:05:59.740 --> 00:06:01.940 align:middle line:84% The car is turning in at the gate. 00:06:01.940 --> 00:06:04.420 align:middle line:90% The card table's folded away. 00:06:04.420 --> 00:06:09.180 align:middle line:84% The smell of sofrito as the cook turns supper on. 00:06:09.180 --> 00:06:11.160 align:middle line:90% I see how ready they are. 00:06:11.160 --> 00:06:15.320 align:middle line:84% Their greedy eyes, their hands folded before them as if 00:06:15.320 --> 00:06:16.760 align:middle line:90% in prayer. 00:06:16.760 --> 00:06:19.760 align:middle line:84% How could I know back then, caught 00:06:19.760 --> 00:06:25.400 align:middle line:84% as I was like them in the web of time, that they would be-- 00:06:25.400 --> 00:06:29.320 align:middle line:84% except for the rare reader stroking the page-- 00:06:29.320 --> 00:06:33.880 align:middle line:90% the perfect audience for poetry? 00:06:33.880 --> 00:06:34.380 align:middle line:90% [COUGHS] 00:06:34.380 --> 00:06:36.288 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:06:36.288 --> 00:06:37.720 align:middle line:90% 00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:42.840 align:middle line:84% It's a wonderful opening, again, if you 00:06:42.840 --> 00:06:47.000 align:middle line:84% don't know Julia's history and her upbringing, 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.920 align:middle line:84% the circumstances under which you came of age. 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:53.760 align:middle line:84% But I love the way that that poem ends. 00:06:53.760 --> 00:06:56.360 align:middle line:84% Because I hear that word, perfecto. 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:59.840 align:middle line:84% And I want to get it right, but then it turns back 00:06:59.840 --> 00:07:02.520 align:middle line:90% to everyone looking back. 00:07:02.520 --> 00:07:04.960 align:middle line:84% And so it's also just the perfect poet, but also 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:06.680 align:middle line:90% a perfect audience too. 00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:07.600 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:17.070 align:middle line:84% And to realize that these were the perfect receivers of what 00:07:17.070 --> 00:07:17.970 align:middle line:90% you write. 00:07:17.970 --> 00:07:19.890 align:middle line:90% People that are hungry for it. 00:07:19.890 --> 00:07:22.850 align:middle line:84% They're not literary critics, they're not academics, 00:07:22.850 --> 00:07:25.270 align:middle line:84% they're not going to be judges in a contest. 00:07:25.270 --> 00:07:27.770 align:middle line:90% They need some beauty. 00:07:27.770 --> 00:07:30.330 align:middle line:84% And they're in-- the child doesn't realize it, 00:07:30.330 --> 00:07:32.330 align:middle line:84% but they're in the midst of a dictatorship, 00:07:32.330 --> 00:07:34.630 align:middle line:84% of an imprisonment of fear and terror, 00:07:34.630 --> 00:07:36.350 align:middle line:90% and people being disappeared. 00:07:36.350 --> 00:07:42.350 align:middle line:84% But this moment of feeling the winged life within them-- 00:07:42.350 --> 00:07:45.110 align:middle line:90% the mystery stir-- they escape. 00:07:45.110 --> 00:07:48.370 align:middle line:84% And the child couldn't have given those words to it, 00:07:48.370 --> 00:07:50.550 align:middle line:90% but he/she sees the hunger. 00:07:50.550 --> 00:07:53.710 align:middle line:84% And who reads you anymore with that hunger? 00:07:53.710 --> 00:08:00.550 align:middle line:84% They're looking for something to fill that place in them. 00:08:00.550 --> 00:08:01.870 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:08:01.870 --> 00:08:04.230 align:middle line:90% Where worlds can we go for that? 00:08:04.230 --> 00:08:04.730 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:08:04.730 --> 00:08:09.230 align:middle line:84% Well, we keep searching, meaning, 00:08:09.230 --> 00:08:11.290 align:middle line:84% I'm thinking already of jumping ahead. 00:08:11.290 --> 00:08:14.030 align:middle line:84% We're trying to cover a whole life in 50 minutes, which 00:08:14.030 --> 00:08:15.840 align:middle line:90% is very difficult.