WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.520 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:03.880 align:middle line:84% I'm watching time and our time is almost at the end. 00:00:03.880 --> 00:00:06.160 align:middle line:84% I don't want this sobre la mesa to end. 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:09.780 align:middle line:84% Can I ask you just to read one more-- it wasn't in the plan, 00:00:09.780 --> 00:00:11.980 align:middle line:84% but it's a really phenomenal poem. 00:00:11.980 --> 00:00:13.540 align:middle line:84% Some of you may already seen it-- 00:00:13.540 --> 00:00:15.320 align:middle line:84% it was published in The New Yorker. 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:19.160 align:middle line:84% Con permiso, "Mami at Her Vanity." 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:20.500 align:middle line:90% "Mami at Her Vanity." 00:00:20.500 --> 00:00:24.480 align:middle line:84% Those of us from a certain generation 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:29.120 align:middle line:90% remember those vanities? 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:30.800 align:middle line:90% Like dressing tables. 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:35.500 align:middle line:84% Ours was shaped like a kidney bean, a little indentation, 00:00:35.500 --> 00:00:36.840 align:middle line:90% three panels. 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:40.640 align:middle line:84% And sitting there, that moment where you're 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:43.480 align:middle line:84% watching your mother get ready to go out, 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:48.420 align:middle line:84% and you're just intrigued by who this person is. 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:51.820 align:middle line:84% And so, I have a poem called "Mami at Her Vanity." 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:57.240 align:middle line:90% 00:00:57.240 --> 00:01:01.390 align:middle line:84% And again, to that, Trujillo was still in the dictatorship, 00:01:01.390 --> 00:01:04.590 align:middle line:90% 1950s. 00:01:04.590 --> 00:01:07.510 align:middle line:90% "I watched as she tried on faces 00:01:07.510 --> 00:01:09.590 align:middle line:90% Before an evening out-- 00:01:09.590 --> 00:01:10.990 align:middle line:90% a charity ball, 00:01:10.990 --> 00:01:13.870 align:middle line:84% A fiesta de cumpleaños, a command 00:01:13.870 --> 00:01:16.910 align:middle line:84% Reception in the dictator's honor-- 00:01:16.910 --> 00:01:19.270 align:middle line:90% Dabbing, brushing, preparing 00:01:19.270 --> 00:01:22.510 align:middle line:84% Her company face to put on display, 00:01:22.510 --> 00:01:25.110 align:middle line:84% The darkened brows, the red mouth 00:01:25.110 --> 00:01:27.830 align:middle line:84% Drawn on her mouth, the familiar, 00:01:27.830 --> 00:01:31.150 align:middle line:84% Beloved face already slipping away 00:01:31.150 --> 00:01:34.070 align:middle line:84% To belong to the world, turning this 00:01:34.070 --> 00:01:36.550 align:middle line:84% Way and that in the three-panelled 00:01:36.550 --> 00:01:39.350 align:middle line:84% Vanity mirror, in which I could also 00:01:39.350 --> 00:01:42.750 align:middle line:90% See my face, cupped in my hands, 00:01:42.750 --> 00:01:45.830 align:middle line:84% Studying her, touching, retouching, 00:01:45.830 --> 00:01:49.430 align:middle line:84% Never satisfied, trying to find a face 00:01:49.430 --> 00:01:51.910 align:middle line:90% To mask the faces that couldn't 00:01:51.910 --> 00:01:56.070 align:middle line:84% Be shared, faces I knew by heart, 00:01:56.070 --> 00:01:58.830 align:middle line:84% Gauging her moods, the daily weather 00:01:58.830 --> 00:02:02.460 align:middle line:84% Of her expressions, like a bankrupt farmer 00:02:02.460 --> 00:02:06.240 align:middle line:84% Watching the rain clouds bank; faces 00:02:06.240 --> 00:02:09.340 align:middle line:84% She brushed over, colored, and covered up-- 00:02:09.340 --> 00:02:12.260 align:middle line:84% The face of terror at the news of a 00:02:12.260 --> 00:02:13.460 align:middle line:90% Cousin shot, 00:02:13.460 --> 00:02:16.380 align:middle line:84% An uncle's body found in a wrecked 00:02:16.380 --> 00:02:17.460 align:middle line:90% Car; 00:02:17.460 --> 00:02:20.340 align:middle line:84% The punishment face, enraged at the 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:21.580 align:middle line:90% Will I had, 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:24.220 align:middle line:84% Locking me up in the closet until I 00:02:24.220 --> 00:02:25.080 align:middle line:90% Sobbed, 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:28.180 align:middle line:84% Promising to be good if she let me out; 00:02:28.180 --> 00:02:31.380 align:middle line:84% The nostril-flaring face of a swallowed 00:02:31.380 --> 00:02:32.260 align:middle line:90% Laugh 00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:35.220 align:middle line:84% Over a joke she couldn't share with us; 00:02:35.220 --> 00:02:38.580 align:middle line:84% Or the playful face of a girl reaching 00:02:38.580 --> 00:02:42.180 align:middle line:84% To hold my hand, skip rope, climb trees, 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:45.460 align:middle line:84% Whispering tales of what would become of us; 00:02:45.460 --> 00:02:49.120 align:middle line:84% Or the private face turned inward, 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:53.700 align:middle line:84% The curtains drawn-- I belong to myself alone. 00:02:53.700 --> 00:02:57.540 align:middle line:84% So many faces surfacing on her face. 00:02:57.540 --> 00:03:01.530 align:middle line:84% I wonder now which was her true face, 00:03:01.530 --> 00:03:04.330 align:middle line:84% The one I kept waiting for, the one 00:03:04.330 --> 00:03:08.530 align:middle line:84% That might tell me who she was, I was, 00:03:08.530 --> 00:03:11.090 align:middle line:90% What we were here to do, making, 00:03:11.090 --> 00:03:15.650 align:middle line:84% Unmaking, draft after draft, until we had found the face 00:03:15.650 --> 00:03:18.690 align:middle line:90% We had before we were born, 00:03:18.690 --> 00:03:21.210 align:middle line:90% The face of her absence now, 00:03:21.210 --> 00:03:24.110 align:middle line:84% Only memory's mirror can recall." 00:03:24.110 --> 00:03:27.370 align:middle line:90% 00:03:27.370 --> 00:03:30.130 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:30.130 --> 00:03:30.710 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:30.710 --> 00:03:31.310 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:31.310 --> 00:03:34.270 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:34.270 --> 00:03:34.770 align:middle line:90% 00:03:34.770 --> 00:03:38.350 align:middle line:84% I mean, what are we here to do if not making and remaking, 00:03:38.350 --> 00:03:40.290 align:middle line:90% drafting, and redrafting? 00:03:40.290 --> 00:03:42.470 align:middle line:84% What a phenomenal close to that poem. 00:03:42.470 --> 00:03:43.250 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:43.250 --> 00:03:46.370 align:middle line:84% Yeah, and again, thank you for giving us 00:03:46.370 --> 00:03:49.170 align:middle line:84% this gift of your time here in Tucson. 00:03:49.170 --> 00:03:50.102 align:middle line:90% Thank you, thank you. 00:03:50.102 --> 00:03:50.810 align:middle line:90% We appreciate it. 00:03:50.810 --> 00:03:52.010 align:middle line:90% You're welcome, Manuel. 00:03:52.010 --> 00:03:52.710 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:52.710 --> 00:03:56.815 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:56.815 --> 00:04:02.000 align:middle line:90%