[ Music ]
>> Announcer: Sponsored by
the James Madison Council
and the Institute of
Museum and Library Services,
and the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
>> María Elena Salinas:
Hello, everyone.
Welcome to the 2021 Library of
Congress National Book Festival.
I'm María Elena Salinas,
independent journalist
and producer, and your moderator
for these great interviews.
I'm very excited to be here
and I'm really looking forward
to an amazing conversation
with two very prominent Latino
authors, and may I remind you
that you will have
the opportunity
to ask our authors questions
at the end of our conversation.
So let me introduce them.
Maria Hinojosa, one
of the most prominent
and respected Latina
journalists in the country,
host and executive producer of
NPR's award-winning Latino USA,
co-host of the political podcast
In the Thick, founder and CEO
of Futuro Media, author of Once
I Was You: A Memoir of Love
and Hate in a Torn America,
and someone I'm fortunate
to call my friend.
[Foreign word], Maria.
[Foreign phrase]
Noé Álvarez hails
from a family
of working-class
Mexican immigrants.
His debut memoir Spirit
Run: A 6,000 Mile Marathon
through North America's Stolen
Land chronicles his upbringing
in Yakima, Washington and
his experience in the peace
and dignity journeys,
a spiritual marathon
that unites Indigenous
runners across.
[Foreign word], Noe.
Welcome.
>> Noé Álvarez:
Pleasure to be here.
>> María Elena Salinas:
Let's dig in now.
Welcome now to both
of you, and Maria,
you were born in
Mexico as we know.
Noe, you were born in the state
of Washington but are the son
of Mexican immigrants.
Given that this book
festival coincides
with Hispanic Heritage Month,
tell me what your book means
for your cultural identity.
Maria, you want to start?
>> Maria Hinojosa: Huh,
that's interesting, María.
But you know, first, it's so
great to be here with you,
[foreign phrase], and to be
with Noé, a fellow runner.
Okay, I need to get back
to running, but okay.
Look, I think for me, this book
is actually me coming to terms
with this country,
my adopted country,
because I was born in Mexico.
So for my identity, it's kind
of owning my full self in that
as a Mexican woman
who identifies also
as North American, as
part of the United States
because I'm an American citizen,
this book is my opportunity
to hold this country accountable
while also, on the other side,
there's the very intimate
stuff of being a Latina,
being the first in many of the
newsrooms where I worked --
in all the newsrooms where I
worked -- and in that sense,
it's about creating a community
so that other young women
and men who want
to be journalists
or who are immigrants like
me have an opportunity
to see themselves in this book.
>> María Elena Salinas: Right.
Noé, what about you?
What does your book mean
for your cultural identity?
>> Noé Álvarez:
That's a great question.
I think that's a
work in progress.
It's an ongoing battle, I
think, for people such as myself
where we sort of live in this
middle space of, you know,
your parents' reality
who are from Mexico
and then you know trying
to establish yourself
here in the United States.
So I think for me, it's
a book that I wrote
from the perspective
of being left out,
of living on the margins,
and trying to find your place
on a land that didn't
always want you there,
didn't always tell you
that you belong there.
So for me, it's sort of about
finding your place in movement
and in running and finding
healing in the stories
that your people bring to it.
>> María Elena Salinas:
And you felt
that way even though you were
born in the United States.
>> Noé Álvarez: Yes.
You know, I mean, my
upbringing wasn't, you know,
it was a mixed upbringing,
right?
I grew up with Mexican
immigrant parents who labored
in the fields and, you know,
I was out there, you know,
I was babysat in the fields,
and I would help my
parents however I could.
And their message
was always, get out.
You know? Do better.
So for me, I didn't know
what that looked like.
I didn't know what that was.
I didn't know what
was available to me.
I had to find myself.
I had to find my place and try
to honor my parents' migration
by enacting in a similar
path, in a similar journey,
and getting out and
finding that medicine
in other people's stories.
So yeah, I very strongly connect
to the origins of
Mexico, my people.
You know, we have a
strong connection,
but I always was aware
that I wasn't from there.
So I was, you know,
I was contemplating
with all the different ways that
we as a people are displaced,
how we're displaced in our
story, how we're displaced
in our bodies, how were
displaced from the land,
and how we're forced to work the
land in a certain way that sort
of severs our relationship,
our spiritual connection
to our land.
And so I wanted to reconnect
myself to the land, and I wanted
to reconnect to my story in ways
that made me feel
proud of who I was.
Because it wasn't always
something to be proud of,
at least the way I grew up,
to be like a Mexican
migrant, right?
There was some sort of
baggage around that,
around what it meant
to be a field worker.
And so my dad said
just, get out,
you know, do better than me.
So, that was kind of a
hangup for me and that's sort
of been my journey, and so it's
sort of kind of circling back
to what it means to be, you
know, from a certain community,
what it means to be Latino,
indigenous, and working-class,
and being proud of that.
>> María Elena Salinas: Right.
Maria, while your book
highlights the plight
of immigrants such
as the one that you
and your family lived through,
it's also very personal
where you reveal very intimate
things that you went through.
Why was it important
for you to share that?
>> Maria Hinojosa: You know,
María Elena, I wasn't expecting
to share all of those things.
When you're writing a memoir
like this, you're doing a lot
of -- you know, it's a
little bit like therapy.
I had a lot of communication
with my dad,
may he rest in peace, Dr. Raul
Hinojosa, as I was writing.
And you know, the
nomination of Brett Kavanaugh
to the Supreme Court, Dr.
Christine Blasey Ford talking
about her experience of
surviving sexual assault,
you know, in the process of
losing my best friend, my dad,
and my cousin, my marriage
kind of like, you know,
at the brink -- and so all
of that was happening just
before I start writing the book.
And when I'm writing the book,
I'm writing the story of my life
and it was like this was --
this was important stuff.
Thank God I had already
started processing
that I was a survivor of rape.
I had already started doing the
work, and I think it's because,
María Elena, [foreign phrase],
you and I have the possibility
to feel very comfortable
in our voices
because we've been
doing this a while.
And I feel like I wanted
other women who have been
through this -- and
men, too, in the sense
that anyone can be
a victim of rape,
and I wanted people
to feel seen.
I wanted them to feel heard,
and I wanted them to know
that there's [foreign phrase].
If you actually deal
with the situation.
And this goes to that.
I also wrote about
impostor syndrome.
A lot of people are like,
but you're so successful.
Why would you want to reveal
that you battled insecurity
throughout your entire career?
And I'm like, because I
don't want other people
to have to go through this.
It's a lot of wasted energy.
>> María Elena Salinas:
Right, yeah.
I don't think people understand
that the impostor
syndrome is a thing.
It's very real.
Noé, I want to talk
to you a little bit
about what drove you to do this.
So why did you take
a break from college
and join the Peace
and Dignity Journey?
Were you going through
an existential crisis?
I mean, by this point you had
-- you were already in college.
So what was it?
Was there a breaking
point, or is this something
that you had been
contemplating for a while?
>> Noé Álvarez: No,
I mean, I think I --
my whole journey had
been getting into college
and I never thought
that I would get in.
And when I got in, I
just I wasn't ready,
and I didn't know what
that meant, and I felt sort
of this shame and sort
of abandoning my family
that my whole reason for
getting into college was
to save the family and the whole
pressure of having to be, one,
to try to help my family
out of these tough
circumstances really crushed me.
And so I was 19 years old.
Going home was not
an option for me.
I really didn't want to be a
failure in my family's eye.
And so this moment when I was 19
years old happened to coincide
with the movement of Peace and
Dignity journeys, and I said,
this is the education
that I need.
This is the education
that I've been missing.
Not in the books but out there,
traveling, traversing lands,
and amongst the elders,
and sitting with people
to tell you their stories
about where they're from.
And so I was lacking that.
You know, so much had
gotten lost on the journey
that my parents took to Mexico.
So much had to be abandoned,
so much had to be
left behind, right?
And so my parents were
protecting me by the stories
that they told me and the
stories that they didn't.
So I felt that it was my
obligation to find healing
in our story and to recuperate
those fragments that get lost
in migration by engaging
in the very active
of movement that my parents did.
So they ran north, and I enjoyed
a movement directly south back
into the origin story, because
without it, I couldn't continue.
I couldn't, you know, I'd be
lost out there in the world
and so I needed to find
the framework of, you know,
the core of who I was before I
can do anything in the world.
And college is sort of --
was a moment for me where I
asked myself a lot of questions
and I -- when someone said you
can run across North America
in the wild, I said, this
is crazy, I have to do it.
>> María Elena Salinas:
It is crazy.
I mean, what was that like?
I can't do more than
three miles honestly,
and walking, not even running.
So I can imagine 6,000
miles was not easy.
What was it like?
What did you confront
that was unexpected?
>> Noé Álvarez:
Every day was different,
but there's a saying on the run.
You know, running
was the easy part.
It was really my, you know,
the difficulty was contending
with your own self,
with your own realities,
with your own emotions.
Every day was a different
reason to run.
Every day you experience
a different emotion.
One day you would
think about your mom.
You dedicate that
run to your mom.
The next day to your dad.
And so we were running
for stories.
We were running to recuperate
those stories and our place
in those stories in
the land specifically
because we are land-based
people.
Our religion is land-based.
So if you remove a
mountain, if you destroy
and contaminate a river, you're
contaminating our stories.
So you're destroying
our origin stories.
So, we were refusing to let
go and to get displaced.
And so it was hard.
It was hard, but it was
also difficult contending
with the people that you were
meeting every day and trying
to hold the strong spirit
for the sake of other people.
We were messengers
carrying bundles of stories
that represented
countless stories
of the struggles
in our communities.
Drug addiction, you
know, loss of language --
all of that we were contending
with in these feathered staffs
that we carried that were
visual reminders of obligation
to our community,
visual reminders
of the responsibility
we have to our people.
And so it was a lot of weight,
but I needed to be there.
That was a journey
that I needed to be on,
and it changed my life.
>> María Elena Salinas: Wow.
Maria, going back to you, you
described in your book that you
and your family went
through or what you went
when you arrived here to the US,
but also you've been
covering the immigration issue
for decades.
Has anything changed?
Have we evolved as a country
in dealing with this issue?
And I ask you this when I was
just watching the news a few
minutes ago, watching how
there's tens of thousands
of Haitians at the border
and they're now, as we speak,
being flown back
to their country.
And that's just today.
If we look in the
last few years,
it's been mostly
Central Americans.
Has anything changed
from what you experienced
when you arrived?
>> Maria Hinojosa:
It's gotten worse.
It's gotten worse.
I'm so -- often I'm
asked the question,
how do you do what you do?
Because you're doing the
frontline reporting and you're
with a lot of trauma
all the time.
And so part of what I
do is that I go away
and I spend the weekend
in nature.
You know, I try to disconnect.
And so you know when I do
check in today, I'm horrified
by my fellow journalists putting
these photographs, these videos
of desperate people,
I don't think --
part of what's happening now
when we're seeing these
images is precisely,
when you ask what's
changed is that the level
of dehumanization
has only increased.
So what Noé did, and I'm so
thankful and honored to be here
on this panel with you,
Noé, as a Latino or Latina,
as someone connected to
the earth and as someone
who also lives on
stories, I'm really,
really happy to be
here with you.
Because the other side of
that is this kind of --
and I'm going to use a
term -- "gaslighting."
I just wrote an essay
for my bulletin
which is a weekly newsletter
I have called [foreign word],
and I was talking precisely
about how, you know,
the images are incorrect.
And today, María Elena, that
[foreign word] these are people
who are -- who got out because
there was an earthquake,
because there is climate
change, because --
and you can replace Haiti
with Honduras or Guatemala,
and people will still come.
And my question is -- and I know
you have the same question --
[foreign phrase]?
Is there really not room?
Because as far as we know, if
you look at the demographics
of this country, half
of the population growth
in total population
growth in the United States
over the last 10 years
was because of Latino
and Latina births in the United
States, not through migration.
And we're okay.
Imagine now that this kind,
that in fact refugees,
the Haitian people coming,
actually they are an
essential part of lifting
up the American economy.
That would be a change, María
Elena, to be able to say,
oh wow, we have a totally
different narrative
around immigrants and refugees.
We understand that, in fact,
they are an essential
part of our country.
And if they are coming
from Afghanistan,
we will also welcome them.
And if they are coming from
Honduras, we will welcome them.
Because, I don't know, that's
what the Statue of Liberty says,
and she's just a stone's throw
from where I'm sitting right now
in Harlem, New York City.
So, I'm sorry that I get so
revved up because I'm desperate.
The situation is getting worse,
and this is not the
past administration.
So you know, cruelty
may not be the point,
but cruelty is still occurring
because of bad choices
around immigration and refugees.
And frankly -- I'm
sorry to say this.
Trigger warning.
But I'm sorry, I really am,
but I also feel like we have
to acknowledge this comes
down from white supremacy.
It is a sense that,
oh, this country is
for us and not for you.
And it's like actually,
this country was an
indigenous country first.
Then people who spoke
Spanish arrived here.
We don't read about that
in the history book.
Then the pilgrims arrived.
So this country should
be for all of us.
>> María Elena Salinas: I have
a question for both of you,
and you both have
very unique voices.
As the Latino community
continues to grow, you know,
we're already the largest
minority in the country,
the second-largest voting
block, Latino voices
and perspective become more
important and more relevant.
What do you want people to
know about the importance
of those perspectives?
Noé, let's start with you.
>> Noé Álvarez: I
think we're finally --
I mean, with this run that I
write about, it's a spirit run,
and what that means is that
we're on a listening journey,
and I think that's
the heart of it.
The world is fragmented right
now, but I want people to know
that there is incredible
energy in the fragments.
And I think the way
we are channeling
that energy is through
our words.
And it is important to
capture the complexity of voice
of the Latino, indigenous, and
the working-class community.
And we're doing it
over the page.
We're doing it in different
forms, but we need to do it.
We need to get out there.
We need to bring
healing and we need
to confront our pain
and our trauma.
So yeah, I think
the time is right.
I think we are just sort of
just tired of being displaced.
You know, in literature,
you know,
we need to speak our truth, and
we need to get it out there.
But we also need to sort
of do it in such a way
that complicates our narrative,
because nothing is
black and white.
And I think that's what makes
our stories beautiful is
that we are many realities.
There's many layers to what it
means to be Latino working-class
and what it means to be
from the US or from Mexico.
Things are so complicated now,
and that's beautiful and messy,
and so I'm just trying to
capture the beautiful mess
that is our human condition,
and I think that's why
it's important to capture
as many voices as we can,
because I think it's imperative
that we continue to be on
this listening journey.
Because I don't think
we've been listening enough
to the diversity of
voices that are out there,
the people who are our very
neighbors who can teach us
and give us and pass
that medicine on to us.
>> María Elena Salinas:
That's wonderful.
Maria, what about you?
I know you have some
thoughts about that.
>> Maria Hinojosa: I forgot.
I was so taken by what Noé was
saying, I forgot the question.
>> María Elena Salinas: Oh.
I was asking, you know, how
important Latino voices are,
not just names and faces but
Latino voices -- sorry --
and what you want people to know
about the perspective of Latinos
and Latino writers,
in this case.
>> Maria Hinojosa: So I'm
obsessed, in this case,
with journalists, you know,
that, for example, we are --
in many ways, it
feels -- invisible.
If Latinos are the
second largest group
in the United States,
ethnic/racial,
because you know
we're not a race.
We are racially mixed,
but we are the second --
I don't use the term
"minority" just because I don't
like that term, but yes,
for lack of any other term we
are the second-largest minority.
>> María Elena Salinas:
Second largest cohort.
>> Maria Hinojosa: Cohort.
[Foreign word].
Perfect. Second largest cohort.
[Foreign phrase]
So when we're talking about
Latinos and the future
of this country, we're talking
about the future of democracy.
So if Latinos and Latinas
are not being heard,
if we are not being engaged on
our feelings about everything
from the war in Afghanistan,
to the economy,
to entrepreneurship, to the
tech world, to education,
to business, to immigration,
then there's something wrong.
Because we now are essential
to keeping this society not
only thriving but actually --
again, with the values
of democracy.
You know, I was writing
about the fact that --
you know this, María Elena,
and you know this, Noé.
You know, in fact,
on the one hand --
it's a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, there's
the beauty of Latinos
and Latinas wanting to be there
for our parents, to give back
to our parents, to make
our parents proud, right?
It can be also a weight, as you
felt, Noé, it was a weight.
It was too much, right?
But at the same time, like,
there's an incredible value
in that perspective of
like caring for others,
putting your [foreign word]
first before yourself.
And so what Latinos and Latinas,
how we think about quote-unquote
"family values" is going to
be what family values look
like in the future
in this country.
Latinas are the most
powerful consumer group
in the United States of America.
Why? Because we over-index
in terms of white women
and black women, we are the ones
who decide what is
consumed in our homes.
We are engaged in democracy, but
it needs to be even deeper and,
in this case, we need
people to see us.
So as you know, María Elena
-- I mean, I got frustrated.
I said, I'm just going to
create my own media company.
I'm going to tell
my own stories.
But we want the mainstream
to be seeing us not
because it makes us feel
good, but because it's
for the future of this country.
For the future of this
country, the economics,
the democracy, the education.
One out of every four
kindergartners is Latino
or Latina.
So, sadly, on the other side,
what we have been fed
is a narrative of fear
that immigrants and
Latinos are takers.
Listen to Noé.
His parents were working in the
fields at 4:00 in the morning
to make sure that we had
asparagus and apples.
>> María Elena Salinas: Yeah.
>> Maria Hinojosa: You
know what I'm saying?
So, the thing is, is
that we're not giving up
and our stories continue
to be told,
but it's a little bit like,
why are we still talking
about invisibility?
It's frustrating.
>> María Elena Salinas:
You're absolutely right.
I'm going to jump right away to
the questions from the audience
because there are
a lot of questions.
I don't think we're
going to be able
to have time for all of them.
Maria Pena [phonetic] is
asking to either one of you,
considering the new census
data, are schools doing enough
to raise awareness
about Hispanic contributions
to the US?
Noé, you want to take that?
>> Noé Álvarez: I'm
sorry, I couldn't listen.
I didn't hear that question.
>> María Elena Salinas: The
question from Maria Pena is,
considering the new census
data, are schools doing enough
to raise awareness
about Hispanic contributions
to the US?
>> Noé Álvarez: Oh.
I think we can always do
more for sure, you know,
but we've got to give
it to the teachers.
They're overworked,
working with, you know,
little amounts of resources.
So I think at the classroom,
it starts, you know,
that's where it starts
to get creative
about teaching our
youth how to think
and not what to think, you know?
And I think as long as, you
know you're putting all you can
into funding our school systems
to not leaving any
of the kids behind.
I think that's all we can ask,
but I think it also starts,
you know, education
is in the home
and education is
outside of schools.
It's, you know, I
learned it on the land.
I learned it with my elders.
And so whatever we can do
to diversify our education
beyond the classroom I think is
important, but I have an
admiration for the teachers
for what they have to do and
endure in our political climate.
>> María Elena Salinas:
The next question is
from Robert McCoy.
He says I love hearing
about each of your stories.
You're both incredible.
My question is, what stories
as a child inspired you
to embrace your culture
and heritage?
Maria.
>> Maria Hinojosa: I mean, I --
this is what Once I Was You
is all about, essentially.
I am so thankful to my mom and
my dad, my he rest in peace,
that they kind of
authentically knew what to do,
and so it wasn't badgering
us over the head by saying,
"You're a Mexican, and you
got to be proud and you got
to speak Spanish,
and you must" -- No.
[Foreign word] we spoke
Spanish in the home.
We were all born in Mexico,
but my parents then would
take us every year to Mexico.
We would drive from Chicago to
Mexico every year, all six of us
in the car, and that
was solidifying my kind
of rootedness with my
Latino and Latina identity,
very particularly
my Mexican identity.
Which then I was
like, wait a second,
there are indigenous
people who are alive
and they built Teotihuacan,
Tenochtitlan, Uxmal,
Palenque, Chichen Itza.
And then I was like, wow, I'm
a descendant of this, too.
And it allowed me to kind of
really kind of center myself.
So all of that gave me a basis,
but I actually wanted to jump
on something, what Noé
said about education.
I actually think --
I love what you said
about appreciating the teachers,
but at the same time, no,
this country is not teaching
at all about the history
and presence of Latinos
and Latinas.
Apart from indigenous
people, the first people
to arrive here were not
the pilgrims in Jamestown.
They were from Spain, speaking
Spanish, and they arrived
to Southern Florida, St.
Augustine, and the second place,
a settlement beyond
indigenous people,
was in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
That means that Spanish was
spoken here before English.
We don't learn that.
But imagine, María
Elena and Noé,
if our kids were
learning that --
>> María Elena Salinas:
[Inaudible] here in Florida.
The Spaniards were here
before the settlers.
>> Maria Hinojosa:
[Foreign word].
So imagine if that
was like the headline.
If it's like, oh my God, we're
going to reteach what's going --
And how -- what that
would do to, okay,
the pride of people
who speak Spanish.
Instead, it's like,
don't speak Spanish.
English is the official
language.
It's like, what is this?
>> María Elena Salinas: Right.
Noé, I'm going to throw
this question at you.
This is from Ana T.: What
has your new book meant
to your community
and your family?
And I want you to answer
this question particularly
because it was really your
family that sort of began
or pushed you toward
this journey.
Not that they pushed you, but
because of your experience
with them, you did it
because of them and for them.
>> Noé Álvarez: Yeah.
No, that's a great question.
I'm definitely a product
of my environment.
You know, those experiences
have informed me
and I'm thankful today.
And I think you'll -- I
guess I'd have to ask them,
but I think for me,
I just wanted to sort
of paint this picture sort
of ceremoniously, right?
What we do as a people is
that we come around the fire,
and we have conversations,
and I just wanted to sort
of introduce a conversation
so that people can have it,
and so that they can
see themselves in a lot
of these runners
and in this story.
And I think it was so impactful
in that it helped amplify,
bring attention to
some of these stories
that people didn't
want to hear about.
Didn't want to hear about
the warehouse conditions.
They didn't want to hear
about the farm labor.
It was my obligation to
put that stuff out there
in as much detail as I could,
but also trying to find magic
and healing in those stories
so that people don't feel
like that's where we're at
and that we're stuck
in these scenarios.
So I just wanted to sort of
show my people of Yakima,
show the Latino community,
Indigenous community,
that there's different ways of
restoring your fire, you know,
and finding your medicine.
And so I think I'm very excited
it's been received very well
in my community.
I battled with outing my family,
outing our story, and contending
with whether I was the right
one to tell it, but at the end
of the day, it was
my duty to tell it.
We can't be quiet
anymore, you know,
and we have to inspire
the youth to step forward
and tell their own story.
>> María Elena Salinas:
Exactly.
Well, we have to wrap it up.
We only have two minutes left,
so I want to ask you a question.
And hopefully, we can
answer it one minute each.
So we know that the theme
of the National Book
Festival this year is,
open a book, open the world.
How have your books
opened the world for you?
Maria?
>> Maria Hinojosa: The
books that I've written
or the books that I've read?
>> María Elena Salinas: Well,
how have books opened the world?
Books in general.
>> Maria Hinojosa: You know, I
have to say, look, the truth is,
is that mom and dad
spoke Spanish.
All the books in my house were
Spanish, and so I didn't have
like Tom Sawyer and
Huckleberry Finn.
Like that wasn't my experience.
It took me a while to feel like
I could enjoy reading a book
or that I should read a book.
I've been asked recently, like
what were your first books?
And I was like Stuart
Little, The Outsiders,
you know, Dick and Jane.
It wasn't until I read
Hemingway that I felt
like maybe I could
in fact maybe write.
Not be a writer, but just write.
And so for me, books have
been a constant companion.
I'm always reading for work
because I'm getting ready
to interview somebody
who has written a book,
or reading somebody's work,
and for me, I don't know.
I'm still -- I'm like,
I love it in my hands.
I love the book in my hands.
And they -- I agree.
I think this notion
of, open a book,
open a world, you
can go anywhere.
And this has been a beautiful
conversation, and thank you
to all of the viewers and --
>> María Elena Salinas:
Thank you, Maria.
Can you tell us in
30 seconds, Noé,
how books have opened
your world?
>> Noé Álvarez: Yeah, I
didn't grow up with books,
so I'm -- but I think it's
introduced me to words,
it's introduced me
to other worlds.
It's given me the opportunity
to reimagine the circumstances
of my world to sort of
hold those tragic tales
of displacement and
then find magic.
It's my medicine.
It's my therapy.
I can't be me without
my writing,
and so I encourage anyone
who has something to say
to open those books, expose
yourself to other opportunities,
other worlds, and
you'll find much healing.
>> María Elena Salinas:
Thank you so much, Noé.
Thank you so much, Maria.
It was such a pleasure speaking
with you and thank you so much
to the Library of Congress
for holding this festival,
for inviting me, of course,
to moderate this panel
and have the great
opportunity of speaking
to these two wonderful authors.
And I'm so glad that it's not
just me that knows you now
but it's a lot of people
that are watching us now
that know how magnificent
you both are
and how much you contribute.
And happy Hispanic
Heritage Month.
[Foreign phrase] Thank you all.
[ Music ]