0:00:02.963,0:00:05.988
It's said that to be a poet

0:00:06.948,0:00:10.553
you have to go to hell and back.

0:00:12.173,0:00:15.349
The first time I visited the prison,

0:00:15.349,0:00:20.025
I was not surprised by the noise[br]of the padlocks,

0:00:20.025,0:00:24.243
or the closing doors,[br]or the cell bars,

0:00:24.243,0:00:28.246
or by any of the things[br]I had imagined.

0:00:28.246,0:00:33.559
Maybe because the prison[br]is in a quite open space.

0:00:33.559,0:00:35.689
You can see the sky.

0:00:35.689,0:00:39.332
Seagulls fly overhead,[br]and you feel like you're next to the sea,

0:00:39.332,0:00:42.375
that you're really close to the beach.

0:00:42.375,0:00:48.305
But in fact, the gulls are looking[br]for food in the dump near the prison.

0:00:49.250,0:00:55.221
I went farther inside and I suddenly saw[br]inmates moving across the corridors.

0:00:55.886,0:00:59.966
Then it was as if I stepped back[br]and thought

0:00:59.966,0:01:03.775
that I could have very well been[br]one of them.

0:01:03.775,0:01:09.522
If I had another story,[br]another context, different luck.

0:01:10.457,0:01:15.959
Because nobody - nobody -[br]can choose where they're born.

0:01:17.790,0:01:22.453
In 2009, I was invited to join a project

0:01:22.453,0:01:27.860
that San Martín National University[br]conducted at the Unit 48 penitentiary,

0:01:27.865,0:01:31.080
to coordinate a writing workshop.

0:01:31.080,0:01:37.525
The prison service ceded some land[br]at the end of the prison,

0:01:37.525,0:01:43.157
which is where they constructed[br]the University Center building.

0:01:44.152,0:01:46.570
The first time I met with the prisoners,

0:01:46.570,0:01:50.245
I asked them why they were asking[br]for a writing workshop

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and they told me they wanted [br]to put on paper

0:01:53.896,0:01:57.827
all that they couldn't say and do.

0:01:59.062,0:02:03.929
Right then I decided that I wanted poetry[br]to enter the prison.

0:02:05.434,0:02:09.038
So I said to them[br]why don't we work with poetry,

0:02:09.044,0:02:10.780
if they knew what poetry was.

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But nobody had a clue[br]what poetry really was.

0:02:18.622,0:02:20.256
They also suggested to me

0:02:20.256,0:02:22.775
that the workshop should be[br]not just for the inmates

0:02:22.775,0:02:28.031
taking university classes, [br]but for all the inmates.

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And so I said[br]that to start this workshop,

0:02:31.808,0:02:35.650
I needed to find a tool[br]that we all had in common.

0:02:35.650,0:02:38.756
That tool was language.

0:02:38.756,0:02:44.948
We had language, we had the workshop.[br]We could have poetry.

0:02:44.948,0:02:50.774
But what I hadn't considered[br]was that inequality exists in prison, too.

0:02:50.774,0:02:55.895
Many of the prisoners hadn't even[br]completed grammar school.

0:02:55.895,0:03:01.275
Many couldn't use cursive,[br]could barely print.

0:03:03.410,0:03:07.082
They didn't write fluently, either.

0:03:07.082,0:03:11.693
So we started looking for short poems.

0:03:11.693,0:03:14.759
Very short, but very powerful.

0:03:14.759,0:03:18.507
And we started to read, and we'd read[br]one author, then another author,

0:03:18.507,0:03:23.982
and by reading such short poems,[br]they all began to realize

0:03:23.982,0:03:28.639
that what the poetic language did[br]was to break a certain logic,

0:03:28.639,0:03:30.394
and create another system.

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Breaking the logic of language[br]also breaks the logic of the system

0:03:33.988,0:03:37.755
under which they've learned to respond.

0:03:38.550,0:03:42.043
So a new system appeared,

0:03:42.043,0:03:47.202
new rules that made them[br]understand very quickly,

0:03:47.202,0:03:49.081
- very quickly -

0:03:49.081,0:03:51.230
that with poetic language

0:03:51.230,0:03:55.739
they would be able to say[br]absolutely whatever they wanted.

0:03:59.479,0:04:04.570
It's said that to be a poet[br]you have to go to hell and back.

0:04:05.475,0:04:09.974
And they have plenty of hell.[br]Plenty of hell.

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One of them once said:[br]"In prison you never sleep.

0:04:14.589,0:04:19.454
You can never sleep in jail.[br]You can never close your eyelids."

0:04:20.351,0:04:26.707
And so, like I’m doing now,[br]I gave them a moment of silence,

0:04:26.707,0:04:31.429
then said,[br]“That's what poetry is, you guys.

0:04:32.309,0:04:37.494
It's in this prison universe[br]that you have all around you.

0:04:37.494,0:04:39.774
Everything you say[br]about how you never sleep,

0:04:39.774,0:04:41.464
it exudes fear.

0:04:41.464,0:04:46.229
All the things that go unwritten --[br]all of that is poetry."

0:04:47.469,0:04:51.676
So we started appropriating that hell;

0:04:51.676,0:04:55.184
we plunged ourselves, headfirst,[br]into the seventh circle.

0:04:55.184,0:04:59.222
And in that seventh circle of hell,[br]our very own, beloved circle,

0:04:59.222,0:05:03.434
they learned that they could[br]make the walls invisible,

0:05:03.434,0:05:05.604
that they could make the windows yell,

0:05:05.604,0:05:08.544
and that we could hide inside the shadows.

0:05:11.504,0:05:15.464
When the first year[br]of the workshop had ended,

0:05:15.464,0:05:17.872
we organized a little closing party,

0:05:17.872,0:05:21.562
like you do when a job is done[br]with so much love,

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and you want to celebrate with a party.

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We called family, friends, [br]the university authorities.

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The only thing the inmates[br]had to do was read a poem,

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and receive their diplomas and applause.

0:05:35.558,0:05:38.085
That was our simple party.

0:05:40.105,0:05:45.004
The only thing I want to leave you with

0:05:46.694,0:05:51.019
is the moment in which those men,

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some of them just huge[br]when standing next to me,

0:05:53.519,0:05:59.230
or the young boys - so young,[br]but with an enormous pride,

0:05:59.230,0:06:05.073
held their papers and trembled[br]like little kids and sweated,

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and read their poems with their[br]voices completely broken.

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That moment made me think a lot

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that for most of them,[br]it was surely the very first time

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that someone applauded them[br]for something they had done.

0:06:28.809,0:06:32.262
In prison there are things[br]that can't be done.

0:06:32.262,0:06:37.118
In prison, you can't dream.[br]In prison, you can't cry.

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There are words that are virtually[br]forbidden, like the word "time,"

0:06:42.147,0:06:47.016
the word "future," the word "wish".

0:06:47.016,0:06:52.322
But we dared to dream, and to dream a lot.

0:06:52.322,0:06:57.126
We decided[br]that they were going to write a book.

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Not only did they write a book,[br]but they also bound it themselves.

0:07:01.546,0:07:04.642
That was at the end of 2010.

0:07:04.642,0:07:09.051
Then, we doubled the bet[br]and wrote another book.

0:07:09.051,0:07:10.685
And we bound that one, too.

0:07:10.685,0:07:14.109
That was a short time ago,[br]at the end of last year.

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What I see week after week,

0:07:20.000,0:07:24.357
is how they're turning[br]into different people;

0:07:24.357,0:07:26.904
how they're being transformed.

0:07:26.904,0:07:31.251
How words are empowering them[br]with a dignity they had never known,

0:07:31.251,0:07:33.334
that they couldn't even imagine.

0:07:33.334,0:07:38.125
They had no idea such dignity[br]could come from them.

0:07:39.130,0:07:46.397
At the workshop, in that beloved hell[br]we share, we all give something.

0:07:46.397,0:07:50.997
We open our hands and hearts and give[br]what we have, what we can.

0:07:50.997,0:07:53.151
All of us;[br]all of us equally.

0:07:53.151,0:07:57.766
And so you feel that at least[br]in a small way

0:07:57.766,0:08:01.416
you're repairing[br]that huge social fracture

0:08:01.416,0:08:06.634
which makes it so that for many of them,

0:08:06.634,0:08:09.812
prison is their only destination.

0:08:12.172,0:08:17.551
I remember a verse[br]by a tremendous poet, a great poet,

0:08:18.586,0:08:24.430
from our Unit 48 workshop,[br]Nicolás Dorado:

0:08:28.395,0:08:34.789
"I will need an infinite thread[br]to sew up this huge wound."

0:08:35.485,0:08:40.679
Poetry does that; it sews up[br]the wounds of exclusion.

0:08:41.004,0:08:46.242
It opens doors. [br]Poetry works as a mirror.

0:08:46.417,0:08:49.762
It creates a mirror, which is the poem.

0:08:49.762,0:08:53.745
They recognize themselves,[br]they look at themselves in the poem

0:08:53.745,0:08:58.808
and write from who they are,[br]and are from what they write.

0:08:58.808,0:09:01.513
In order to write,

0:09:01.513,0:09:05.704
they need to appropriate[br]the moment of writing

0:09:05.704,0:09:09.155
which is a moment[br]of extraordinary freedom.

0:09:09.155,0:09:12.098
They have to get into their heads,[br]search for that bit of freedom

0:09:12.098,0:09:17.124
that can never be taken away[br]when they write

0:09:17.124,0:09:20.635
and that is also useful[br]to realize that freedom is possible

0:09:20.635,0:09:22.973
even inside a prison,

0:09:22.973,0:09:28.235
and that the only bars we have[br]in our wonderful space

0:09:28.235,0:09:30.097
is the word "bars,"

0:09:30.097,0:09:33.959
and that all of us in our hell[br]burn with happiness

0:09:33.959,0:09:37.669
when we light the wick of the word.

0:09:37.669,0:09:40.669
(Applause)

0:10:05.143,0:10:11.597
I told you a lot about the prison,[br]a lot about what I experience

0:10:11.597,0:10:16.178
every week, and how I enjoy it[br]and transform myself with the inmates.

0:10:16.178,0:10:19.593
But you don't know how much I'd like it

0:10:19.593,0:10:25.159
if you could feel, live, experience,[br]even for a few seconds,

0:10:25.159,0:10:29.494
what I enjoy every week[br]and what makes me who I am.

0:10:32.151,0:10:35.151
(Applause)

0:10:41.228,0:10:45.459
Martín Bustamante: [br]The heart chews tears of time;

0:10:45.464,0:10:48.346
blinded by that light,

0:10:48.346,0:10:51.721
it hides the speed of existence

0:10:51.721,0:10:53.874
where the images go rowing by.

0:10:53.874,0:10:56.847
It fights; it hangs on.

0:10:56.847,0:11:00.549
The heart cracks under sad gazes,

0:11:00.554,0:11:04.327
rides on storms that spread fire,

0:11:04.327,0:11:07.451
lifts chests lowered by shame,

0:11:07.451,0:11:10.627
knows that it's not just reading[br]and going on,

0:11:10.627,0:11:14.452
it also wishes to see the infinite blue.

0:11:14.457,0:11:18.185
The heart sits down to think about things,

0:11:18.185,0:11:20.897
fights to avoid being ordinary,

0:11:20.897,0:11:24.320
tries to love without hurting,

0:11:24.320,0:11:28.023
breathes the sun,[br]giving courage to itself,

0:11:28.023,0:11:32.391
surrenders, travels toward reason.

0:11:32.391,0:11:35.294
The heart fights among the swamps,

0:11:35.294,0:11:38.819
skirts the edge of the underworld,

0:11:38.819,0:11:43.101
falls exhausted, but won't give in[br]to what's easy,

0:11:43.101,0:11:45.590
while irregular steps of intoxication

0:11:45.590,0:11:47.167
wake up,

0:11:47.167,0:11:49.057
wake the stillness.

0:11:49.057,0:11:51.029
I'm Martín Bustamante,

0:11:51.756,0:11:55.254
I'm a prisoner in Unit 48 of San Martín,

0:11:55.254,0:11:58.112
today is my day of temporary release.

0:11:58.112,0:12:01.784
And for me, poetry and literature[br]have changed my life.

0:12:01.784,0:12:02.905
Thank you very much!

0:12:02.905,0:12:04.325
Cristina Domenech: Thank you!

0:12:04.325,0:12:06.645
(Applause)