WEBVTT

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[Maja Zawierzeniec:
"On Dreaming and Borders"]

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Leonora is not a poet,

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she's a walking poem,

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which all of a sudden opens an umbrella,

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which unexpectedly becomes a bird,

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that afterwards turns into a fish

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and disappears."

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This is how Leonora Carrington,

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a Mexican artist of British origin,

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was described by one of her friends.

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Leonora lived at the border
between different worlds:

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cultural, linguistic and mental.

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This is what I want to talk about today.

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About borders,

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borders and dreams,

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dreams at the border
and borders of dreams.

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Over the last several years,

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I visited the United Mexican States

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more than ten times.

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Since the year 2001, 
when my first visit took place,

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Mexico came to be my mental homeland.

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I feel very well there 
and perceive some kind of magic,

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which I'm not able to feel in Europe,
no matter how beautiful it is.

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Additionally, due to my work,

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and because of my personality,

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I also feel myself on the border
among different worlds:

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academic, student,

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formal, informal,

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business and cultural.

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Borders are usually associated
with something negative

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with being on the verge
of something stressful and dangerous.

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But borders also imply something else:

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When we are at the edge of some space,

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we can "jump" to another one

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and get to know new territories.

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When we are standing steadily

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on whichever space,

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it's difficult to "jump" to the new one.

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I also think that the ability
to cross borders

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is even more useful in the private life
than in the professional one,

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as it lets us look

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at some situations

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from different points of view

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and feel less fear,

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when we are stepping out 
of our comfort zone.

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Approaching the border 
helps us to change the perspective.

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There may be a lot of borders:

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physical, linguistic,

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cultural, intellectual;

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we can also have mental borders.

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And it is about these borders,
in the Mexican context,

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that I'd like to talk about.

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When we think about Mexico
and the border,

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we automatically imagine the borderline

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between Mexico and the United States,

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the area portrayed in the media

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as dangerous, destructive, full of violence.

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However, this border has another side:

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it is a place of a rich cultural

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and social exchange.

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A place of social symbiosis:

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there are a lot of people and families,

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who cross and enrich 
this border every single day.

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Also, a lot of Mexicans living in Poland,

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or Polish people visiting Mexico,

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have told me that in spite of 
a large geographical distance

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between our countries,

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we have a lot of common mental features.

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It teaches us that physical borders

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may be illusory.

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If we talk about 
linguistic and cultural borders,

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we intuitively feel
that every new language

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is a key to unlock a new culture.

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But I think that a language is much more:

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it enables us to create reality,

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and shape the world around us.

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I would like to illustrate this
with the example of Malinche.

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Malinche, or Doña Marina,

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was a companion and translator
of Hernán Cortés,

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who conquered Mexico in the 16th century.

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As a very young girl 
she was sold to the Maya people

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by her mother, after her father's death.

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She herself came from the Nahua tribe.

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This way she learnt another 
important Mexican language.

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She was among several captive women

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given as a present to Cortés,

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arriving at the Mexican coast.

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From the first official
translator of Hernán Cortés

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she learnt Spanish.

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Malinche is seen 
as a controversial figure in Mexico,

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because sometimes she is thought of 
as a traitor to the nation.

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In my view, taking into account
the social and the historical context

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she was compelled to live in,

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this statement is not necessarily true.

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Furthermore, we could assume

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that her mediation was the reason that

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the conquest of Mexico was less bloody.

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This way the figure of Malinche,

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a woman who lived in the 16th century,

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teaches us that a language is not only
"a door to another culture,"

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but also a means to shape the reality,

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and therefore participate more actively

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in the social life.

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If we talk about intellectual borders,

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let's take an example

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of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

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Sor Juana Inés was
a Mexican Baroque poet.

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She became a nun, since monastic life

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a bit more easily than other social contexts

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in the 16th century Mexico,

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allowed a woman to study.

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And Sor Juana was a "child prodigy."

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Since her early years, she put
a lot of effort in understanding,

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learning and personal development.

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Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
is famous for saying

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that we can learn in every situation.

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She also authors
another celebrated statement:

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"Had Aristotle cooked,
he would have written a great deal more."

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This figure teaches us

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that intellectual borders
also can be surpassed.

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This is how we approached the last border,
probably the most difficult:

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the mental, psychological border.

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Here our guide will be
Rosario Castellanos,

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a Mexican writer

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concerned with the topic of native people.

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She was also a member of 
the Mexican diplomatic corps,

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and an ambassador in Israel.

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In her play "The Eternal Feminine"

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a peddler visits a Mexican beauty salon

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regularly offering technical novelties 
to the owner.

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This time he brings a special device
for a hair dryer,

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a big one, of the old sort.

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What is this invention meant for?

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For occupying the heads,

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literally and metaphorically,

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of the clients.

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Some of them go there
several times a week.

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With their heads under the dryer
they get bored,

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and boredom, as is well known,

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can lead to a socially dangerous activity:

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thinking.

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This new, wonderful invention is tested

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on an ideal client:

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a naive young girl,

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full of hope, about to get married.

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In this Mexican beauty salon

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she dreams a socially correct dream,

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in which she turns from
a young, energetic person

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into a frustrated,

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sad housewife.

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Rosario Castellanos' play

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shows us that we can 
go beyond the mental borders.

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And the irony helps us disarm

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the negative social schemes,

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which we often grow up with.

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Cultural, linguistic,

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mental borders

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were experienced by three Mexican,
not completely Mexican women,

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three surrealist painters
of European origin,

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who created their works in Mexico:

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Alice Rahon, Remedios Varo 
and Leonora Carrington.

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Alice Rahon, in her paintings,

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mixes the French surrealism

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with the color of the Mexican soil.

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She portrays herself
as Alice in Wonderland,

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a literary character
drifting between worlds.

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In her works, she also 
pays tribute to Frida Kahlo.

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This second painting represents

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her vision of the Mexican world.

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Towards the knowledge, and the unknown
is where Remedios Varo,

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of Spanish origin, drifts as well.

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Her painting "Exploration of the Sources
of the Orinoco River"

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portrays a young woman in a small boat,

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sailing to the unknown.

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We can tell that Remedios Varo herself

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was aware of living, being

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on the verge of two different worlds,

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which can be verified
in her self-portrait:

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on one side we can see her face,

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the connection with the real world,

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on other side there is a mask,

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symbolizing the belonging 
to the surrealistic world,

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to a different world.

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And the last, yet very interesting figure:

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Leonora Carrington, of British origin,

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to whom the first quotation referred.

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Leonora Carrington died only two years ago,

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at the age of 94 in Mexico City.

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Her paintings show

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the connection with the world of magic,

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the world of animals, 
the world of intuition.

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I'm the President

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of the Polish-Mexican Cultural Association

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Bocian&Nopal.

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The projects we carry out are meant to
familiarize Polish people with Mexico,

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and convey certain ideas,

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that we can learn 
from the Mexicans in general

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and the Mexican women
I mentioned.

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That language is the key 
to unlock other cultures,

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that can shape and change the reality.

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That we can go 
beyond intellectual borders,

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and that, in fact, we are the ones
who limit ourselves.

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That mental borders and social "devices"

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put by the society

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into our personal "hair dryers"

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can be disarmed with irony.

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In everyday life, when we say 
that something is surrealistic,

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we think that it is unreal, 
and hard to accomplish.

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But maybe freedom and crossing borders

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can actually take place

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if we feel more at ease,

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if nothing is limiting us.

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It happens when we sleep and dream.

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Lawrence of Arabia once said

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that all the people dream,
but not in the same way.

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Most of the people dream by night.

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They wake up and see
that their dream is gone.

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But he said that there are
also these dangerous people,

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who may act their dreams
with open eyes

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in the daylight

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to make them possible.

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Life is a dream,
so let us dream consciously.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)