WEBVTT - Ruth Behar: The Dancing Anthropologist

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<v Speaker 1>Improvisations really important in writing, because you discover things as

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<v Speaker 1>you write if you already know everything. This is what

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<v Speaker 1>I always say to students. If you know everything you're

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<v Speaker 1>going to write, then it's not worth writing.

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<v Speaker 2>From Futuro Media and PRX, It's Latino Usa. I'm marieo

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<v Speaker 2>Josa Today, one of the most influential anthropologists of our time,

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<v Speaker 2>tells us about her creative process on the page and

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<v Speaker 2>on the dance floor. Ruth Behar had to learn the

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<v Speaker 2>rules of anthropology to know she wanted to break them. Today,

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<v Speaker 2>Ruth is a well known name in academic and literary circles,

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<v Speaker 2>but before all that, Ruth was a PhD student at Princeton.

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<v Speaker 2>There she was taught that anthropologists had to be impersonal,

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<v Speaker 2>objective observers of the people and cultures that they study,

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<v Speaker 2>And for years Ruth was a good student, exceptional student.

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<v Speaker 2>In fact, Ruth was the first Latina to be awarded

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<v Speaker 2>a MacArthur Genius Fellowship in nineteen eighty eight, when she

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<v Speaker 2>was just thirty two years old. But in nineteen ninety six,

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<v Speaker 2>Ruth published a book she thought might end her career.

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<v Speaker 2>She titled it The Vulnerable Observer Anthropology that Breaks your Heart.

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<v Speaker 2>It's a collection of personal and ethnographic essays where she

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<v Speaker 2>argues that objectivity in cultural anthropology is a myth. This

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<v Speaker 2>approach changed the field as we know it.

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<v Speaker 1>I still get emails and letters from people who have

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<v Speaker 1>read the book and they said, thanks to you, I

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<v Speaker 1>did this, so I wrote this, or I would never

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<v Speaker 1>have done this, or would never have talked about myself

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<v Speaker 1>in my scholarship. So it did open a door for

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<v Speaker 1>others who wanted to write in a different way than

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<v Speaker 1>they had been taught to write.

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<v Speaker 2>Ruth was born in Cuba to a Jewish family.

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<v Speaker 3>Later she was raised in Queens, New York.

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<v Speaker 2>Her heritage as informed not only her anthropological career, but

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<v Speaker 2>her career as a writer as well. In recent years,

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<v Speaker 2>Ruth has written numerous books for children and young adults

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<v Speaker 2>like her granddaughters. Her latest young adult novel, Across So

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<v Speaker 2>Many Seas, was released in early twenty twenty four. Producer

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<v Speaker 2>Elisaveena has been fascinated with the work of Ruth Behar

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<v Speaker 2>for years, and while getting to know her, Elisa discovered

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<v Speaker 2>they have a unique connection. Not only are they both

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<v Speaker 2>Cuban American writers, they're both also salsa dancers.

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<v Speaker 4>Who are an anthropologist, but you are a dancing.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm a dancing anthropologist, and as Ruth will tell you,

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<v Speaker 2>her experiences on the dance floor translate rather poetically to

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<v Speaker 2>the page. Today, we're bringing you a story about a multifaceted,

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<v Speaker 2>multi talented scholar, told by a person touched by her work.

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<v Speaker 3>And I'm going to let Elisa Veena take it from here.

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<v Speaker 5>A few months ago, Ruth Baihar and I made plans

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<v Speaker 5>to go to salsa class together, but before we made

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<v Speaker 5>it to class, she came over to my apartment to

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<v Speaker 5>chat for a while. The first thing on our agenda

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<v Speaker 5>was her latest book, Across so Many Seas. I spent

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<v Speaker 5>the day on the beach reading the book.

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<v Speaker 3>You're getting paid to do this? Wait, what's going on here?

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<v Speaker 5>The book centers on four twelve year old girls from

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<v Speaker 5>the same Sephardic family, spread across space and time.

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<v Speaker 1>We're going to see how they're thinking, how they're living,

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<v Speaker 1>how they're feeling, what they're doing, what dreams they have.

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<v Speaker 1>We don't stop being twelve year old girls when we're

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<v Speaker 1>twenty five or when we're sixty something, right, I mean

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<v Speaker 1>that that girl is still inside of us. And I

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<v Speaker 1>tried to make it a very poetic book as well,

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<v Speaker 1>so that it would interest a young reader, because I

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<v Speaker 1>think young readers like poetic writing, but I think older

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<v Speaker 1>readers do too, so I was hoping it would be

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<v Speaker 1>kind of an old ages book.

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<v Speaker 5>I was excited to learn about this book because I

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<v Speaker 5>always learned something from Ruth. I first discovered her work

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<v Speaker 5>in twenty twenty two when I was a fellow at

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<v Speaker 5>Latino USA. During my fellowship, I worked on a radio

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<v Speaker 5>essay about the condo collapse that killed ninety eight people

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<v Speaker 5>in Miami Beach a year earlier.

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<v Speaker 3>Right to that breaking news tonight where we continue to

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<v Speaker 3>follow the latest on this condo building collapse.

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<v Speaker 2>These videos and images out of Surfside, Florida show unbelievable destruction.

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<v Speaker 5>It was a tragedy that happened blocks away from the

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<v Speaker 5>apartment I lived in with my grandmother, where I spent

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<v Speaker 5>a lot of my childhood, And every day that I

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<v Speaker 5>sat down to write felt like I was breaking my

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<v Speaker 5>heart open again and again. One of my friends and

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<v Speaker 5>colleagues knew I was struggling, so she emailed me the

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<v Speaker 5>first chapter of The Vulnerable Observer.

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<v Speaker 1>As a storyteller opens her heart to a story listener

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<v Speaker 1>recounting hers that cut deep and raw into the gullies

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<v Speaker 1>of the self.

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<v Speaker 3>Do you the observers.

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<v Speaker 1>Stay behind the lens of the camera, switch on the

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<v Speaker 1>tape recorder, keep the pen in hand.

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<v Speaker 5>At the time, I didn't know who Ruth was, or

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<v Speaker 5>that this book caused a sea change in anthropology. I

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<v Speaker 5>just knew that reading her words, her prose mixed with poetry,

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<v Speaker 5>mixed with ethnography, it gave me the momentum I needed

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<v Speaker 5>to keep going.

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<v Speaker 1>Vulnerability doesn't mean that anything personal goes. The exposure of

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<v Speaker 1>the self, who is also a spectator, has to take

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<v Speaker 1>us somewhere we couldn't otherwise get to.

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<v Speaker 5>I soon learned that Ruth and I had friends in common,

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<v Speaker 5>because that's just how Miami and the Cuban diaspora were.

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<v Speaker 5>We were eventually connected when she was visiting family in

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<v Speaker 5>Miami Beach, and while we were talking about writing, we

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<v Speaker 5>somehow started talking about dance, and we realized that we're

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<v Speaker 5>both salsa dancers.

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<v Speaker 1>Dance is this wonderful nonverbal communication, and in fact, you

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<v Speaker 1>don't have to talk right It's this wonderful universal language

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<v Speaker 1>where you lead the steps and you can dance with

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<v Speaker 1>each other and you don't have to speak the same

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<v Speaker 1>spoken language at all.

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<v Speaker 5>So now whenever Ruth is in Miami, we go to

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<v Speaker 5>salsa class together. Dance has allowed us to cultivate a

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<v Speaker 5>friendship that's been so nourishing for me as a young writer.

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<v Speaker 5>Ruth has shown me that writing is about trusting your instincts.

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<v Speaker 5>It's just like trying and use salsa step. Your ego

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<v Speaker 5>has to get out of the way to let the

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<v Speaker 5>real magic happen.

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<v Speaker 1>You have to be humble when you're writing and you

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<v Speaker 1>don't know how the writing is going to happen. Sometimes,

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<v Speaker 1>like I'll sit there and go, I don't really know

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<v Speaker 1>what's going to happen next. You know this story, I

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<v Speaker 1>hope I can figure it out. You've got to take

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<v Speaker 1>each step as it goes.

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<v Speaker 5>Roots insights shape my own approach to writing. In the

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<v Speaker 5>case of Across so many seas, Roots process was all

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<v Speaker 5>about building a strong structure and following the beats laid

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<v Speaker 5>out before her.

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<v Speaker 1>For me, having a structure of format is really helpful.

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<v Speaker 1>In my previous book, Letters from Cuba, it was all letters,

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<v Speaker 1>and it didn't seem so daunting somehow that I was

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<v Speaker 1>writing a letter instead of a chapter.

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<v Speaker 2>Right.

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<v Speaker 1>And with this book, it was knowing that it was

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<v Speaker 1>going to be each girl, that each section would be

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<v Speaker 1>about forty or fifty pages, because it couldn't be that

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<v Speaker 1>long if I was going to have the fourth story.

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<v Speaker 1>So here are four girls, four places, four time periods.

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<v Speaker 1>How is this going to work? How am I going

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<v Speaker 1>to put this together so it's readable? And somebody isn't thinking, well,

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<v Speaker 1>these are four different stories or four different short stories,

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<v Speaker 1>but they're not. They're all part of the same big story.

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<v Speaker 1>I just decided it would start in fourteen ninety two

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<v Speaker 1>and then it would end in the present day, and

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<v Speaker 1>these different time periods were something cataclysmic is happening in

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<v Speaker 1>their societies.

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<v Speaker 5>There's a big gap in time between the first two

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<v Speaker 5>protagonists in across so many seas. The first girl, Miminida,

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<v Speaker 5>lives in fourteen ninety two when her family is expelled

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<v Speaker 5>from Torlelo during the Spanish Inquisition. The next character is

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<v Speaker 5>Miminida's descendant, who lives in Turkey in nineteen twenty three.

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<v Speaker 5>Ruth connected both these characters through an instrument called an ood.

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<v Speaker 1>Such a beautiful instrument, and the ood plays a very

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<v Speaker 1>important role in the story because well, for a few reasons.

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<v Speaker 1>For her personal reason, because my paternal grandmother, who was

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<v Speaker 1>named Rebecca, she traveled to Cuba with an ood. She

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<v Speaker 1>literally brought an ood with her from Turkey to Cuba.

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<v Speaker 1>And then we knew that she sang these old songs,

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<v Speaker 1>the old Sephardic or Spanish songs. So we knew that,

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<v Speaker 1>and that's basically all we knew about her, and that

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<v Speaker 1>she had been sent to Cuba, that she had been

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<v Speaker 1>sent to Cuba by her parents, and then she never

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<v Speaker 1>saw her parents. And again, so these were the things

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<v Speaker 1>I knew about that grandmother, and they seemed very mysterious.

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<v Speaker 1>So she really inspired the story kind of the mystery

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<v Speaker 1>of what was going.

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<v Speaker 3>On in her life.

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<v Speaker 1>She also didn't like to talk, I think, as much

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<v Speaker 1>about her story. She didn't share as much. And when

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<v Speaker 1>I asked my aunt about it, she goes, oh, no, no,

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<v Speaker 1>we never asked questions that would have been very disrespectful.

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<v Speaker 1>The one story that we heard was that she was

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<v Speaker 1>sent to Cuba on an arranged marriage. The legendary family

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<v Speaker 1>stories that then she was living with an uncle, this

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<v Speaker 1>was her one relative in Cuba. There was a hallway

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<v Speaker 1>where she would sit and play the ood and sing

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<v Speaker 1>Sephardic songs, and that the man who became my grandfather,

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<v Speaker 1>my grandfather Isaac, that he was walking along the street

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<v Speaker 1>and heard her playing the ood and that was what

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<v Speaker 1>attracted him. This is the sad part of the story.

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<v Speaker 1>She married and she had four children, and my father

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<v Speaker 1>was the third. After she married, she stopped playing the ood.

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<v Speaker 1>She didn't have time to play the ood. And what

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<v Speaker 1>they all said is that the ood hung from a

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<v Speaker 1>nail on the wall. So the arranged marriage is kind

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<v Speaker 1>of there in my book, but in a different way.

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<v Speaker 1>In the book it becomes a punishment. But I definitely

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<v Speaker 1>felt very close to her in writing the book, as

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<v Speaker 1>I was thinking about her so much and trying to

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<v Speaker 1>imagine her youth and Turkey and what it would have

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<v Speaker 1>been like to have gone to Cuba from Turkey as

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<v Speaker 1>a young girl. So it was just great to create

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<v Speaker 1>a life for her in the story. I wrote most

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<v Speaker 1>of it at my desk at my home in ann Arbor, Michigan,

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<v Speaker 1>and I have an altar right next to my desk,

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<v Speaker 1>and usually Jewish people don't have alters, so I can't

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<v Speaker 1>call it exactly an alter, but it's like an altar.

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<v Speaker 1>It has images of all of my ancestors and relatives

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<v Speaker 1>who have departed, so both grandparents, my great grandparents, other relatives.

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<v Speaker 1>A friend who passed away this past year as well.

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<v Speaker 1>I've got something of his there too, and candles and

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<v Speaker 1>so on. And I'm writing, I'm always like looking at

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<v Speaker 1>the pictures of those ancestors. So I do feel very

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<v Speaker 1>connected to the ancestors, and I don't forget them, and

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<v Speaker 1>their spirits are very important to me, and I think

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<v Speaker 1>about them all the time. So maybe that energy somehow

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<v Speaker 1>travels through the writing. It's like talking about intangible heritage,

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<v Speaker 1>things like songs or poems or stories or traditions that

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<v Speaker 1>are passed on. There isn't like a palpable artifact, maybe,

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<v Speaker 1>but it's still very real. So like in this book

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<v Speaker 1>and across so many seas, it's like these songs that

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<v Speaker 1>got passed on. It's an intangible heritage, you know, as

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<v Speaker 1>opposed to say the Sephardic Museum, that's a tangible heritage.

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<v Speaker 1>But it was a fourteenth century synagogue, and you know,

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<v Speaker 1>beneath all the blaster and all the walls that they

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<v Speaker 1>built around it, that material remained, and that's a tangible heritage.

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<v Speaker 1>That's an actual synagogue that existed all those centuries ago,

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<v Speaker 1>but it's now a museum.

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<v Speaker 5>Roots work as an anthropologist often focuses on connecting women

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<v Speaker 5>across generations, cultures, and borders, especially Cuban women on and

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<v Speaker 5>off the island. I've never been to Cuba myself, but

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<v Speaker 5>ruth stories make me feel like I have. You know,

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<v Speaker 5>I don't really feel like I have an ancestral home.

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<v Speaker 5>You know, I'm not in a position where I can

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<v Speaker 5>go and live in Cuba. I'm not in a position

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<v Speaker 5>where I can.

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<v Speaker 4>Go and live in you know, La Hi, La Canadias

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<v Speaker 4>in Spain, where part of my family's originally from as

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<v Speaker 4>far as I know. But this apartment where I spent

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<v Speaker 4>my childhood, that's like the most concrete version of my

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<v Speaker 4>ancestral home.

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<v Speaker 1>No, that makes sense, And I think, you know, the

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<v Speaker 1>idea of what an ancestral home is can also shift

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<v Speaker 1>over time, Like this is what you feel now, At

0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:54.520
<v Speaker 1>a later stage of your life, you might feel something different.

0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:55.959
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's what I feel.

0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.120
<v Speaker 1>This is twenty five, what you feel at twenty five,

0:12:58.120 --> 0:12:59.959
<v Speaker 1>and when you're sixty five you might feel something different.

0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.560
<v Speaker 1>And so think keep that in mind, and I think

0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:04.840
<v Speaker 1>with my book, you know, I really wanted to think

0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.079
<v Speaker 1>about Sephardic identity and take it back to fourteen ninety two.

0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.160
<v Speaker 1>It probably goes back much before that, but it was

0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.840
<v Speaker 1>this idea of Jewish people lived in Spain for over

0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.160
<v Speaker 1>a thousand years, you know, it's really incredible.

0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:18.920
<v Speaker 3>It's a long time.

0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.000
<v Speaker 1>They were really part of the history of Spain, and

0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.800
<v Speaker 1>sometimes people don't know that, and that was one of

0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:25.920
<v Speaker 1>the things that I wanted to address in the book.

0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.240
<v Speaker 1>And you know, and to go that far back in

0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.640
<v Speaker 1>a lot of Spaniards will tell you that they think

0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:35.559
<v Speaker 1>they might have Jewish ancestry rights because the Combersos were

0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.680
<v Speaker 1>Jewish people that converted to Catholicism and they converted in

0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.240
<v Speaker 1>order to be able to stay And so to me,

0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.319
<v Speaker 1>that's so fascinating and that people now think about how

0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.640
<v Speaker 1>we have these connections with one another. Sephardic Jews are

0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:52.040
<v Speaker 1>connected to Spaniards in some way because we share this history.

0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:54.640
<v Speaker 1>So that's been so interesting to me that there's kind

0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:56.960
<v Speaker 1>of this we've sort of come full circle in this

0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.080
<v Speaker 1>is there's been a kind of reconciliation.

0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:04.920
<v Speaker 5>As it often does. Our conversation turned to dance. The

0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.400
<v Speaker 5>first time I met Ruth felt like writing an essay

0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:11.320
<v Speaker 5>in real time about the parallel experiences of writing and dancing.

0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.000
<v Speaker 5>Each word is a step, each set of moves is

0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.720
<v Speaker 5>a paragraph. The way you connect them is what gives

0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:23.080
<v Speaker 5>you your style. And some conversations flow so easily they

0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.280
<v Speaker 5>feel like a dance. And even though we've danced together,

0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.680
<v Speaker 5>I never asked Ruth why she started dancing in the

0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:30.280
<v Speaker 5>first place.

0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.800
<v Speaker 1>Oh, I love dancing. Well, you know, I was a

0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:37.800
<v Speaker 1>child who had a broken leg for a long time,

0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:39.600
<v Speaker 1>and I was in a body cast for a year

0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.440
<v Speaker 1>when I was ten, and I write about that in

0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.280
<v Speaker 1>my first novel for young readers, Lucky Broken Girl. So

0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.560
<v Speaker 1>I was lucky and I was broken, and that's very

0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.280
<v Speaker 1>much something that informed I think.

0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:53.520
<v Speaker 3>The person I became.

0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.960
<v Speaker 1>I was a very active girl before this car accident,

0:14:57.120 --> 0:14:59.400
<v Speaker 1>before the body cast, and then after the body cast

0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:03.080
<v Speaker 1>and learning to walk again, I became much more afraid.

0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.240
<v Speaker 3>That I would get hurt again. I didn't want to run.

0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.960
<v Speaker 1>I really stopped doing a lot of physical activities and

0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.440
<v Speaker 1>became more of a reader and more contemplative. And similarly

0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.560
<v Speaker 1>in college, at through graduate school, I just didn't really

0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.080
<v Speaker 1>do a lot of exercise or dancing. For that matter,

0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.160
<v Speaker 1>and I think it was really when I was pregnant

0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.600
<v Speaker 1>at the age of twenty nine, pregnant with my son,

0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:28.600
<v Speaker 1>the one child I had. That was when I started

0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.520
<v Speaker 1>to want to do exercise. I started doing aerobics and

0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.080
<v Speaker 1>things like that to stay in shape during the pregnancy.

0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.960
<v Speaker 1>And then after after I had the baby, that was

0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.520
<v Speaker 1>when I think that was when I started taking dance classes.

0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.280
<v Speaker 1>And then I discovered rouela de casino, which I love.

0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.760
<v Speaker 1>Would you dance in a circle you change partners with?

0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.120
<v Speaker 1>I love that, and I was coming every time I

0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.320
<v Speaker 1>would come to Miami, I would dance another way that

0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.440
<v Speaker 1>here in Miami, and that was great. So I did

0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:01.800
<v Speaker 1>that for a long time, and then for a while,

0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:03.680
<v Speaker 1>for many many years. I haven't danced now for the

0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.640
<v Speaker 1>last four years, but for many many years I danced tango,

0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:08.600
<v Speaker 1>and I love tango.

0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:13.920
<v Speaker 5>Through dance, Ruth has witnessed the themes of her writing

0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.520
<v Speaker 5>in her own life as a member of the Cuban

0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:22.040
<v Speaker 5>and Jewish diasporas. Her relationship with tango embodies that story.

0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.320
<v Speaker 1>My maternal grandfather was actually supposed to go to Argentina

0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.440
<v Speaker 1>instead of Cuba, but he somehow got on the wrong boat,

0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.640
<v Speaker 1>so he ended up in Cuba, and his sister was

0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:35.120
<v Speaker 1>waiting for him in Argentina.

0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.440
<v Speaker 3>So the descendants of that sister still live.

0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.120
<v Speaker 1>In Buenos Aires, and when I've been to Buenosidas, I've

0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.040
<v Speaker 1>seen them. So I have these cousins, so I feel

0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.400
<v Speaker 1>like I have a connection also to the Argentine culture

0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.320
<v Speaker 1>and citango. So tango and salsa very important. I mean,

0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.280
<v Speaker 1>I think they've just helped me to feel comfortable in

0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:53.840
<v Speaker 1>my body.

0:16:57.080 --> 0:16:59.880
<v Speaker 5>I get what she means. Salsa also helps me building

0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.160
<v Speaker 5>relationship with my body as an adult woman and not

0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.879
<v Speaker 5>a teenager in a leotard. I grew up dancing ballet

0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:11.199
<v Speaker 5>and still associated dance with structure and discipline instead of

0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:15.840
<v Speaker 5>creative expression. When I started salsa dancing, though, I realized

0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.080
<v Speaker 5>that technique is important, but dancers who get stuck there

0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:23.440
<v Speaker 5>can't experience meaningful connections with themselves or their dance partners.

0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.400
<v Speaker 1>The dancers that start telling you what to do one, two, three, five,

0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.720
<v Speaker 1>six seven, those are the worst dancers. The best dancers

0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.280
<v Speaker 1>know how to lead you gently and gracefully with you, know,

0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:36.720
<v Speaker 1>with their hands, with their body movements, with their shoulders,

0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.080
<v Speaker 1>with how they look at you. That's the way to dance,

0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.200
<v Speaker 1>and so you're also kind of cultivating this other way

0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.520
<v Speaker 1>of communicating, which is also important. You could dance with

0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.880
<v Speaker 1>somebody you hate, but you could potentially understand each other

0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:50.640
<v Speaker 1>through dance. So if we come back to the theme

0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:54.320
<v Speaker 1>of understanding and empathy, you can understand each other through dance.

0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:00.840
<v Speaker 5>I should have known that Ruth is a dance before

0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:06.400
<v Speaker 5>we even met her. Writing touches your hand, makes eye contact, leads,

0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.480
<v Speaker 5>and follows. I remember thinking that the first time I

0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:11.160
<v Speaker 5>read her work.

0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:18.639
<v Speaker 1>Despite all the ways I've interrogated anthropology, despite not always

0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:24.119
<v Speaker 1>feeling proud of being an anthropologist, I am an anthropologist

0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:29.800
<v Speaker 1>at heart. An anthropologist not in the credential or academic sense,

0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.119
<v Speaker 1>but in the sense that I have cared and will

0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:38.280
<v Speaker 1>always care about vulnerability as a shared experience and the

0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:44.040
<v Speaker 1>way profound and unfathomable encounters can take place between strangers

0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:47.560
<v Speaker 1>that will change our lives forever.

0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.440
<v Speaker 5>Ruth has changed my life forever, and I can tell

0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.639
<v Speaker 5>you that, Seamed Bena. But that's enough talking for now.

0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:08.040
<v Speaker 6>We have a salsa class to get to.

0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.040
<v Speaker 2>This episode was produced by Alisa Baena and edited by

0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.800
<v Speaker 2>Andrea Lopez Grusado and Alejandra Salasad.

0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.280
<v Speaker 3>It was mixed by Stephanie Lebou.

0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:32.359
<v Speaker 2>The Latino USA team includes Victoria Estrada, Renaldo Leanos, Junior,

0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.080
<v Speaker 2>Jodi mar Marquez, Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Noor Saudi and

0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:40.440
<v Speaker 2>Nancy Trujillo. Pannile Ramirez is our co executive producer. Our

0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:45.320
<v Speaker 2>senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna.

0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.960
<v Speaker 2>Our theme music was composed by Zenie Robinos, I'm your

0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.400
<v Speaker 2>host and co executive producer Marienno Posa. Join us again

0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:54.879
<v Speaker 2>on our next episode. In the meantime, look for us

0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.520
<v Speaker 2>on all of your social media and I'll see you

0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:03.880
<v Speaker 2>on Instai ram Jadu, savez by bye.

0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:09.840
<v Speaker 7>Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation,

0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.440
<v Speaker 7>working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide,

0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:21.400
<v Speaker 7>the Heising Simons Foundation Unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities more

0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:26.919
<v Speaker 7>at hsfoundation dot org, and the John D. And Catherine T.

0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:28.000
<v Speaker 7>MacArthur Foundation