WEBVTT

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What you must do is enter the fiction of America,
enter America as fiction.

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It is, indeed, on this fictive
basis that it dominates the world.

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São Paulo,

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October 30, 2019

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Dear Fernanda,

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How could I begin to write
everything I have say?

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So much has happened, you may
not even recognize me anymore.

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Fifteen years is a funny age.

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You think you’re an adult
and that you know it all.

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But there are things you’re not
able to understand yet.

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Your greatest desire at the moment
is to live in the United States.

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Like many young people in your country,
you dream of an American life,

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set in the scenery you saw...

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in all those high school Hollywood films.

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The good news is you\'ll make it!

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Just perhaps not quite
how you imagined it.

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In a few days you’ll step into
a plane bound for Arizona.

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A place you didn’t
even know existed,

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before you came up with this
student exchange business.

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In the letter sent to you
by the student exchange agency,

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You find the name of your new city.

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MESA

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I remember as if it was yesterday.
Your excitement at the airport,

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as you said goodbye to our
friends and family.

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As you headed towards an unknown,
but long sought-after adventure.

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Over the next year, you\'ll
experience the American lifestyle.

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But there is something strange
in the warm air of the Arizona desert.

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And you can’t quite define what it is.

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You\'ll promise yourself
never to return to this place.

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And you\'ll keep that
promise for 15 years.

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Hi, Pam!

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Hi, Fernanda.

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Can you tell me who you are
and how you know me?

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Ok. I\'m Pam Hanny.

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My daughter Kristen was
going to Skyline High School.

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And she said: \"Mom, remember that
exchange student I told you about?\"

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Fernanda, she needs a place to stay

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She\'s gonna have to go back to Brazil
if thing don\'t work out with her host family

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Can you guys be a host family?
and I said What?

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So my husband and I discussed it

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and we thought, well this could be an
educational experience for the kids.

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It was challenging having...

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a 14, 15, and 16 year-old at home.

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So that took a little
getting used to.

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It was fun. We had proms.

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And you remember the prom and
all the situations with that.

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My gosh!

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What happened? What situation at prom?

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Remember when one of the guys were supposed
to go and buy the prom tickets?

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And they didn\'t buy the prom tickets.

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And you called him up and said:
\"What? You didn\'t buy the prom tickets?

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And they go: \"I forgot...\"
I remember what you said:

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\"What are you? Stupid?\"
Yes!

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Just what you wanted everybody
to know, right?

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You were living with a host
family you didn\'t like.

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So I asked my parents if you could live
with us until school was over.

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And if we could be your host family.
And they said ok.

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So you moved in with us and lived
there for almost a year.

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No...six months? I don\'t remember.
I think through summer, right?

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Why did you decide to have a
foreign exchange student?

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Because you weren\'t on the program.

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No, we weren\'t on the program and actually
it wasn\'t something we considered.

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It was just something that
was dropped on our lap.

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As I recall, you were staying
with another family.

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But it wasn\'t a good
chemistry at the time.

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You weren\'t really comfortable there.

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There weren\'t a lot of options. It was
either that or go back to Brazil.

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So our daughter asked us if we could
have you come stay with us.

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They came and checked us out.
And it was history ever since.

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We really enjoyed having you.
It was a lot of fun.

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Did you have any cultural shock
when I was staying at your house?

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Was there anything that you
thought was different?

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Yeah, I mean the biggest shock was obviously
the language barrier between the two.

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That was obviously the biggest obstacle,
although you were very fluent in English.

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In America we don\'t learn Portuguese as a second
language. It\'s not something that we focus on.

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So trying to listen and understand and put together
a conversation was probably the biggest shock.

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And do you speak another language?

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No. I attempted to learn a few different languages,
but I was never successful becoming fluent in any of them.

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You arrive in Mesa for the
first time on August 10, 2001.

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Your first family picks
you up at the airport,

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And drives you to your new neighborhood
and your new home.

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This is the first time you see the desert.

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At dinner, they drink warm milk
along with the food.

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You find that odd.

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But you drink it too.

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Only you\'re not used to it
and you feel sick.

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This won\'t be by far the strangest
dinner with this first family.

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They find it funny that you learned their
language just by watching movies and MTV.

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You know several slang words and references and
you\'re proud at how well you pretend to be an American.

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On your first day of school,
the size of the building amazes you.

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It\'s just like in the movies.

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the hallways with lockers,
the cheerleaders in uniform.

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The nerds are practically caricatures.

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Everything is so familiar,
yet so novel at the same time.

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You don’t really know why...

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but you hate the cafeteria.

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This is where all the students gather,
but soon split up into groups.

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The table with the Latinos.

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The table with the African-American kids.

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The table with the popular jocks.

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You feel anxious as you
don\'t know your place.

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Where will you sit?

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Can you tell me what sports
you played in high school?

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- I remember you doing a lot of things.
- Yeah, I tried everything in high school.

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Soccer, basketball, football, track.
I think those were the main ones.

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Do you still talk to a lot of
people from high school?

00:12:51.786 --> 00:12:54.619
Yeah. I actually talk to a lot
of people from high school.

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A lot of people actually come
in here to the gym.

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And it\'s really cool to reminisce and talk, and see
how people have changed, what\'s different about them.

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It\'s been a cool place for people
to come and link back up.

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To have those like-minded goals.
Being healthy, being fit.

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So it\'s been really nice to be able
to keep in contact with a lot of people.

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Can you explain to me what \"prom\" is?

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\"Prom\". I really don\'t know how to explain it.

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It\'s a big dance that everybody goes to
and you have your prom queen.

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I guess it\'s just a display of popularity.
Because you\'re voting your king and queen.

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And so seeing who the most popular
people are in the school.

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Maybe it\'s just preparing us for elections.

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So if you\'re gonna be part of politics,
or something like that,

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so it is very political.

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So I think when people naturally
get into that...

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they might end up going more
into a political field.

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I don\'t know, it\'s just my guess. But I think
it does prep you for what\'s out there in the real world.

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And popularity contests, things like that.

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My name is Ricky Gonzalez and
I met you at school.

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I don\'t remember exactly how we
met for sure the first time.

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But I just remember hearing about you.

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Like \" Brazilian foreign
exchange student in\"

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All the boys were happy.

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I just remember meeting you, and you were cool,
down to earth, got along with everyone.

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What’s up, you Brazilian hottie?

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Hey you sexy Brazilian, thank you for
being so awesome and having a nice body...

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My Brazilian hot mama...

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PS: Never lose the ass.

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You know that cute guy you
flirt with in biology class?

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He was the one who wrote this
last message in your yearbook.

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You want him to invite you on
a date, like in the movies,

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but this is the closest he\'ll get.

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This girl sits in front of
you in math class...

00:15:49.132 --> 00:15:51.232
and always wears heavy makeup..

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This other girl is the star of
all the high school musicals..

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They are part of your life.

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But I no longer remembered them.

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For the yearbook...

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some of the most memorable
events of that year.

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Are the threats with anthrax.

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The amnesty by President George W.
Bush to illegal Mexican immigrants.

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And the fact that your American
literature professor,

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Mr. Caruso,

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was elected as a Ricky
Martin look-alike.

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Can you believe Caruso is still
teaching in that same classroom?

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When I was here I remember that
we read \"Of Mice and Men\".

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That could be, in my opinion, one
of the best American pieces ever written.

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With that, students can learn brevity,
students can learn Americana,

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they can learn these themes
of family and brotherhood.

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I think it\'s very important.

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What\'s \"Americana\"?

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\"Americana\" is like things
that are American.

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Things that make America different
than other places.

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And what is that?

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The way celebrate things,
the way that we look at that life,

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the way that... you know...

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There\'s a simplicity and complexity
at the same time with everything.

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And just... American pastimes, I think
\"Of Mice and Men\" really captures that.

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Speaking of what\'s American, what does
it mean to be an American to you?

00:17:48.208 --> 00:17:53.708
Gosh, wow! What does it mean
to be an American...

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I\'d probably say individuality.

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I\'d probably say \"be larger than life\".

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At least thinking in those terms.

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Which I don\'t know that these are
necessarily all positive things, either.

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I think...

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What does it mean to be an American?

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There\'s certainly a certain amount of pride,
or maybe even arrogance that comes along with it.

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When I arrived here, 2 weeks later
they had the 9/11 attack.

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That\'s right.

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Do you remember the day? Were you in school?
Do you remember how that was in school?

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When 9/11 happened it was really odd.

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We were all driving to school and all
of a sudden the radio got taken over

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and we start hearing this and
we were like \"what?\"

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And then in every class we just
had the news on, in every classroom,

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I remember that pretty distinctly.

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And it was just talking about the
events when all of a sudden...

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the buildings came down.

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Everybody\'s freaking out

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Because we didn\'t know what
was next, you know?

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Are there gonna be more attacks?

00:19:15.091 --> 00:19:17.191
So that was a scary time.

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And I think a lot of us just wanted
to go home and be with our families

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But we... Not many people left,

00:19:22.663 --> 00:19:24.963
a lot of us stayed in
school the whole day.

00:19:24.987 --> 00:19:27.687
So that was a very odd day.

00:19:37.485 --> 00:19:41.385
In your American History class,
the teacher asks the students

00:19:41.409 --> 00:19:45.409
if they have any idea why this
could have happened.

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One student answers:
“Because we are free and they are jealous.”

00:19:57.712 --> 00:20:03.151
\"Good evening, today, our fellow
citizens, our way of life

00:20:03.763 --> 00:20:06.031
Our very freedom came under attack

00:20:06.428 --> 00:20:10.453
In a series of deliberate, deadly,
terrorist acts

00:20:13.777 --> 00:20:17.894
America was targeted for attack because
we\'re the brightest beacon for freedom

00:20:17.926 --> 00:20:23.509
and opportunity in the world. And
no one will keep that light from shining.

00:20:25.784 --> 00:20:27.938
Immediately following the first attack,

00:20:28.320 --> 00:20:31.655
I implemented our government’s emergency
response plans.

00:20:32.495 --> 00:20:35.531
Our military is powerful and is prepared

00:20:36.897 --> 00:20:43.725
We will make no distinction between the terrorists
who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

00:20:46.157 --> 00:20:48.638
America and our friends and allies,

00:20:48.804 --> 00:20:52.225
join with all those who want peace
and security in the world

00:20:53.023 --> 00:20:56.506
and we stand together to win
the war against terrorism.

00:20:58.483 --> 00:21:01.178
This is a day when all Americans
from every walk of life

00:21:01.209 --> 00:21:04.107
unite in our resolve for justice and peace.

00:21:06.515 --> 00:21:08.721
None of us will ever forget this day

00:21:09.157 --> 00:21:16.285
yet we go forward to defend freedom
and all that is good and just in our world.

00:21:16.982 --> 00:21:21.390
Thank you. Good night and
God bless America.\"

00:21:29.954 --> 00:21:34.354
A few days later, the school
organizes an American pride day.

00:21:34.479 --> 00:21:39.979
And asks that all students come dressed
in the colors of the United States flag.

00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:46.480
It hasn’t even been a whole
month since you arrived,

00:21:46.781 --> 00:21:52.481
but you dress yourself in red and blue
and pose for this picture.

00:21:58.194 --> 00:22:00.694
October 7, 2001

00:22:01.194 --> 00:22:04.994
From: fe_az@hotmail.com

00:22:05.018 --> 00:22:08.118
To: jujuca@zipmail.com

00:22:08.790 --> 00:22:12.390
SUBJECT: It\'s me again!

00:22:14.132 --> 00:22:17.332
\"Hi Ju, did you receive
my birthday card?\"

00:22:17.356 --> 00:22:22.156
\"I sent it late because I
couldn’t go online on the 27th.\"

00:22:22.601 --> 00:22:26.801
\"Well, today is Sunday and
the US bombed Afghanistan..\"

00:22:26.927 --> 00:22:31.427
\"Man, what the fuck. Now there’s going to be a huge war,
I don’t even know what to expect!\"

00:22:31.770 --> 00:22:34.670
\"Well honey, gotta go. Write me, ok?\"

00:22:34.694 --> 00:22:36.694
\"XOXO, Fe.\"

00:23:29.726 --> 00:23:32.626
I am Janette Astrin.

00:23:32.650 --> 00:23:35.450
I was the host mother of
one of your friends

00:23:35.474 --> 00:23:40.674
when she was living with us,
from Germany, and you would come over,

00:23:40.698 --> 00:23:46.698
and delight my house, and it was so cool to have
you around and the girls and with my daughter.

00:23:46.722 --> 00:23:48.722
So that\'s how we met.

00:23:50.446 --> 00:23:54.746
I remember one time when Kathy
was here. She mentioned...

00:23:54.770 --> 00:23:56.370
This is so funny...

00:23:56.394 --> 00:23:58.394
I was taking the garbage.

00:23:58.418 --> 00:24:00.818
And we had to take it down to a dumpster.

00:24:00.842 --> 00:24:03.742
We drove our garbage down there
and she goes:

00:24:03.766 --> 00:24:08.466
\"Are you kidding me? You don\'t even walk
it down there?\" And I\'m like: \"No\".

00:24:08.490 --> 00:24:10.390
And you know, where we lived

00:24:10.414 --> 00:24:12.914
the high school was across the street.

00:24:12.938 --> 00:24:16.438
We drove Lacie to school and
picked her up,

00:24:16.462 --> 00:24:18.362
most times.

00:24:20.143 --> 00:24:23.033
Do you ever go hiking in the
mountains in Mesa?

00:24:23.073 --> 00:24:25.329
I\'m kind of a girly girl. I don\'t hike.

00:24:25.346 --> 00:24:29.456
My husband would love for me to,
that\'s why I tell him: \"call your guy friends.\"

00:24:29.503 --> 00:24:30.637
I don\'t do boots.

00:24:30.744 --> 00:24:32.884
You know. Unless they have heels.

00:24:32.977 --> 00:24:35.679
But no, I don\'t hike. I don\'t enjoy that.

00:24:35.812 --> 00:24:42.036
My hiking is going to the mall and walking around.
That\'s kind of your typical American answer.

00:24:42.489 --> 00:24:43.856
Sad, but true.

00:24:43.880 --> 00:24:51.480
Around here in Mesa, we do go out
and enjoy listening to local bands,

00:24:51.504 --> 00:24:56.004
we like to eat...
Pam and I tend to enjoy

00:24:56.028 --> 00:25:01.628
cooking, and enjoy wine, staying here
at the house, doing home projects...

00:25:01.652 --> 00:25:04.052
I know that sounds rather boring.

00:25:04.076 --> 00:25:07.176
That would probably be it...

00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:12.200
As far as shopping goes, like I said...
shopping is kind of limited.

00:25:12.224 --> 00:25:16.324
Just depends on what I\'m looking for, but...

00:25:16.348 --> 00:25:23.048
There really isn\'t. Other than that,
I don\'t have really a favorite place...

00:25:23.072 --> 00:25:25.072
We don\'t go out that much!

00:25:25.096 --> 00:25:29.796
We\'re boring!
We\'re really boring!

00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:38.839
And how was it growing up in Mesa?

00:25:39.564 --> 00:25:40.684
Hot.

00:25:41.712 --> 00:25:44.273
No. I liked growing up here.

00:25:44.663 --> 00:25:50.663
Other than it being a bazillion degrees out,
that\'s really the only downside of living in Arizona.

00:25:51.945 --> 00:25:53.765
I like it here.

00:25:54.121 --> 00:25:58.946
Probably because I\'ve lived here my whole life.
I like it, I\'m used to it, it\'s comfortable.

00:25:58.971 --> 00:26:03.089
My friends, everybody that I grew up
with for the most part...

00:26:03.113 --> 00:26:07.307
I only know a few people that have
actually left, even the state.

00:26:07.323 --> 00:26:10.002
Almost everybody still lives in Mesa.

00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:14.279
I feel like Mesa is overall a great
place to have a family.

00:26:14.829 --> 00:26:20.029
It\'s got a good balance to it,
which is hard to find.

00:26:20.354 --> 00:26:25.112
The balance between the crime, the schooling,

00:26:25.628 --> 00:26:32.046
and the amount of opportunities and
the growth around Mesa and other areas,

00:26:32.128 --> 00:26:35.273
that it does leave a lot of opportunities
for people to grow up here

00:26:35.296 --> 00:26:39.432
and contribute and build upon
what is already here.

00:26:39.436 --> 00:26:46.921
So it does leave a lot of room for a good future,
for a family to grow and live.

00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:50.399
Did you always dream of having a family?

00:26:51.737 --> 00:26:55.900
You know, I knew from day one
I knew I always wanted a family.

00:26:55.923 --> 00:26:59.093
I knew I always wanted one child.

00:27:00.110 --> 00:27:01.930
Not three of them.

00:27:02.017 --> 00:27:08.397
But I did always know that I did want to get
married, and I did want to have a house.

00:27:08.620 --> 00:27:14.970
Have a stay-at-home wife where she takes care
of the kids and I was the main provider of all that.

00:27:15.995 --> 00:27:18.095
Really? So you want to have, like,

00:27:18.170 --> 00:27:21.927
a wife that stays at home, takes
care of the kids, and you go work.

00:27:21.953 --> 00:27:24.053
That\'s something that you still want.

00:27:24.481 --> 00:27:26.581
Yeah. I\'ve always wanted that.

00:27:27.038 --> 00:27:32.006
And, as of right now,
it\'s pretty much what I have.

00:27:40.714 --> 00:27:42.534
How do I like Mesa?

00:27:44.388 --> 00:27:46.326
It\'s not my favorite place.

00:27:46.365 --> 00:27:50.032
Arizona...My wife and I have discussed
this numerous times.

00:27:50.220 --> 00:27:52.981
We\'ve both lived out here over 20 years.

00:27:53.180 --> 00:27:57.736
And well, Arizona, and particularly Mesa,

00:27:57.823 --> 00:28:03.301
it\'s a wonderful place to raise a family, but it\'s
never felt like home for either of us.

00:28:03.325 --> 00:28:06.825
It\'s always felt like a stopping
point. But yet we\'ve been here over 25 years.

00:28:06.890 --> 00:28:09.919
I\'ve made my career here,
and I\'m very happy here.

00:28:09.958 --> 00:28:13.958
There\'s been nothing wrong with it, but it\'s
also been something missing.

00:28:13.983 --> 00:28:19.324
There\'s an aspect of the desert that my
wife says is not tangible.

00:28:19.353 --> 00:28:24.318
Because it\'s so hard.
It\'s hard to be part of it.

00:29:21.076 --> 00:29:25.776
BRAZIL BRINGS US BARROS

00:29:27.776 --> 00:29:32.776
Barros really likes Arizona, but she misses
her house, her friends, and everything in Brazil.

00:29:34.076 --> 00:29:37.776
In the story that the school
newspaper wrote about you,

00:29:38.831 --> 00:29:44.531
you say your favorite activities in Mesa are
talking on the phone to your friends in Brazil

00:29:44.953 --> 00:29:47.253
and writing letters to them.

00:29:52.749 --> 00:29:57.149
I look at this newspaper and ask myself.

00:29:58.782 --> 00:30:04.382
Who is that smiling girl who
says she\'s addicted to shopping?

00:30:28.376 --> 00:30:32.576
You feel you\'re in a place different
from everything you\'ve ever known.

00:30:35.045 --> 00:30:38.445
But what you, or anyone else, don\'t yet know...

00:30:38.469 --> 00:30:42.469
is that you\'re in the most conservative
city in the United States.

00:30:47.859 --> 00:30:51.359
Two of the most renowned universities
in the country said that,

00:30:51.383 --> 00:30:53.383
but that would be much later.

00:31:04.681 --> 00:31:09.381
Perhaps this information alone won’t
help you much right now.

00:31:11.537 --> 00:31:13.937
But for me, it changed everything.

00:31:16.219 --> 00:31:18.419
Because of it, I...

00:31:19.272 --> 00:31:20.672
You...

00:31:21.452 --> 00:31:25.852
decide to go back there and
write this letter to yourself.

00:31:28.805 --> 00:31:33.605
Your first-hand experience of American conservatism
will be useful to you in the future.

00:31:33.832 --> 00:31:35.532
Unfortunately.

00:31:39.020 --> 00:31:43.420
I saw it in an online article saying

00:31:43.444 --> 00:31:46.744
that Mesa was one of the most
conservative cities.

00:31:46.768 --> 00:31:49.468
I\'m surprised you saw that too.

00:31:50.392 --> 00:31:54.792
So is that what it says?
Mesa is the most conservative city...

00:31:54.816 --> 00:31:56.816
It really is.

00:31:58.540 --> 00:32:02.040
I guess that kinda means a good thing?
You know?

00:32:02.664 --> 00:32:07.264
Good for Mesa, I guess.
Yes, that\'s good for our reputation.

00:32:09.788 --> 00:32:11.788
Can\'t be the number one in education,

00:32:11.812 --> 00:32:15.912
at least we can go ahead and be
number one in being backwards.

00:32:23.460 --> 00:32:26.258
To be conservative is more kind of...

00:32:26.734 --> 00:32:31.686
just even kill, you don\'t
strongly believe...

00:32:32.205 --> 00:32:36.463
in a lot of things. I mean, you\'re not radical
about any one thing, you\'re more...

00:32:37.228 --> 00:32:38.799
I mean, you can see both sides.

00:32:38.824 --> 00:32:42.013
You can go either way, you have an open mind.

00:32:42.037 --> 00:32:43.626
It\'s what I think conservative is.

00:32:43.642 --> 00:32:45.925
It\'s more open-mindedness about...

00:32:46.391 --> 00:32:49.724
You can say \"Oh, I can see how you
could feel this way\"

00:32:49.922 --> 00:32:52.935
Or if somebody disagrees:
\"I can see your point of view\"

00:32:52.974 --> 00:32:56.736
But being conservative is meaning
you have an open mind:

00:32:56.741 --> 00:33:00.700
\"Yeah, maybe that is right\" or \"maybe
he\'s right or maybe she\'s right\"

00:33:00.728 --> 00:33:04.325
That\'s my thoughts on it.

00:33:04.349 --> 00:33:06.908
And do you consider yourself conservative?

00:33:07.989 --> 00:33:10.189
I\'m very open-minded, yes.

00:33:14.554 --> 00:33:18.222
Part of that, that we are maybe the
most conservative...

00:33:18.270 --> 00:33:23.870
Mesa is one of the largest cities in Arizona,
I think we\'re maybe the third or fourth,

00:33:23.937 --> 00:33:29.611
is there is a lot of Mormons and
LDS, \"Latter-day Saints\".

00:33:29.891 --> 00:33:37.001
When you say to somebody that you\'re from Mesa, they
automatically think that maybe...

00:33:37.060 --> 00:33:40.507
LDS, and I guess they\'re more conservative.

00:33:40.548 --> 00:33:44.895
It\'s the only thing I would know. I don\'t
really have much answer to that.

00:33:53.659 --> 00:33:58.159
Mesa is a very religious city
and you have many Mormon friends.

00:34:00.331 --> 00:34:04.231
Your first family attends a
Catholic church every Sunday,

00:34:04.255 --> 00:34:07.155
and that\'s the highlight
of the weekend for you.

00:34:13.091 --> 00:34:18.691
You pretend you took First Communion
so you can eat the host and drink wine at Mass.

00:34:22.183 --> 00:34:26.083
Church is the only place
where you can legally drink.

00:34:31.048 --> 00:34:36.048
And why did you decide to get baptized?
How did you get in contact with the Mormon church?

00:34:37.157 --> 00:34:41.733
A guy that I was seeing at the time was Mormon.

00:34:42.292 --> 00:34:48.255
I don\'t know, and a lot of my friends,
a lot of my really good friends are Mormons.

00:34:48.497 --> 00:34:51.286
I\'ve been around Mormons my entire life.

00:34:51.364 --> 00:34:54.827
It\'s Mesa, so it\'s just kind of there.

00:34:55.549 --> 00:35:00.985
And I\'ve always liked it. When growing up, I saw
how people were different if they were Mormon.

00:35:01.905 --> 00:35:05.649
Just little stuff, like I said,
it\'s moral and values.

00:35:05.658 --> 00:35:08.524
And I like that a lot.

00:35:08.676 --> 00:35:14.377
So it was my choice to kind of get
in contact with him just to get more information.

00:35:14.692 --> 00:35:20.056
I don\'t practice really.
I still drink occasionally.

00:35:20.782 --> 00:35:22.805
Not that I don\'t believe in it.

00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:26.797
Just that there\'s a lot of things
that I do that they frown upon.

00:35:43.662 --> 00:35:48.929
Being a part of that religion, being a part
of something, means a little more to me.

00:35:48.995 --> 00:35:54.288
Because the main founder of the church,
LDS Church, is Joseph Smith.

00:35:54.390 --> 00:36:00.292
And I\'m actually 7th generation bloodline from him,
so I\'m a direct descendant of his.

00:36:00.334 --> 00:36:02.249
So it\'s kind cool knowing that...

00:36:02.299 --> 00:36:11.706
You still got deep roots that helped build cities.
The Mormons travelled around this country.

00:36:13.199 --> 00:36:15.999
They\'re really big on family,

00:36:16.232 --> 00:36:18.937
family backgrounds for helping
out one another.

00:36:18.944 --> 00:36:22.286
So for Mesa to carry on and be conservative...

00:36:22.443 --> 00:36:26.780
you can really say that they\'re trying
to take care of their fellow neighbor.

00:36:31.329 --> 00:36:32.863
So you\'re a Mormon?

00:36:32.908 --> 00:36:34.385
- Yes, I am.
- Oh, I didn\'t know.

00:36:34.411 --> 00:36:36.641
Yeah, I\'m LDS.

00:36:37.395 --> 00:36:40.577
You wouldn\'t have known having
fun with me back in the day.

00:36:45.009 --> 00:36:48.075
I want to show a picture that I found.

00:36:50.222 --> 00:36:52.932
You were riding around in my truck!

00:36:53.006 --> 00:36:55.807
- Oh my goodness!
- Do you know what we were going to do?

00:36:55.855 --> 00:37:00.622
I\'m gonna have to say...
Them red shades...

00:37:00.646 --> 00:37:05.078
We were going to the Lake?
Or party?

00:37:05.102 --> 00:37:07.475
Yeah, exactly we were going to the Salt Lake.

00:37:07.625 --> 00:37:08.792
The Salt River?

00:37:08.816 --> 00:37:10.816
Yeah, the Salt River.

00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:18.640
I was clean shaved there. I love it!

00:37:23.299 --> 00:37:26.399
I was surprised when I found this photo.

00:37:28.603 --> 00:37:33.203
It looks as if you two were really close friends,
but I know you weren\'t.

00:37:35.678 --> 00:37:40.478
I see you wanting a photo with the cowboy,
so you could show it to your friends back in Brazil.

00:38:27.054 --> 00:38:38.718
O say, that star-spangled banner

00:38:42.380 --> 00:38:50.095
O\'er the land of the free

00:38:51.030 --> 00:38:57.295
And the home of the...

00:38:57.832 --> 00:39:02.574
Brave

00:39:30.482 --> 00:39:33.998
E.J. was the first cowboy you met

00:39:34.389 --> 00:39:37.889
and his image will always
come back to your memory.

00:39:45.376 --> 00:39:47.876
You don’t like Western movies yet.

00:39:47.900 --> 00:39:51.600
So you don’t really understand anything
about the conquest of the American West.

00:39:56.022 --> 00:40:00.022
This is why I want to tell
you about Manifest Destiny.

00:40:05.929 --> 00:40:10.229
A 19th century founding myth which affirms
that the people from the United States

00:40:10.253 --> 00:40:15.053
were divinely ordained to settle
in the lands of North America,

00:40:15.092 --> 00:40:17.992
spreading democracy and capitalism.

00:41:28.740 --> 00:41:32.604
This is a shooting range
and that\'s what I like to do.

00:41:32.628 --> 00:41:34.679
A lot of people like to do, obviously,
you can hear.

00:41:34.679 --> 00:41:36.980
Just shooting on your days off.

00:41:36.980 --> 00:41:41.095
It\'s a stress reliever, this is
your first time shooting, but...

00:41:41.095 --> 00:41:43.224
it gets the blood going.

00:41:49.492 --> 00:41:50.992
Look.

00:41:51.016 --> 00:41:53.416
How much rounds did you put in?

00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:57.440
You shot a whole .40
and two .9.

00:41:57.977 --> 00:42:01.776
I always take it. My gun is
with me at all times.

00:42:01.794 --> 00:42:03.473
Sleep, bed, everywhere.

00:42:03.724 --> 00:42:05.511
- Really?
- Oh yeah.

00:42:05.793 --> 00:42:08.523
Like I said, he was my friend and
that\'s the reason he got killed.

00:42:08.558 --> 00:42:12.565
He got a home invasion. That
happens all the time.

00:42:13.135 --> 00:42:17.235
Shootings happen all the time,
some shootings over nothing.

00:42:17.803 --> 00:42:21.000
Yeah, I always take it.
Always, always.

00:42:21.041 --> 00:42:23.457
It\'s funny because my
momma used to ask me,

00:42:23.496 --> 00:42:25.561
so I would just go to the gas station:

00:42:25.580 --> 00:42:28.589
\"Why are you taking your gun? You don\'t
need your gun, you\'re just going to get gas\"

00:42:28.673 --> 00:42:31.099
And I\'d go \"that\'s when something happens\".

00:42:31.271 --> 00:42:37.359
It\'s better... what\'s the old saying?
It\'s better to have it and not need it.

00:42:37.454 --> 00:42:39.554
Than need it and not have it.

00:42:40.737 --> 00:42:44.237
But I love it. Like I said I love
having my guns, I love the option of it.

00:42:44.309 --> 00:42:47.809
Obviously you need to be safe about it.
It is a gun.

00:42:48.309 --> 00:42:52.543
I\'ve had two guns go off in my lifetime, unexpected.

00:42:53.315 --> 00:42:57.203
And you know, God forbid.

00:42:57.239 --> 00:42:58.629
- I had a friend...
- How was that?

00:42:58.761 --> 00:43:01.281
One of them was my rifle.

00:43:01.339 --> 00:43:05.123
Someone must have been touching it,
because I never have bullets in my gun.

00:43:05.148 --> 00:43:06.968
I just went to pick it up.

00:43:07.192 --> 00:43:10.592
And I just had my hand on the trigger
and BAM. It went off.

00:43:10.618 --> 00:43:15.380
I was in my bedroom.
So yeah, that was pretty crazy.

00:43:15.531 --> 00:43:20.183
And the second time was just the same thing.
I think we went shooting...

00:43:20.348 --> 00:43:22.772
and someone didn\'t clear the gun correct.

00:43:22.939 --> 00:43:24.658
And that\'s how one of my cousins got shot.

00:43:24.687 --> 00:43:28.474
Ironically. They went shooting and
they didn\'t clear the gun.

00:43:28.561 --> 00:43:30.273
And she was in the passenger seat.

00:43:30.335 --> 00:43:34.927
And my cousin just went to go pull the case
and it wasn\'t a hard case, it was vinyl.

00:43:35.029 --> 00:43:39.915
And he pulled the case, the gun was in the case,
and he pulled the trigger by accident

00:43:39.940 --> 00:43:41.397
and he shot his sister.

00:43:41.553 --> 00:43:44.833
And she got shot.

00:43:44.907 --> 00:43:50.967
But yeah, accidents happen and
you need to be safe and smart.

00:43:51.067 --> 00:43:54.467
But I don\'t think they should
be taken away altogether.

00:43:56.232 --> 00:43:59.426
I think it\'s very important.
I love living in Arizona.

00:43:59.426 --> 00:44:02.259
Because there are a lot of states
that are real strict on gun control.

00:44:02.596 --> 00:44:09.162
And still to this day... the \"wild west\".
We\'ll fight for what we need to fight for.

00:44:34.092 --> 00:44:40.392
Instead of Disney, the entertainment in Mesa
were thematic Wild West amusement parks.

00:44:46.404 --> 00:44:52.204
Some are actually ghost towns, which
flourished back in the mining days.

00:44:55.522 --> 00:44:59.122
Others are entirely fake,
but “historically faithful”

00:44:59.146 --> 00:45:01.746
As their creators like to emphasize.

00:45:08.174 --> 00:45:11.474
An electric chair in the sheriff\'s station,

00:45:15.646 --> 00:45:18.746
the cannon used in the
film \"Wild Wild West.\"

00:45:22.309 --> 00:45:25.809
An ATM machine camouflaged
in dusty tones.

00:45:28.349 --> 00:45:32.049
A tavern where you can eat pizza.

00:45:51.623 --> 00:45:57.023
I\'m still fascinated by this ability to
transform everything in reproduction.

00:45:59.458 --> 00:46:00.958
History.

00:46:01.599 --> 00:46:03.299
Everyday life.

00:46:04.237 --> 00:46:05.637
Trauma.

00:46:06.324 --> 00:46:07.524
Guilt.

00:46:26.678 --> 00:46:29.737
A lot of people are scared
of the fact that...

00:46:29.763 --> 00:46:33.263
What I call the Chicano element,
the Mexican-American element,

00:46:33.285 --> 00:46:36.385
is growing and will continue to grow,

00:46:36.450 --> 00:46:41.870
whether Donald goes ahead and builds the best,
the very best, expensive, most famous wall.

00:46:41.921 --> 00:46:46.121
He\'s gonna make it bigger than the
Great Wall of China, according to him.

00:46:46.490 --> 00:46:49.590
People are going to find a way to come over.

00:46:49.599 --> 00:46:54.264
It has been happening forever. Since
the Spanish controlled Mexico.

00:46:54.273 --> 00:46:56.435
It just happens.

00:46:58.685 --> 00:47:03.755
My name is Miguel Eduardo Provencio Villa
Verde de Casillas.

00:47:03.795 --> 00:47:09.913
I got to know Fernanda because she was at
the same school where I taught at the time.

00:47:09.938 --> 00:47:17.938
And I got to know her in the classroom of a former
student-teacher of mine, her teacher, Mr. Boatman.

00:47:17.967 --> 00:47:21.867
And I asked her last name, or her first name.
I can\'t remember.

00:47:21.876 --> 00:47:24.176
And I asked \"is it Brazilian?\"

00:47:24.235 --> 00:47:27.035
And you said yes, and I said:

00:47:27.116 --> 00:47:29.155
\"How are you today?\"

00:47:29.210 --> 00:47:33.381
And we just started talking
in Portuguese.

00:47:33.440 --> 00:47:36.740
And he\'s looking at me all strange, like:

00:47:37.863 --> 00:47:39.470
\"You know Portuguese?\"

00:47:39.523 --> 00:47:44.670
And I felt like telling him \"Yes, you don\'t?
Everybody should know Portuguese!

00:47:44.723 --> 00:47:46.543
...Or another language\"

00:47:46.824 --> 00:47:50.124
But I can\'t believe that was
15 years ago.

00:47:50.198 --> 00:47:52.024
My goodness gracious.

00:48:08.793 --> 00:48:11.577
It\'s weird, because I have a
couple of different versions.

00:48:11.620 --> 00:48:15.120
Obviously I got what I was taught in school
and then I got my grandparents\' version.

00:48:15.180 --> 00:48:18.493
And how they went through all the racism,
because they did when they came here.

00:48:18.531 --> 00:48:20.753
My grandparents were born in the 1920s.

00:48:20.801 --> 00:48:25.939
So when they came up, it was in the
1940s, 50s, 60s, it was real bad.

00:48:25.989 --> 00:48:27.177
As far as racism.

00:48:27.439 --> 00:48:36.550
So I got like a legit story. This was
Mexico\'s and the Indians\' land. And it got took.

00:48:36.705 --> 00:48:40.205
Like I said, I didn\'t do good
in my younger years.

00:48:40.399 --> 00:48:44.799
That\'s where most of the drugs come from.
To be honest with you.

00:48:45.223 --> 00:48:49.523
Other than marijuana, which is legal now,
it\'s being grown in the U.S.

00:48:49.598 --> 00:48:56.323
Other than that, that\'s where you get everything.
Straight from Mexico. Coke, meth, pills.

00:48:57.529 --> 00:49:00.258
Anything you want.

00:49:00.290 --> 00:49:06.641
And all the connections I\'ve had for all
that stuff, it\'s all been through Mexican.

00:49:06.647 --> 00:49:08.215
And that\'s sad to say, because I\'m Mexican.

00:49:08.245 --> 00:49:11.045
I have lots of friends that are Mexican.

00:49:11.077 --> 00:49:13.377
My daughter is half-Mexican.

00:49:15.930 --> 00:49:18.530
It\'s just part of the culture around here.

00:49:19.035 --> 00:49:25.108
I think what\'s frustrating is
some people expect...

00:49:25.327 --> 00:49:29.243
They get very disappointed, I guess, that we
don\'t have stuff in Spanish for them.

00:49:29.275 --> 00:49:33.316
I think we accommodate to it too much.

00:49:33.505 --> 00:49:36.833
Like there\'s certain parts of town where
you can\'t... I can\'t even go shopping...

00:49:36.864 --> 00:49:38.964
because everything\'s in Spanish.

00:49:39.041 --> 00:49:40.829
Like, I don\'t know what this is.

00:49:40.853 --> 00:49:44.453
Cowboy comes from the
Spanish word \"Vaquero\".

00:49:44.877 --> 00:49:49.877
And the first cows were brought
over by the Spaniards.

00:49:50.001 --> 00:49:55.101
When they had one of a fleet
went down in a storm.

00:49:55.125 --> 00:50:01.825
Some of the livestock they brought,
including cattle, wound up in Texas.

00:50:01.849 --> 00:50:05.949
And from there, if you\'ve ever
heard of longhorn steers.

00:50:05.973 --> 00:50:07.973
That\'s where it comes from.

00:50:07.997 --> 00:50:12.948
With longhorn steers, you needed
people to rope them.

00:50:12.972 --> 00:50:16.872
And hence \"vaqueros\" came about.

00:50:16.896 --> 00:50:19.596
That\'s pretty much it.

00:50:19.620 --> 00:50:23.920
So every time I see a rodeo, I\'m thinking:
\"that\'s Hispanic\".

00:50:23.944 --> 00:50:30.944
It\'s very simple. You guys didn\'t invent it.
We was first.

00:50:38.649 --> 00:50:41.048
I don\'t know why we need to be
helping out other countries.

00:50:41.080 --> 00:50:45.171
Nobody else really does this stuff. You don\'t
hear about France, or Brazil

00:50:45.192 --> 00:50:48.883
going and bailing out and giving
billions of dollars away.

00:50:48.911 --> 00:50:50.969
We\'re already in debt.

00:50:51.290 --> 00:50:53.037
I mean, that\'s nice.

00:50:53.092 --> 00:50:57.824
But we don\'t have the money to
go and help these people.

00:50:58.085 --> 00:51:01.597
Can\'t we move them to another country?

00:51:01.667 --> 00:51:04.067
Do they have to come here?

00:51:04.141 --> 00:51:06.661
And we\'re gonna give them housing?

00:51:06.828 --> 00:51:08.762
I want a free house.

00:51:08.971 --> 00:51:10.424
Why do they get a free house?

00:51:10.459 --> 00:51:16.817
They weren\'t even born here. They don\'t
pay taxes. That\'s not really fair.

00:51:16.989 --> 00:51:18.651
I want a free house.

00:51:24.803 --> 00:51:30.603
You met Kristen during the all-women
interior design classes.

00:51:34.146 --> 00:51:39.446
I liked her straight away because she was bawdy,
and seemed she didn’t quite fit in there.

00:51:43.078 --> 00:51:45.978
She was like your American mirror.

00:51:54.042 --> 00:51:57.542
I see in her a life that
could have been ours.

00:51:58.003 --> 00:51:59.803
but wasn’t.

00:52:31.133 --> 00:52:33.233
I like Trump because he\'s

00:52:33.488 --> 00:52:38.211
made a lot of statements about what
he is going to do when he becomes president.

00:52:38.233 --> 00:52:43.089
As far as the illegals here,
and Arizona specifically.

00:52:43.253 --> 00:52:48.848
We have a real bad problem with people
trying to come across the border from Mexico

00:52:48.875 --> 00:52:51.679
and there you have the drug cartel.

00:52:51.748 --> 00:52:57.350
It gets a lot into our system,
to our schools, to our children.

00:52:57.386 --> 00:52:59.409
And it\'s just sickening.

00:52:59.696 --> 00:53:01.305
But how do you stop it?

00:53:01.444 --> 00:53:06.861
On the other hand, those are the people
that come in here and they will do the jobs

00:53:06.901 --> 00:53:09.481
that the Americans will not do.

00:53:09.543 --> 00:53:11.487
They think \"I\'m not gonna do that\".

00:53:11.538 --> 00:53:13.238
Landscaping or...

00:53:13.276 --> 00:53:19.156
Even our waterfall we had put in,
they were all Spanish-speaking people.

00:53:19.233 --> 00:53:22.733
And they do a beautiful job.

00:53:23.274 --> 00:53:28.308
And they don\'t cost as much. They will do the job,
like I said, that Americans will not.

00:53:50.170 --> 00:53:54.470
In this place, you perceive yourself
as Latina for the first time.

00:53:58.408 --> 00:54:04.108
In Brazil, you enjoyed your white and
class privileges without questioning yourself.

00:54:05.202 --> 00:54:07.402
But it\'s different here.

00:54:10.651 --> 00:54:13.851
On top of the veiled comments,
which you constantly hear,

00:54:13.875 --> 00:54:16.575
one specific episode marks you.

00:54:19.211 --> 00:54:22.817
You receive an anonymous phone
call in which a young male voice

00:54:22.841 --> 00:54:27.441
says you are an “illegal alien”
and tells you to go back to Mexico.

00:54:30.739 --> 00:54:35.939
You suspect of a boy from school, but you
feel so ashamed for having even received this call,

00:54:35.964 --> 00:54:38.264
that you decide not to investigate further.

00:54:42.293 --> 00:54:46.093
I want to let you know that alien
is not really an insult,

00:54:46.117 --> 00:54:51.417
but rather an official term used by
the government for immigrants.

00:55:24.722 --> 00:55:32.696
\"Alien\", I think a lot of it
is just because people don\'t want...

00:55:32.793 --> 00:55:35.831
Again... they just don\'t want to learn.
They\'re not accepting.

00:55:35.931 --> 00:55:37.994
You know: \"You look different than us.\"

00:55:38.017 --> 00:55:43.562
Or if I can shout louder than you,
that makes me more American.

00:55:47.521 --> 00:55:49.621
I know, right? That\'s mean.

00:55:49.702 --> 00:55:55.206
No, I don\'t know. I guess it\'s
because they\'re not part of America.

00:55:55.242 --> 00:55:57.339
They\'re from another country.

00:55:57.348 --> 00:56:02.120
No. I do not know the answer
why we do that.

00:56:14.339 --> 00:56:19.336
I know to you it sounds like from outer space,
when they say \"alien\"

00:56:19.381 --> 00:56:22.362
I think it\'s a technical term...

00:56:22.786 --> 00:56:30.186
I know it\'s been considered somewhat
politically incorrect to say \"alien\".

00:56:30.210 --> 00:56:40.310
I\'m not even sure what the politically
correct... reference is.

00:56:41.434 --> 00:56:49.534
We\'ve heard \"illegal alien\",
\"illegal resident\"...

00:56:49.558 --> 00:56:52.758
It\'s a term that\'s been around.

00:56:52.834 --> 00:56:57.385
For many decades. I don\'t think it\'s a new term.
I\'m not sure where it originated.

00:56:57.390 --> 00:57:02.180
I think it\'s just technical, alien
meaning they\'re not of here.

00:57:02.257 --> 00:57:03.256
They\'re foreign.

00:57:03.297 --> 00:57:08.809
So they\'re an alien, coming to our land,
our country.

00:57:09.021 --> 00:57:13.371
Everything has gone so
politically correct. \"PC\".

00:57:13.433 --> 00:57:15.633
That it\'s just really...

00:57:20.498 --> 00:57:25.797
I don\'t understand... they can\'t
call it like it is.

00:57:25.896 --> 00:57:30.698
They just want to soften it.
But it\'s still the same thing.

00:57:42.053 --> 00:57:47.453
Things don’t work out with your first family,
and you blame yourself for a while.

00:57:50.258 --> 00:57:54.658
After six months living
with them, one day you lie.

00:57:57.744 --> 00:58:02.244
You say you’re going over to friend\'s house,
but you actually head over to a party.

00:58:04.439 --> 00:58:11.339
They find out, call the police, and claim you\'re
a fugitive trying to stay illegally in the country.

00:58:15.827 --> 00:58:21.827
The entire Mesa police looks for you, until
a police car takes you back to their house.

00:58:25.511 --> 00:58:30.311
The condition imposed by the student exchange
agency to prevent you from being deported

00:58:30.640 --> 00:58:35.040
is to have you on probation
for the rest of your stay.

00:58:42.868 --> 00:58:46.268
Seeing your 15-year-old
handwriting impresses me.

00:58:48.807 --> 00:58:53.807
I can’t remember having signed
this document nor its content.

00:58:54.893 --> 00:58:58.593
But your signature is
proof that this happened.

00:59:04.781 --> 00:59:09.281
Not long after, you have to
spend Christmas with this same family.

00:59:12.062 --> 00:59:16.362
It\'s a horrible experience and all
you want is your real family.

00:59:19.714 --> 00:59:21.614
Yet,

00:59:22.028 --> 00:59:24.028
when looking at this photo,...

00:59:25.349 --> 00:59:27.749
it seems like you\'re happy.

00:59:30.257 --> 00:59:34.357
You seem cheerful on almost
every picture taken there.

00:59:34.381 --> 00:59:36.881
You smile so wide your eyes close.

00:59:40.060 --> 00:59:42.360
You think you can fool me.

01:00:02.026 --> 01:00:05.326
When you move into
Vic and Pam\'s house,

01:00:05.576 --> 01:00:10.576
the exchange agency forces Vic to store
his collection of over 30 guns

01:00:10.600 --> 01:00:13.400
outside the house, in a storehouse.

01:00:17.079 --> 01:00:20.579
His weapons closet becomes your new wardrobe.

01:00:25.197 --> 01:00:28.597
I realize now that this measure
was not for your own safety,

01:00:28.621 --> 01:00:33.021
but to prevent a foreigner
from having access to weapons.

01:00:36.809 --> 01:00:38.809
You are the danger.

01:00:45.543 --> 01:00:49.343
Now, you\'ll finally appease
your teenage curiosity...

01:00:49.367 --> 01:00:52.067
and see Vic\'s famous weapons.

01:00:53.465 --> 01:00:59.877
Well, what I did was I tried to
bring out a variety of firearms.

01:00:59.885 --> 01:01:04.249
This would be kind of typical
types of gun.

01:01:04.281 --> 01:01:07.905
There\'s thousand of different
types of guns out there.

01:01:07.925 --> 01:01:11.942
But just to give a variety of
what a lot of Americans might have.

01:01:12.024 --> 01:01:17.666
America has the number 1 gun ownership
in the world.

01:01:18.717 --> 01:01:25.651
And per capita basis, out of every 100 citizens
in America, there\'s 112 guns out there.

01:01:25.722 --> 01:01:30.521
So there\'s more guns per capita
than citizens.

01:01:32.820 --> 01:01:36.273
This is what we call an AR style, an AR-15.

01:01:36.329 --> 01:01:41.605
Again, it\'s very popular here in America.

01:01:41.649 --> 01:01:43.469
It\'s a semi-automatic.

01:01:43.522 --> 01:01:50.270
It has a magazine that you
put here to feed, this one\'s a 223.

01:01:52.941 --> 01:01:57.841
Some people call them assault rifles.
It\'s just a rifle, a semi-automatic.

01:01:58.302 --> 01:02:02.339
It\'s very popular for a number of reasons.

01:02:02.368 --> 01:02:07.485
A lot of people just buy them for home protection.

01:02:07.640 --> 01:02:12.122
It is adequate for home protection, for people
that want something for self-defense.

01:02:12.205 --> 01:02:16.875
But also it\'s very popular, they do
competitive shooting with them.

01:02:16.876 --> 01:02:21.247
Also, it\'s very popular with women.
Because it\'s so light.

01:02:21.335 --> 01:02:29.187
It\'s not... You don\'t feel the recoil
that you would from larger firearms.

01:02:42.903 --> 01:02:46.303
There was one day that it was
optional to go to school.

01:02:46.335 --> 01:02:50.535
And it was the two year commemoration
of the Columbine shooting.

01:02:50.559 --> 01:02:52.259
Do you remember this?

01:02:52.283 --> 01:02:57.283
I think that they...
I don\'t remember.

01:02:57.307 --> 01:03:00.507
I guess they had kind of a scare.

01:03:02.031 --> 01:03:06.831
For a while, because a lot
of people felt that...

01:03:07.155 --> 01:03:09.955
maybe some of the schools were targeted.

01:03:09.979 --> 01:03:15.079
No, I think that they found a note
in that at school. If I recall.

01:03:15.103 --> 01:03:20.703
And they passed on to the parents,
they made it optional.

01:03:20.727 --> 01:03:24.827
It seems to me that there was...

01:03:24.851 --> 01:03:30.951
random threats around the country...

01:03:33.275 --> 01:03:38.775
of other people trying to
mimic what had happened.

01:03:38.799 --> 01:03:41.399
That\'s the only thing I can remember.

01:03:48.009 --> 01:03:51.009
Good morning, Skyline!
It\'s Friday.

01:03:51.033 --> 01:03:54.433
Approach for the morning announcements.

01:03:54.457 --> 01:04:00.857
Good morning, students.

01:04:01.481 --> 01:04:06.581
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America

01:04:06.605 --> 01:04:09.405
and to the Republic which it stands.

01:04:09.421 --> 01:04:15.021
One nation, under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.

01:06:43.373 --> 01:06:45.673
In the year you were born,

01:06:45.697 --> 01:06:50.397
the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard
wrote a book called “America”.

01:06:50.421 --> 01:06:58.021
He tried to understand the North American spirit
through a trip across the West of the USA.

01:06:59.607 --> 01:07:01.107
According to him,

01:07:01.420 --> 01:07:04.120
American culture is an heiress of the desert.

01:07:09.848 --> 01:07:13.248
I was there 15 and 30 years later.

01:07:13.272 --> 01:07:16.572
and Baudrillard\'s words
still resonate with me.

01:07:21.493 --> 01:07:25.993
If we return after another 15 years,
when we\'re 45 years old.

01:07:26.017 --> 01:07:28.417
What will we find?

01:07:30.571 --> 01:07:32.571
The same images?

01:07:33.235 --> 01:07:35.635
The same sand-colored houses?

01:07:37.580 --> 01:07:40.680
The same people in somebody else’s skin?

01:07:43.220 --> 01:07:48.520
In 1986, Ronald Reagan was
President of the United States,

01:07:49.536 --> 01:07:53.336
In 2001, George W. Bush.

01:07:54.101 --> 01:07:59.401
and in 2016, two months after
concluding this footage,

01:08:00.308 --> 01:08:02.708
Donald Trump was elected.

01:08:25.599 --> 01:08:28.099
In the future, from
where I write to you,

01:08:28.182 --> 01:08:31.482
I do not bring good news.

01:08:33.560 --> 01:08:35.560
In Brazil,

01:08:35.584 --> 01:08:39.884
Our cultural colonialism
came to collect the bill.

01:09:23.630 --> 01:09:28.030
This is the only picture I found
where you\'re not smiling.

01:09:30.850 --> 01:09:35.150
I\'m struck by your confused
and frightened look.

01:09:36.166 --> 01:09:38.166
Where did you end up?

01:09:51.111 --> 01:09:55.311
What you don’t understand is that for them,
any small town in America...

01:09:55.335 --> 01:10:00.935
is closer to the center of the world than Sao Paulo
or any South American capital.

01:10:05.138 --> 01:10:08.338
That is why you can’t
understand where you are,

01:10:08.455 --> 01:10:12.555
and why they still don’t know
where I come from and who I am.

01:10:20.430 --> 01:10:25.230
When you live in a country,
you don’t just learn the language.

01:10:26.058 --> 01:10:28.058
So I ask myself:

01:10:28.808 --> 01:10:30.908
what did you learn over there?

01:10:33.353 --> 01:10:35.053
But also,

01:10:36.389 --> 01:10:39.389
did they learn anything from us?

01:11:06.914 --> 01:11:10.714
You went to Arizona because you
wanted to live in a movie.

01:11:12.127 --> 01:11:15.227
But it gave you something
much more powerful.

01:11:17.618 --> 01:11:19.718
You made your own film.

01:11:47.083 --> 01:11:53.083
ARID ZONE