Papapapá 27 min, 1995/1997, USA Alex Rivera, Writer/Director Transcript Audio Cassette: Programmatic Spanish Course One. This course is designed to teach you Spanish in a concentrated period of time. If you have any difficulty comprehending the recorded material to which you are listening please refer to the printed script in the instructor’s manual which is provided for that purpose. Good luck. We hope you enjoy your studies. Unit one. Part one. Number one. Word A. (In Spanish) Potato Potato Potato Father Father Father Title Sequence Narrator The potato, bland starchy basic. I wanted to find out where the most common vegetable came from and where it was going. Since the potato first grew as the roots of wild bushes all across the Americas, it is impossible to find an exact origin. In the case of the potato, history is not about finding a distinct starting point as much as it is about finding a starting point for a story. Our story starts in Peru. Professor I visited the Inca’s place up at Machu Piccu...They knew how to handle potatoes way back then. They had good irrigation, the terraced the mountains they knew how to preserve them, how to store them, they had all this information years ago. Narrator The potato was first cultivated by the highland Indians of the Andes. The potatoes ruggedness was perfectly suited for the plain mountain soil, and the cold mountain nights. In the upper reaches of the Andes the potato was central to the Indian diet. Professor The potato freezes up in the mountains and then as the sun comes up it thaws- some of the water comes out of it- and the natives help it come out by stomping on these potatoes that are losing their liquid. Eventually is becomes a dried product like this, which is called chuño, and they dearly love their chuño. Narrator As well as being an important food to the Indians, it was an essential part of their culture. The Incas represented the potatoes in their pottery, buried their dead with a supply of potatoes, and prayed to ‘Papamama,’ the goddess of potato fertility. What we now call the eyes of the potato, the Incas thought of as the mouths of the potato. To insure a good crop the Incas would offer a human sacrifice to Papamama. To encourage the potatoes to have large mouth they would mutilate the mouth of their human offering. The potato is still important to the descendants of the Incas. This contemporary Inca encounters the potato in entirely different ways than his ancestors. TV The Andes, bleak, hostile, forbidden. I’d come to the Andes to find out what it means to be Inca today. Narrator He no longer prays to Papamama, no longer offers human sacrifice, and no longer lives in the mountains of Peru. This Inca lives in America. In a split level raised ranch. While his clothing, entertainment, and dwelling are radically different from those of his ancestors... TV Is Darth Vader my father? Narrator the potato is still central to this Incas diet . In the same dwelling there is a second Inca. This Inca grew up in the lowlands of Peru, but now makes his home in the hills of America. While his is far away from Peru, through the television, he is able to keep in touch with the stories being told at home, thousands of miles away. Jorge Ramos: There are two major television networks in the US that broadcast in Spanish. Univision is the largest one with more ratings, more prestige...I work in Univision, can you tell? There are at least 25 - 30 million people in the US that speak Spanish. And who feel very close to Latin America, and who feel very close to Mexico and to Peru, so it’s a very interesting and complex audience. On the one hand they live in the United States, they decided to integrate themselves into this country, somehow they’re trying to live the American dream...of having a house, of having work, of being here. On the other hand they’re still linked emotionally to their countries...that’s what we deal with at Univision.. Papá I wanted to have the privilege of the majority of Americans, so I established several guidelines for my life. I said "No, I’m not going to be surrounded by the Spanish people, I want to learn the English, even though with an accent..." And so I completely broke away from the Spanish people. Voice over: Press 1 for Peru press 2 for republic of Korea. The department of states warns all US citizens of the dangers of travel to Peru. With the exception of certain tourist areas, terrorist violence continues in many parts of the country. Foreign visitors have not been specifically targeted and tourist areas have generally been free of terrorist activity. Alex: When I was 12 years old, my dad took me to Peru. He wanted me to meet my grandmother. The first time I saw her she hobbled up to me across the airport floor. She was small and wrinkled and I had been watching the Star Wars movies too much...my first thought was that she looked like Yoga. One of the things I remember most about that trip was the food. My dad wouldn’t let me eat anything that had even a remote chance of being alive. Every thing had to be boiled or bottled. In Peru we were visiting Inca ruins, drinking Inca kola and eating mashed potatoes...I lived on mashed potatoes for 10 days in Peru. Announcer And now, live, from the panoramic Andean highlands, in scenic Peru! Inca Kola, the golden cola, is proud to present the eight annual culinary conquest games! But first a word from our sponsor: Randy Berman, Inca Kola When you drink it people feel like they’re on a mini-vacation because they’re enjoying it so much, and we tell people just to kick back, enjoy the micro-vacation of Inca kola and feel like you’re taking a mini-jaunt to the tropics. Narrator In this year's contest competing potatoes will sever their roots as they do battle for a slice of the American dream. The ships of the Spanish conquistadors have landed and it appears that one of our contestants has not made it on to the ship, oh well, brown potato, better luck next time, if at first you don't taste victory, fry and fry again. this is a major event in Pan-American culinary conquest history. The colorful seed potato which have made it to Europe, are all being forcefully removed from the event, and the most uniform white potatoes have just made a frying leap towards today’s victory, as they are cultivated across the European continent. The people of Ireland are even starting to tell each other’s fortunes with trinkets buried in mashed potatoes. White potato is feeling good as he ploughs through customs and becomes part of the American family. But surprises await. Since it’s return to the Americas in 1622 it’s been no smooth sail for this starchy immigrant. Having to deal with western science, food technology, and a mass consumer culture is going to be enough to give this traveling tuber a major Mr. Potato Headache. Prof. Mondy I was the first one to take a scanning electron picture of a potato cell. This is one that I’m really very proud of because we were able to capture the cell wall. Now there are a lot of people using the scope, there are a lot of pictures, and they follow what happens to the potato when you cook it, when you treat it different ways, so this isn’t unique now, it’s unique in that it was the first. Jane Duxano Tri-Sum chips are known for a nice light colored chip, and these are too dark for us to put in the bags, so we have people picking off chips that are colorful like this. John Workman: It’s just such a shock to the potato that it turns it brown. You’re taking a potato that’s been at a certain temperature all this time and you’re dropping it in 340 degrees. Drop me in 340 degrees- see how stressed I get. Jane: A human hand does not touch the potato from the time we begin to the time we end. It’s quite unique because it’s done in a beef tallow. A lot of people appreciate us for the unique products we are able to offer in a very competitive snack food environment. (Title) Meanwhile in Lima... Jane Schultz: A large part of the opportunity for potato chips and snacks in general is in foreign markets. The industry is becoming increasingly global. Latin America...the potential there is enormous...For popcorn products, potato chips, pork rinds are also a very big item in Latin America. Narrator: If you are calling to find out how pringles are made, press 5. Pringles contain the same basic ingredients found in other potato chip products. The unique way we make Pringles makes them stand out in the potato chip crowd. We purchase potatoes in the form of potato flour, then add just enough water to form a smooth potato dough. The chips are cut into one uniform size and shaped to a saddle which takes them through the quick frying, seasoning and stacking, without any handling. That’s how you get pringles: Fresh, flavorful chips of uniform size and quality, stacked for your enjoyment. Thank you for your interest in Pringles. Papa: I was 22 going on 23, an innocent lad from Peru, who came to Miami and took a bus from Miami all the way up here. When I was young and full of dreams one of my ambitions was coming to The States. I had an uncle who lived in Brooklyn and he would send us the Spanish Section of the Daily News and every time I would open that news paper and start dreaming of coming to the United States, perhaps some day meet Doris Day or Esther Williams. One of the curious things that happened in Miami, is that I wanted to use the bathroom, and all the bathrooms had signs saying for Colored only or White only . I had to scratch my head and try to figure out where the heck did I fit! I am not colored, I am not white either. Luckily I tossed a coin and said, "What the heck I am white." Jane Schultz: When Pringles were first introduced, it upset some traditional potato chip manufacturers, because they felt that Pringles weren’t really a potato chip in the true sense of the word. Narrator: The introduction of Pringles caused a lot of anger amongst the otherwise chipper potato processing industry. The debate, which was covered on national television centered around the question "What is a real potato chip?" Traditional chip manufacturers were worried that Pringles would pose as a real potato chip, find consumers based on that name, and steal market share. What is the definition of a real potato chip? Jane Schultz: It’s not so much what the definition of a potato chip is, but what the definition of a fabricated potato chip is, and the distinguishing marks from those two, and we definitely separate out fabricated potato chips as a separate segment within the potato chip segment. Papá: In Peru there is certain discrimination against "El cholo." El cholo is a phrase that you use against someone that has Incan blood. Many times when you want to put a person down you say "That person is a cholo." They use it on me quite a bit. So I came to the states partially running away from that discrimination and lack of opportunity, and when I came to New York I came across more discrimination against Spanish people. So I was running from one place, and I jumped into another that was worse. Narrator: I’d come to Peru to discover what was happening to the Incas in a modern world, and I found that a surprising number of them were dreaming of their ancestors. TV: The chips, they don’t want them brown, or with brown rings in them, they want a nice white chip. We had, last year, 14000 apprehensions. They don’t want that, they want their potatoes nice and white, not greasy. We have color charts that our members can purchase, so they can see what their color range is supposed to be for a quality potato chip. Alex: Thanks a lot. You’ve been watching Inca vision. Girls on street: I’m tuning in to Inca Vision Man with hat: I’m tuning in to Inca Vision Alex: Inca Vision is a different vision. We’ll be offering you golden programming devoted to bodies in motion, devoted to immigrants of the human and vegetable persuasion. But due to limited funding for project like ours, us Incas have not been able to entirely realize our vision. But we have been able to Machu Sneak you a preview. So sit back, grab a bag of papa chips, and enjoy- The Border bunch. Featuring Alicia, the undocumented housemaid. Alicia, the maid: The United States is building a wall between north and south America. Immigration Officer: We have taken control of this area. Alicia, the maid: While they’re building a wall to keep us from coming to this country to work as farmers or maids, the President talks about an economic family among us. Bill Clinton: I support the North American free trade agreement. If it is done right it will create jobs in the United states and in Mexico. Alicia, the maid: They want the merchandise to come North, but the people to stay South...how crazy! Alex: Good evening, and welcome to Inca Vision news. Tonight’s top story is static. The frequent interruptions you’ve experienced with our broadcast this evening, have been caused by a problem with Inca Vision satellite. It seems that in an odd chain of events, papá has been deported by the virtual border patrol, for watching too much Spanish Language television. Apparently papa has been watching Spanish language television so intensely that his consciousness has actually, on a nightly basis, been leaving North America and traveling somewhere else. The mechanical border guards arrested papa earlier today, and, using unusual expulsion methods, seem to have thrown papa out of America and our satellite out of orbit. Unfortunately our cameras could not capture these events. What you’re about to see is a dramatic re-enactment. Host: Welcome to Virtua-Lima, a Peruvian rest stop on the ever-expanding American information super highway. Here in virtua-lima, homesick Peruvian couch potatoes are pleased to find that they can frolic in three dimensional reconstructions of their childhood memories, without missing the fast paced excitement and white chip disposition of their American Lifestyle. Put on your Tex-Mex VR (Virtual Reality) specs and take a micro vacation to VirtuaLima today! Jorge Ramos and Alex: What is the name of your father? Augusto. From what part of Peru? Lima. Augusto, don’t watch so much television. On the billboard: One of the things we’ve always tried to promote is snacking in tandem with watching videos. Because Inca Kola is such a nationalistic product now, you find that Peruvians here in the United States want to know how come a Peruvian is not distributing this product, how come it’s not owned by a Peruvian company, because they think that this is their product. First they screen you to see if you’re truly Hispanic, and the screening for truly Hispanic is based on how many hours of Spanish television do you watch. Narrator: And using the few resources available to him, papa escapes VirtuaLima and returns to American reality. During the past forty years since his journey north, this descendent of the Golden Civilization has made a home for himself in a new civilization.