Second Century: Studs Terkel

University of New Mexico program featuring an interview with Studs Terkel.

00:00Copy video clip URL Black.

00:31Copy video clip URL Credits and opening sequence for Second Century. Short period of black.

01:25Copy video clip URL Host Eakin Torres Eakin sits in a room filled with Poinsettia plants and greets viewers, introducing the program and the day’s topics.  She talks about the University of New Mexico and its one hundred year partnership with the state.

02:22Copy video clip URL “Tesoros del Espiritu” [Portraits of Sound]. Eakin speaks with Enrique Lamadrid, assistant professor of Modern and Classical Languages, who produced a disk of Spanish music that was to represent the spirit of New Mexico. He talks about how he and his colleagues traveled across the state of New Mexico gathering people’s stories and memories and musical backgrounds to compile their disk of New Mexican folklore. He displays a transcript and then shows a video clip and mentions that it is in a museum of modern folk art in Santa Fe. The clip shows farmland and farmers while a narrator talks about the spiritual attachment the people have to the land and how the land is sacred. In the background, a man sings in Spanish. Some of the narration is also in Spanish. The narrator talks about the importance of music to rural life in New Mexico.

11:30Copy video clip URL The show goes back to the studio and Eakin thanks Lamadrid for making his tape. She asks him about a colleague, Miguel, with whom he has previously worked. Lamadrid describes him as a “cultural insider with a great sensitivity.”

13:12Copy video clip URL Musica Antigua performs “Sing We Nowell.” Eakin introduces them, explaining that they are composed of faculty, staff, and students who perform Renaissance music from Spain. Colleen Sheinberg, one of the musicians, explains the antique instruments they use and the kinds of music they play.

15:04Copy video clip URL An announcer reads a poem, then the group performs “I Sing of a Maiden.” They then perform “Castitatsius Thalamus,” a 12th century processional song, followed by another called “Geodenis.”

17:26Copy video clip URL Eakin announces when the group will perform again.

17:48Copy video clip URL New segment: “Salud, Clotbusters.” Dr. Michael Crawford comes on the program to describe the warning signs of a heart attack. He then describes his findings that taking a clot busting drug immediately following a heart attack can  minimize heart damage. These drugs are supposed to aid the body in fighting clots.

20:41Copy video clip URL “Bye Bye Bi-Polarism: Glasnost and the New Mexican Economy.” Eakin meets with political science professor Gregory Gleason. He talks about the changing relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, saying that the two countries are no longer as tense with one another and that we must respect the differences in each others’ cultures. Eakin relates their conversation on international relations to the impact on the average New Mexican. They also speak about his book and a campus program that promotes international peacekeeping.

39:40Copy video clip URL “Tony Hillerman with Studs Terkel; Whatever happened to the American Dream?”  Hillerman “interviews” Studs in what is really more of a discussion between the two men. Eakin introduces the discussion and Studs himself.

30:38Copy video clip URL Hillerman begins by stating that he believed that Studs should have gotten a Pulitzer Prize for Hard Times. Studs responds by noting that Grapes of Wrath is fifty years old and noting that because of Hillerman’s upbringing, that book is close to him. They discuss the movement in Oklahoma.

32:10Copy video clip URL Studs talks about the Cold War and its effect on the country. They also talk about the ways in which McCarthyism continues to impact us today. Studs says that Oklahoma was once a radical state but now is conservative as a result.

33:32Copy video clip URL Hillerman notes that Studs has described the Great Depression very vividly in his books. Studs comments on his feeling that young people today are ignorant about the Depression and simply do not know their history. He says that the lack of stories about middle class people is his pet peeve.

35:46Copy video clip URL Studs talks about how people of the Depression blame themselves for not making it. They assumed that the “man behind the mahogany desk” was “better than them.” He says that humiliation and fear plagued people and no one learned from it, meaning that it could possibly happen again.

37:12Copy video clip URL Studs talks about what kids are not told in their history books. He says that no one knew “what was it like for an ordinary kid to survive those terrible times.”  He references the pyramids in Egypt and notes that they were built by slaves, a point usually neglected. “When the Chinese Wall was built, where did the masons go for lunch?” Studs emphasizes that he is most interested in the stories of average people.

39:10Copy video clip URL The men talk about the dream of the laborer, who wants to pass a skyscraper and point to the brick and say, “I put that brick there.”  Studs notes that not only the architect, but everyone who worked on a building, should see their name proudly displayed.

40:37Copy video clip URL Studs talks about apathy in young kids and asks Hillerman about his view, considering he is a former teacher. Hillerman notes that the journalism students were very smart, but very much idealists because they knew they were not going to make any money. He suggests that Watergate prolonged that feeling and inspired more idealism. Studs counters by noting a possible comeback of the liberal arts in schools.

42:38Copy video clip URL Studs goes back to his question about idealism, and Tony agrees that he too is an optimist. Studs talks about the gap between idealists and optimists and the rest of the world. They begin discussing the Vietnam War and the draft. Studs notes “we had as much business being there as I do flying to Mars.”

44:48Copy video clip URL Hillerman asks about the American divide, which prompts Studs to describe the expanding wealth gap: “The gap is bigger than ever.” He uses publishers as an example of this.

46:18Copy video clip URL Hillerman asks if Studs is working on an oral history of racism. Studs says he is trying to do this and describes his idea. He talks about how racism is prevalent in our language today. Hillerman talks about his experience with racism growing up in the south.

48:00Copy video clip URL Studs talks about how the phrase “‘crime on the streets’ is a euphemism for ‘young black teenage males'” and how jobs would help prevent crime amongst that group. He comments on public policy which has not yet attempted to address this, saying, “But somehow, they can’t figure out two plus two is four up there.”

48:50Copy video clip URL Studs talks about the Civilian Conservation Corps, addressing the camera to explain its history and FDR’s New Deal to younger viewers. He describes his own history with the WPA. Studs claims that the military is misleading in stating that it creates jobs, saying that has not happened since World War II.

50:22Copy video clip URL Hillerman announces that they are almost out of time, and Studs comments on the human situation of making swords into plowshares in New Mexico.  Tony thanks him for his time and they shake hands.

51:20Copy video clip URL Musica Antigua performs again: “Oy Joseph Se Os Da’n El Suelo”  and “Ach Mein Herzliebes Jesulein.” A man reads a poem, “Alleluia: A Newe Work,” as an introduction.

55:23Copy video clip URL A list of upcoming events at UNM runs across the screen while video of old performances plays behind them.

56:22Copy video clip URL “User Friendly: Public Service Announcement.” Cathryn Keller, Director of Public Service for UNM, announces which buildings will be closed on campus over the holiday break.

57:25Copy video clip URL Eakin closes out the program and describes the upcoming episode. The credits roll while the music plays in the background.

58:44Copy video clip URL End of tape.

 

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