Good afternoon. Is great for you to be here today and i currently serve as the provost hot and it is a joy to be with you today to hear from our colleagues and friends peter it is quite an amazing book i will give a brief interview and talk about the format and the ground rules so many of you know quite well he is the professor from International Studies here wraparound also for International Public affairs he joined the institute in 2001 and previously worked at reed college and a scholar at Harvard UniversityResearch Fellow at brookings and also with the Macarthur Foundation fellow. He got his ph. D. In government at cornell. Peter is one of the truly unique and wonderful combinations of scholars gifted teachers and a wonderful colleague i was fortunate to get to know peter when i came here and we were partners in crime for a couple of years so aside from being a truly gifted teacher he is the author and coauthor and coeditor and published a terrific book that cave mouth in in 2013 selected by amazon and Foreign Affairs before thats as one of the first books that i have read the business of survival that is a terrific book talking about that particular moment in history and what smuggler nation does that it takes a an issue of how we think about Illicit Trade of smuggling thats is offcenter but central to the way we understand the key phenomenon as well. He is dead colada for god issues on the border and drugs and the way that well understand it and this is a truly unique gift the way he can take these issues to show they are relevant to the mainstream but in the way the war engaged if you read the book it is very sensible it is a real pleasure to have you as a colleague and friend. This book today hopefully you had a chance to look bad it if not they will be sold outside is incredible that blends together a story of peters mom and their relationship over time but especially when he was shown but this story was going on politically in this country and reading together those narratives makes this a very compelling story and actually brings to life personal and real what was going on in this era so again this is a terrific book proposal peter will talk about the book may be for a half an hour then after words we will kickoff us a discussion then we will open to the audience furcula day session this is taped by cspan so please turnoff your phone and when you have a question please wait for the microphone otherwise people will not hear the questions during the recording. [applause] eight you very much on this gray cold day so the reason rick davey introduction not there is a glowing untrue or their provost of the university but because when he first arrived at brown he was the first person here figuring out i was writing the book he has an extra antenna for these things so not only did he figure that out but right away immediately so he has insomnia in getting great comments so i am grateful because i did not broadcast widely i cannot believe this was happening so rick was support on this project. William not wearing light Political Science at today that i should say that it is about politics so there is continuity here with the most deeply political thing that basically reflects personal and political is hard to imagine today this intensely political childhood. It was a story in my head i did not know what to do with i thought i would write about it but i never thought i had enough raw material i did not entirely trust memory to produce a book so what made this possible . Tragically it was my mothers death she died very suddenly and unexpectedly and going through birthings i discovered her diaries. In fact, it was next to her bed where she died and the last line in the diary was a think im having a heart attack. But it goes back decades to of a childhood. This was reading as her son but also as a researcher part of that was there to pick apart was i can tell the story. So it is a local bout of life on the run with my radical mother basically covered three states and five countries with a dozen homes and a dozen schools between the ages of five and 11 much of the time i was not in school at all but it was a personal story about a radical arab us so the story captures the era of this particular family stroma the 60s and 70s toward a country apart in many ways and also families apart. So i will do today which is also very different with the evidence presented but i will actually do some reading which is a little different for me. I should mention most of you have not even looked at the book but the diaries not only gave me the confidence but her letters of correspondence it made it possible for me to do dialogue. It took me awhile to adjust she was such a good writer in the diaries i could basically extent and use that material to come up with an actual dialogue so if you wonder it is mostly from the diary. Very selective readings the idea is to recapture different moments in this story and i will all jump ahead to september 11th 1973. Estimate just after 9 11 9 00 in the morning we were around the radio in the kitchen listening as the president broadcast his last publicly spoken words. Be a just gotten back from cleaning their animals and we hurried into listen to the radio. The president ial palace in in santiago was being blocked bond. This is part of the growing communist threat i vowed never to give up to the military to be dead within hours those that claim he committed suicide but that ak 47 Assault Rifle given to him by fidel castro his voice was strong and defiant. Long live chile and the people in the workers. I am certain with sacrifice will not be in vain at the very least a moral lesson to punish felony cowardice and treason. The radio fell silent i can only think of another. Where was she . Wish to save . What i never see her again . I did not fully comprehend the political situation i knew enough spanish to know his words and recognize my mother could be in danger after all she was a supporter of the leftist government and in her complaint about him was that he was not left enough personalities with the were the more radicals with the revolutionary Left Movement she that they should distribute arms to the workers in preparation for a military coup. I have not seen or heard from her in more than a month and had no idea how to reach forefather and at that moment i felt more loan and cut off than any other time in my life. I was happy living on the farm now it seemed i was rude to their ruth and his voice is on for ever staring at the radio in stunned silence i could see the fear in her eyes so after the man who ruled next i ages they waited for my mothers return. My mind raced of the possibilities. Will she imprisoned . Tortured . In a morgue . An unmarked grave . Then i wondered what it would be like. What i end up with no socks were selling issues together to keep them from falling apart . Would they take me to the safety of michigan . That fought was comforting but disturbing that means a mother never comes back. Now she did come back a few weeks later you can imagine those weeks were traumatic we were living on a foreign 500 kilometers south of santiago. When she showed up and took the with there and we fled the country to argentina and shortly thereafter. So now i will skip ahead were now in for ruth perot peru and her boyfriend is half her age. [laughter] so this section. As soon as i started school april 1974 weiss arrived i tried to draw on the page but they fell from my head as if they tried to get my attention. I that they were falling off my head because it was so crowded not enough room for it all i imagined fistfights is they were fighting over the landscape and first was startled the falling lice became so routine in a barely notice them. I was embarrassed but other kids had their own personal colonies my mother would spend many nights Getting Better eggs out of my hair the affection in routine reminiscent of monkeys we tried everything. Special soaps, shampoos even kerosene putting an awful smell the my hair that lasted for days the and nothing worked. She spent more time coming clothing lice out of my heritage she did cooking the she did it would be too difficult we just had this single burner hot plate so usually meant crusty bread and jelly with tea or coffee after school where another if her boyfriend read a political event my mother would pay a neighbor to feed me those were better at home but still rice and soup and bread for go his wife and their two daughters treated me like family she was a special she was especially vice to me when sober but the only smelled like alcohol one night he announced he had a cure for my problem it had worked on his kids and he wanted to give it a try. The girls giggled it works they promised after dinner he took me out to back lower your head he instructed. I need to douse your hair. States still. Dont move. I did exactly as he said bending over as far as i could in the dark sticky saltwater nothing smells quite like youre in. Nothing like having a pot of p dump on your head. Rub it in good he said tentatively i reached up to massage the year into my scalp he said harder. So i did not want to offend him. And began to stand up but he shouted you need just a bit more. But there was none left in the pot so be unzipped his pants and put a hot streak on my head. Taking care not to miss any spots i was so drenched even my years were full. He said that should do it gaging i desperately wanted to rinse my hair but he stopped me again. What is set there it has to soak. So i sat patiently waiting for the minutes. It worked exactly as promised it turns out theyre even more disgusted than i was. A few weeks later they were back in full force because the and the kids at school still had lice. But i did not ask for another treatment. Now my mother and her boyfriend, she was about 41 and he was 21. It was an intense relationship very intense political relationship but i mostly remember is them arguing about politics unfortunately she has the blow by blow in your diaries so i reconstructed one argument. As much as they loved each other she loved to argue about pretty much anything especially anything with politics those matches infuriated them some lasted for hours at any time of the day i hate christ he declared one day he was trying to pick a fight but my mom could resist simic is non necessary to heat christ off they went a verbal fist fight was jesus the proletariat . Was the dance to the rich and powerful . If you believe in christ could you believe in london . Yes seven other if christ is reactionary . So then you think i and the reactionary . My mother told rabil it was nice that jesus thought it was nice to watch each others feet always the poor who were supposed to be humble but my mother would shoot back it is a realistic to expect people to throw away all their lifelong belief in one jump it is politically smarter to attack to the church of the doctrine rather than jesus but raul replied i dont care those young peruvians need to learn what he symbolizes. Dont be so dismissive have you actually read the bible . Instead of the answering he said remember religion is the opiate of the masses. But that doesnt mean there isnt anything to be learned. One afternoon substitute the names of marx and lenin and mao for jesus she thought was a creative way to convert christians to the revolutionary cause pleased with himself he proudly showed the doctored song sheets to my mother when she came home, did she would be impressed. He was hoping to sing the song and maybe even sell copies on the street but it completely backfired. My mother was not only unimpressed but mad. You turned marxism into a religion but raul was stunned. It is a tactic to politicize the masses. No. It perpetuates the called the personalities substituting marks for jesus. Angry he lit a match and it caught fire in the middle of the room we both jumped she said dont be crazy. Stomping out the fire ashes from the bird to sheets floating across the room you could burn the whole place down. My mother in raul only squirreled without resolution what my mother would call the root causes of female oppression. For persistent focus on the woman question raul sometimes lashed out telling her as the north american she was the daughter of imperialism she would counter always remember youre not the most oppressed person in the world he never worked out an effective response. Won saturdays several months after we moved the debate about female oppression lasted the entire day. Walking into town to take a hot shower they argued in the shower together and on the way back it was as if i wasnt even there. That day they got so mad at each other over the different interpretations they decided to part ways on the walk home if i was kicking of rocks in the road my mother saw i started to cry she put her arm around my a shoulder. She said everything would be fine after he returned home a few hours later the argument where it was left off and continued into the night. As they tried to make up she told him sincerely and christina were just trying to get revenge when the sure way to get to know those white imperialists. I am not sure that made raul feel any better but they did stop arguing for that night. So now i will switch gears a little bit we were broke in my mother never had a financial settlement with my father over the divorce. So we had to go back to try to settle things with him it is hard to believe that this point but at that point in my life my spanish was better than my english i hardly even knew how to write in english and nine years old so my mother was pushing me to get up to speed after being gone a few years so i wrote a poem in english may be the only one ive ever written in my life so i thought i would read it december 74 i import and rich life is sometimes sad and sometimes marvelous the bathroom is full of shit my mother never comes they call the green go. Ini years old first in my class life is sad dammit my mother is teaching me english and that is good. Chou. [laughter] after reading the poem my mother smiled shes and ill be sure to keep this as defined in your diary for a decade later. And we came back to the United States my father refused to negotiate a property Settlement Agreement unless my mother was willing to have a custody battle over me. So she rolled the dice and she was broke some how had confidence she would not only get her some of the custody so she got the supplement and lost custody of me so i moved into suburban detroit with my father with an extraordinary change of lifestyle as you can imagine with my stepmother the trial was in august so i lived with them that fall and another was in colorado at the time became increasingly anxious and depressed and debris and would write to me over and over warningly of the pitfalls of my new life style. Pretty heavy stuff. Dear peter the judge and lawyers are still talking about the settlement money negative furious it makes it more difficult of your incarceration beverage in human letters that they do not send i imagine he didnt want to hear about my preoccupation you are free to and enjoy your new life as king of the universe your child of the people. The start to view the people was a print your privileged life dont waste their time but guard against the poorer when we help the poor sometimes but you never wanted to kick out the rich to take power. What preoccupies me is that you fear the power when they rebelled just like the rich have and then youre so far away from that youll never see the rebellion. Your so far away from the reality of the world if youll forgive what you once knew but that will fade and i hope you dont feel that your real home is with their rich i never tried to show you a notice of your previous life making you think because your father entered my body one day than somehow they give some rights over your life. Theyre trying to get a hold of your passport if the judge agrees then he will have a serious problem. Dont talk about this with them it is very delicate i just want to tell you this a you dont trust them too much rosalyn was to give me promises but doesnt have the power you always love those around you a treat you well the also think about what you are losing in how that will affect your mind and attitude and personality. You are a scene boy easily adjust to new experiences but now think very seriously if you want to totally adapt to the life of luxury and security. We are a little crazy for sure we do not care about respectability the u. S. To think about why we have chosen to be this way you could be stronger and more conscious for spending a few months there or sellout without caring. It was a risk to leave you there because you are young but youre not so innocent and the busy within weeks but dont announce that you are imprisoned there without knowing it. I would you mama suit she wanted me to feel i was in prison but that is not how it felt i did not know how to respond to the letters when did not write back. So the last thing i will read which is the most emotionally tortured moment of my childhood shortly after that letter and time period the warrant for my mothers arrest was issued by the Sheriffs Department few rafters our after my teachers reported the missing from the playground the official charge was enticing a child under 14 years of age the epb with or description was sent out to the police to the airports and train and bus stations but it was too late. We have already crossed the border. , knew exactly what i wasnt wearing because it was reported in the incident report. Last in bluejeans and beige trouble that grey sweater cowboy boots with the green ski coach. These are my only close until we reach through a few weeks later my father contacted the state department but no extradition would be granted. I finally agree however reluctantly to be a part of my own kidnapping. I sneaked out of the schoolyard during lunch recess my mother was waiting in a red beetles she disguised herself with dark glasses and a black wig. I would not have recognized her if she did not wave to me. I walked quickly to the car and we sped off. Despite the cold she looked pale against her winter coat. Everything go okay . She squeezed my hand. Nobody suspects . I shook my head i didnt say anything period my words would be trade my ambivalence and we drove in silence as the approach the tattle to link United States to canada at tears started to roll down my cheeks my mother pulled over to the side of the road. Do you want to go back . Year of most of the border she was trying hard to seem called and i said no. Wiping away tears i wanted to be in the car with her right then but i also wanted to be on the playground and school i did not look at her fearing she would see the decision in my eyes. She did dont press me she knew she would get a different answer if she asked again. I changed the subject you look ugly with that we did i have never seen my mother in glasses she l