Mundo Real
The Street Priest
Season 3 Episode 8 | 28m 28sVideo has Closed Captions
An arsonist firebombs the travel agency, and Luis is devastated.
An arsonist firebombs the travel agency, and Luis is devastated. A visiting priest shares the suspect's tragic story with the Blancos, leaving the family torn whether to press charges.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Mundo Real is a local public television program presented by CPTV
Mundo Real
The Street Priest
Season 3 Episode 8 | 28m 28sVideo has Closed Captions
An arsonist firebombs the travel agency, and Luis is devastated. A visiting priest shares the suspect's tragic story with the Blancos, leaving the family torn whether to press charges.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship["Batuka" by Tito Puente plays] [♪] [engine idles] <i>[salsa plays from car radio]</i> [car door shuts] [glass breaking] <i>[salsa music</i> <i>continues playing in distance]</i> [running foorsteps] [shouts] HEY, YOU!
[car door shuts] [tires screech] ¡Papi, papi!
[door opens] What?
Papi!
[loud explosion] OH MY GOD!
I'm going to see what happened.
DELIA: Papi.
What happened?
No te puedo decir ahora-- MANUEL: [frantically] ¿Qué pasó?
¿Que pasó?
What-- Ángel vete arriba y dile a doña Inés que hay un fuego en el edificio.
Dile que baje por la escalera principal y que espere afuera, ¿está bien?
Rápido, mijo!
Doris, call the firemen and tell Delia and don Manuel to get out into the streets now, Now!
Okay?
[frantically] ¿Y tú qué vas a hacer?
I'm going to see what I can salvage, so-- Get out of here!
Get out of here!
I'll be right up.
[fire extinguisher discharges] [firetruck siren wailing] [fire extinguisher discharging] LUIS: [coughs] Don Manuel!
- ¿Ah?
Don Manuel, deje eso, venga, venga, vamos!
[both speaking at once] <i>[sirens wailing in distance]</i> [coughs] MANUEL: Vete tú que yo salgo enseguida.
Don, Manuel, ¿está seguro?
- Sí, sí-- - ¿ESTÁ SEGURO?
[frantically] ¡Doris y los muchachos!
¡Atiéndelos!
¡Salga rápido, don Manuel!
[sirens closing in] [sirens wailing] <i>[children chattering]</i> PRIEST: Luis!
Is there anyone still inside?
[coughs] Yeah, don Manuel.
LUIS: Carlos, take care of Doris.
[coughs] Don Manuel!
¿cómo se siente?
¿Se siente bien?
FIREMAN: Excuse me, sir.
This man needs oxygen.
LUIS: Pero don Manuel, ¿usted está loco?
Cómo es posible que un hombre de su inteligencia no haya tenido el sentido-- [coughs] de haber salido de ese infierno y dejar esa papelería atrás.
It's ok, it's ok.
He knows better now.
Don Manuel, uno no puede arriesgar su vida tratando de salvar nada en un incendio.
When I was going out, he tried to put the fire out himself-- [coughs] with extinguishers.
DORIS: [cries out] ¿Tú estás loco?
Se creen unos cheches de película.
¡Y no piensan en las responsabilidades de una familia!
[yells] ¡Machismo!
¡Eso es lo que es!
Okay, okay, okay.
We're all right, that's what's important.
Padre... Por favor, lleve a Doris arriba-- [coughs] PADRE: Doris, vamos, vamos.
[coughs] Doris, go.
Papi, where are you going?
- I'm gonna go inside.
I'm going to see how much damage there is, okay?
Can I come?
- No, no, no.
You go upstairs.
Yo subo ya mismo.
Está bien, papá.
¿está bien?
Mira... Estamos bien, ¿OK?
[tearfully] Estás bien.
Papi.
Yeah?
- [coughs] - I see him.
Over there.
Who?
- The guy who started the fire.
Are you sure?
I'm sure.
Bert!
- Don't look at him.
Carlos, Ángel says he sees the arsonist.
CARLOS: ¿Dónde?
Show him where.
[police shouts] We got to go.
<i>BERT: Police!</i> <i>Stay where you are!</i> <i>CARLOS: Alto.</i> <i>La policía.</i> No te muevas!
Put your hands on the car.
Spread your legs.
Wide open.
[car door shuts] LUIS: Carlos... This man was at the agency this afternoon.
¿De veras?
What did he want?
He wanted to buy an airline ticket... to Colombia, right!
BERT: Did he?
Yeah, Colombi-- ah?
No, no, no, no.
He wanted to buy it on credit.
I don't know that man.
I refused to sell it to him.
Ya veo.
Well, look, we're booking him now.
As soon as you can, bring Ángel over to the station.
You're gonna have to press charges, and you're gonna need a statement from Ángel as an eye witnesses.
Ángel?
Okay, okay, okay.
Sure, okay.
[car doors shut] [soft music] <i>[people cheering]</i> [♪] <i>[distant clattering]</i> [♪] [thuds] [♪] <i>[police radio chatter]</i> <i>All right.</i> <i>We're going to move the other way.</i> [♪] <i>[radio chatter continues]</i> [♪] Mr.
Blanco.
Mr.
Blanco, I'm sorry about what happened.
Yeah.
I know it's never easy.
Yeah, uh... Thank you.
Thank you.
Uh... We'll board up the door to keep out the looters.
Sure.
There'll be an investigation this week, so we can determine the cause of the fire officially.
Sure, sure.
It obvious was started by an incendiary-- Excuse me.
I'll be upstairs in case you need me, all right?
Will do.
Thank you.
Sure.
[door closes] [dejected] Hey... Doña Inés... ¿Está bien?
¿Cómo está usted?
- Bien, bien.
¿Y tú?
- Bien... Lo siento mucho, Luis Well, the important thing is that none of us got hurt.
For the damage... We're covered by the insurance.
It was a good thing... the fire was contained to the-- the agency, right?
Who can?
Who would want to do a thing like that?
They caught him.
Him?
The man who put the fireball.
It's ironic.
Very ironic.
But you know, if I'd sold him a ticket this afternoon, none of this would have happened.
Entonces, ¿tú lo conoces?
No.
No, I don't know him.
I know his name.
Juan Ortiz.
¿Juan Ortiz?
I know him well.
El acostumbraba a venir a la iglesia a menudo.
But he's a torn man, Luis.
His mother is dying of cancer in an asilo, in Cartagena, in Colombia.
Oh, my God.
Besides, he's an illegal alien, a refugee from a world of despair and poverty.
¿Por qué no me lo dijo?
No sé.
Yo sé que vino aquí con una visa de turista.
As soon as the visa expired, he stayed.
Then he found a job in a plastic factory where he got paid $2 an hour.
<i> Gracias.</i> <i>Imagine.</i> Eso era una fortuna para él.
So... Each week, he would send half of his paycheck to his mother.
But each day at work, he waited in dread for the firm hand on his shoulder.
La policía.
And each night... He slept in fear of being arrested.
La alternativa era muy cruel, Luis.
If he went to his mother's bedside, he could not return to the United States.
Back in South America, he would be forced to work again as a campesino at $3 a day.
On the other hand, if he stayed, his mother would be alone if she died.
What's gonna happen to the guy now?
Well, he'll be deported.
Lo deportarán.
¿Lo deportarán?
Yo no entiendo.
What does that mean?
Delia means that Juan Ortiz will have to leave this country.
He'll be thrown out of this country?
<i>PADRE: Mm-hmm.</i> - That would be awful!
<i>PADRE: [sighs]</i> Well, uh... Ángel... Vamos a prepararnos que nosotros tenemos que ir a la jefatura de la policía, ¿sabes?
We have to identify Juan Ortiz.
And I... have to press charges against him.
You must be kidding, papi.
After all you found out about that poor guy, you still want me to be a stool pigeon?
[tense guitar music] Uh... Listen, Ángel, uh... We know now the circumstances that frustrated that man, pushed him to the point where he vented his frustration against us.
I... I understand what you mean, and I'm very proud of you that you feel that way.
But uh... what he did was wrong.
It was very wrong.
You just can't go around fire-bombing people because they won't help you when you need them.
That's wrong.
A--A--All right.
What about if the fire had ravished the whole building, this whole building?
Our house,<i> our</i> house, our home.
What about if any one of us... Had been hurt... killed?
A ti no te hubiera gustado eso, ¿verdad?
But we weren't.
Yeah, but we could have been!
Yo no voy a hacer un chota!
[sternly] Mira, Ángel, atiéndeme a mí.
Es-- hay unos deberes.
¿Tú me entiendes?
Esto es un deber tuyo, un deber ciudadano.
pero es mucho más que eso.
It's your duty as my son to do as I tell you to do.
<i>Now, you go.</i> <i>Wash up.</i> [♪] Okay.
But I won't like it.
Yeah, I guess... As you grow up, you'll encounter time and again, that there are a lot of things, a lot of things, that you have to do, you don't like to do.
Things that we must do.
Our duty is a duty, ok?
This is one such thing.
There you go.
Wash up.
[door opens] Bueno, yo los acompaño.
Es decir, si no estorbo.
¿Cómo va a estorbar, Padre?
Al contrario, gracias.
Bienvenido.
Perdóneme, yo tengo que ir-- - Como no.
<i>[indistinct chatter]</i> <i>P.A.
System:</i> <i>Claio.
C, L, A, I, O.</i> <i>On the first floor, 575.</i> CARLOS: Octubre 6, 1974.
Bien.
Gracias, Angelito.
Eso es todo lo que necesitamos.
Con permiso.
Voy a buscar los sujetos.
<i>[chatter continues]</i> <i>[police radio paging]</i> <i>[phones ringing]</i> Well, Ángel?
Who is the man?
Well, Ángel... He's the man.
Vamos.
Padre, Yo no sé como pude haber hecho una cosa como esa.
Juan, pregúntale a tu corazón.
My mother, Father.
She was so good to me.
She died yesterday.
Por eso necesitaba el dinero, para regresar a Colombia, y enterrarla.
<i>JUAN: Sr.
Blanco.</i> I'm sorry.
I don't know what came over me.
Perdón.
¿Nos deportarán, Padre?
Here, we are alive.
Back there... [cries] Padre... Would you say a mass for my mother?
[solemn guitar music] [sighs] [♪] <i>[sirens wail in distance]</i> [♪] PADRE: [exhales sharply] Well, I'll be saying a mass of resurrection tomorrow, but my lost sheep won't be there.
Good night, Luis.
Buenas noches, Padre.
Ángel.
[♪] Pa'.
Yes, son?
Do you feel as bad as I do?
[♪] Yeah, I know exactly how you feel.
[♪] Come on, son.
Let's go.
[♪] LUIS: [sighs] "I was a stranger, and you took me in".
What?
Nothing, son.
It's the words of a simple Nazarene.
[♪]
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Mundo Real is a local public television program presented by CPTV