Original subtitles

(lively jazz music)

- Hiya!

- [Delgado] Hey, hi.

Quick, come.

Quick, children.

Hurry!

Come on, that's it.

(speaking in foreign language)

Put it under the brake, quick.

Aye.

Here, Tino.

Quick, under the wheel, huh?

(speaking in foreign language)

Take care.

It's only necessary for you to appear to be crushed, okay?

Now, hey.

Ah, is that the face of anguish?

There.

(group shouting)

That's not the face of anguish.

Lift, lift.

(group shouting)

Life, lift.

- Good heavens!

- Here, come here.

You lift, I will pull.

- Yeah.

- Wait, wait, wait, wait.

(group grunting)

- It's heavier than it looks.

- Aye, indeed.

(speaking foreign language)

- What's he saying?

- Ah, he said bend down low he would whisper to you.

- Yeah.

What?

- Why do cats see better at night than we can?

- Poor thing, he's delirious.

- You don't know?

- We got to get him out of there.

- Oh, no please.

Try to answer the question, just one simple question.

Tino, give him another chance.

- How do clouds stay in the air?

What causes thunder?

Where do insects go in the fall?

What causes a mirage?

- Poor little fellow, he doesn't even know what he's saying.

- Don't you know anything?

Don't you have any education?

- What's going on here?

- Aye, Tino.

This one is not the man.

Get up off the ground.

Hey, Chico, go back to your station, we try again.

We keep on trying.

- Look, fellow, what's this all about?

- To a man who cannot answer the simple question of a hungry

mind, there is no explanation.

I have nothing to say.

Adios, Senor.

- Well!

- Well, that's what you get when you try to help somebody.

- Well, that's the craziest thing I ever ran up against.

- [Woman] That's the truth.

(fluttering orchestral music)

(speaking foreign language)

- Hey, quick, come!

All right, all right!

(group shouting)

Please, please.

One of you, quickly, comfort the boy!

- There's something wrong, it's not budging.

Give me a hand.

(men grunting)

- Juan's mother wants one and a half cherry pies.

Maria's mother had two and one quarter,

how many cherry pies did they both have?

- (grunts) Three and three quarters.

- Come on, give me a hand.

Push.

What are you doing, you're pushing against us?

- Oh, it's the excitement, Senor.

- Excitement?

- [Delgado] Excitement.

- Senor?

Please tell me the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

- The Great Pyramid of Khufu,

the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes,

the Olympian Zeus, Pausanias...

(group cheering)

- That poor boy.

It will reflect badly on me if the boy should die.

You seem an educated man.

College?

- Look, this boy's half out of his mind,

cherry pies and the seven wonders.

This is no time to stand around--

(speaking in foreign language)

- You drive the car, Senor.

With the others, you follow in the wagon.

- Follow where?

To Cordova.

- Cordova?

- It's not on the map, Senor.

- Okay, come on, get in the wagon.

(orchestral music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(orchestral music)

(kids cheering)

(speaking in foreign language)

- I am most sorry.

You have broken the law and you must be sentenced.

The tribunal, come.

- Broken what law?

- Well, it is a pity, but in a way it is partly my fault.

I should have warned you.

No vehicles are permitted in the town plaza.

- What's that?

- [Delgado] A vehicle.

- So?

- That vehicle belongs to Pedro Otero.

He has a permit.

You, have you a permit?

- Look, um, I'll see you around.

- Hey!

As you see, in Cordova, justice is available at the snap

of a finger.

Will the defendant please come forward?

- You've got to be kidding?

- Please, Senor Delgado has called you.

- [Delgado] It will be returned to you later.

- What do you mean, later?

I said, what do you mean, later?

- Where did you go to college?

- Yale, now give me my key, and I'll be on my way.

- He says he went to a placed called Yale.

Who knows this school?

Is truly a college?

- Si, Senor Delgado.

I have read about it.

It's a place of much learning, and much good sense.

- Aye, fine!

Bueno, bueno.

(town cheering)

Aye, bueno, bueno.

- (sighs) All right, all right, you've had your fun.

Now give me my keys, and I'll get out of here.

- Yes, uh, may I see your driver's license, please?

- Ah, says you are not married, that you live in New York.

- I used to.

- [Delgado] Occupation?

- Between jobs.

- Mother, father?

- [Tod] No.

- No relatives?

- Look, what has that go to do with this?

- At first I had thought that for such a terrible thing

as you have done, oh a month would be a punishment

to fit the crime.

But, now that you, yourself tell me that you have no job,

no home, no mother, no father, it seem to me that, uh

a full year would be much better.

- A year for what?

Just for driving in here?

Look, you know there are laws against false arrest

and false imprisonment, and trumped up charges!

- We may be a poor village, Senor, and what they call

unincorporated, but we do have a law of our own,

and we make it fit any situation.

- Look, if this is some kind of a racket to rob the tourists

under the pretense of violating some cooked up local

ordinance, if this town's treasury is that poor

okay, tell me what the fine is,

and I'll pay it and get out of here.

- I think we will put you and your friend at the Oteros',

that's Tino's mother and father,

they have a fine guest room.

Of course, we cannot pay you, but we will feed you,

and Senora Otero, when you savor her empanadas,

and her beef conchitas, hey they buenos! (laughs)

- All right, all right.

Look, I've been pretty patient

about his whole thing haven't I?

I mean, I saw what looked like an accident on the highway,

and I stopped, right?

Like the Bible says, like a good Samaritan, I stopped.

- A man who would not stop, we do not want.

- Then I drove miles up,

up roads mountain goats couldn't use,

and my friend, he's still coming up that road,

little knowing that the reward for his charity

is going to be treachery.

Now, if this is a Christian place, and I think it is,

then where, where my friends, is the Christianity?

- Wait!

Ha-ha, my friend, Saint Nicholas himself has sent you to us.

- Saint Nicholas?

- Yes.

He gives gifts to the children.

He aids the poor and the needy.

Hey, you will conceal the car, in case our friend here

has any idea that he would like to leave us.

(exciting orchestral music)

- How do you want to work this?

Quarterback sneak, or right around, right in?

- Forget it, these people are flipped,

you can't fight shadows.

- Are you kidding?

- Your friend is disturbed by some information

I have just given him.

It is a fine for a traffic violation.

He thinks for us to sentence a man so, we must by locos.

But I ask you, what else could we do?

We have many children here in need of teaching

and your friend is an educated man.

None of us, is.

I ask you again, what else could we do?

- This guy's a kook.

He thinks you can kidnap somebody off the state highway

and hold him up here in the mountains to teach school,

for a year.

- A year?

- Is a year so much to give?

(string music)

- They touch nothing.

Not even the empanadas that I bake for them.

- Have you done as I instructed?

(speaking in foreign language)

I even fanned the scent of the cinnamon and the pinons

through the window towards their room, while I cook.

They touch nothing.

The blonde one, he say to tell you,

they will eat nothing and they will stay in their room

until you give them the key and the machine,

and let them go back into the valley.

- How can I do that, Maria?

With school opening tomorrow, how can I do that?

(soft string music)

- Look, is there any reason

why I have to support your hunger strike?

- Go ahead, eat.

Be a fink.

No man is an island entire of itself.

Each man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

Any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

- Okay, so I'll eat for both of us.

- You still seem to think this whole thing is very funny.

- It is, admit it.

- Well, let me tell you something.

We're prisoners, just as surely as if they'd locked

a steel door behind us.

- Uh-Oh, you're a prisoner not me,

you're the boy they want, teach.

- That's tonight.

Who knows what they'll want tomorrow,

maybe a scarecrow for one of their fields.

Maybe the scarecrow will be you.

Anyway, aren't you the guy who's always saying,

you gotta bust out and never get cemented in?

Walk away from it cold?

- Yeah, that's me.

- Well, I'm gonna tell you something, buddy.

We're cemented in 32 miles from the main highway,

and no car.

A dozen husky farm boys just waiting outside to flex

their muscles in case we try to fight our way out.

- Look, will you relax and sit down, and eat?

You're giving me indigestion.

We'll bust out.

But, why do we have to do it tonight

when the whole town is lookin'?

Just move with it awhile, find out what it's all about,

and then we find a hole, we'll, we'll break the walls down.

All right?

We'll go.

Look, when we go, why don't we take the senora with us, huh?

Wait till you taste that.

Come on.

- Ugh.

(bell ringing)

- Buenos dias.

(door knocking)

- Do not worry, Senor Delgado.

They go no place.

- Ah.

Senor Stiles?

- Mm?

- Senor Stiles!

- It's only six o'clock.

- Today is the end of summer, the first new day of school.

There is much to do.

And as we say, today is filled with God's sunshine

tomorrow may never come.

- What time does school open?

- [Delgado] At seven. (speaking in spanish)

- Mm, seven, why so early?

- There are special problems today.

It is good he sleeps the sleep of the innocent.

- Well, Mr Delgado, just between us,

us guilty ones are insomniacs.

I mean, what's the real score around here?

I mean, last night, and yesterday,

okay we went along with the gag, but, you know

the Earth is turning on its axis,

and the planets are moving in the heavens so, uh,

why don't we hear a new sound this morning?

I mean, something more, a little bit reliable

than the voice of the turtle.

- I suggest you rise and wake your friend.

He has to address himself to the agile minds of the third,

fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.

You, I am assigning to the first and second grades.

In the hope that neither will prove beyond your capacities.

- Me?

Oh wait a minute, you can't do that, hey, wait a minute

I'm just here because you trapped my buddy.

I mean, I didn't break any law.

- I shall expect both of you within the next 30 minutes.

Otherwise, I shall have to send for you.

And it will look bad in front of the children

for you to be carried into school.

Our law fits any situation, even you.

- Good morning Mr. Scarecrow, what did I tell ya?

- I gotta be still sleeping, I don't get it.

I mean, why us?

What happened to their regular teachers?

I'm not qualified to teach.

I don't have a diploma or anything.

And even you with your, with your college education,

you gotta have a, a paper or something, don't ya?

- A certificate, they call it certification.

- Well, who's been certified?

- Go along with it, get inside of it.

That way when you're ready, the walls come down.

The walls come down all right, right on your head.

(bell ringing)

(children chattering)

(speaking foreign language)

- I'm happy to see you.

- Cut the glad talk, Mr. Puppeteer,

and just pull the strings for now.

- Your friend is not very cheerful this morning.

- Well, I'm not exactly what you might call overjoyed.

- When one has a ritual of life, he is no longer uneasy.

And what ritual is more important than to excite

the minds of the young?

There is a passion for understanding,

just as there are other passions and appetites.

But this passion is found only in children.

All too soon it fades, and then goes forever when the child

grows into a man, unless, he is well taught while the mind

is still open.

- You know, Mr. Delgado, every since we had the misfortune

of falling into your little trap on the highway, yesterday,

you've been coming out with some pretty perceptive thinking.

Real cracker barrel ringers.

Seems to me, you oughta be teaching these kids.

- Oh, but I do!

We all do.

Every man and every woman in Cordova teaches.

We teach the worship of God, love for America,

respect for parents, the traditions we bring from Spain,

but we cannot teach what is in the books.

We do not read or write.

- Well, there must have been teachers here before,

where are they?

- It is a matter of money.

We have none to spare, or else we would pay.

- What about the state and the county?

And don't tell me they just forgot about these kids.

- Do not talk to me about the county.

Ah, Senor, por favor.

(horn beeping)

Please, you start the classes, I will join you soon.

Your grades always begin with the Pledge of Allegiance,

your grades, we let sing first.

It helps bring the words to their tongues.

(men shouting)

- Let me ask you something.

- Yeah?

- How come we're just standing here?

How come we just don't get on that bus and get out

of this town?

- Let me ask you one.

How come somebody sent a school bus for these kids

and Delgado chases it away?

(dramatic orchestral music)

- Come, we keep the children waiting.

Children, this is your new teacher, Senor Stiles.

Senor, the pledge.

- [Class] I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America.

And to the republic for which it stands,

one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty

and justice for all.

- I will leave you now, Senor.

Adios.

- Hi.

- [Class] Hi.

- I remember how I felt the first day of school.

Terrible.

You too, huh?

- [Class] Yes, Sir.

- Well, I guess we oughta find out, who's who,

even if I don't know, what's what.

I tell you how we'll do it.

I'll put my name on the blackboard and each of you

can come up, one, by one and write your name underneath it.

Okay?

What's the matter, forget your name?

- She is my sister.

She has not yet learned how to write,

but you will teach her, won't you Senor?

- We'll see, Tino.

♪ The farmer in the dell

♪ The farmer in the dell

♪ Hi-ho, the derry-o

♪ The farmer in the dell

♪ The farmer takes a wife

♪ The farmer takes a wife

♪ Hi-ho, the derry-o

♪ The farmer takes a wife

♪ The wife takes the child

♪ The wife takes the child

♪ Hi-ho, the derry-o

♪ The wife takes the child

♪ The child takes the herd

♪ The child takes the herd

♪ Hi-ho, the derry-o

♪ The child takes the herd

(phone ringing)

- Sheriff's Office, Canfield.

Oh, hello Mr. Martin.

Well, you can't say he didn't warn us.

He camped on your doorstep all summer about it.

No, of course I'm not taking his side.

He's breaking the law, and I'll nail him.

Okay.

Okay, Mr.

Okay, Mr. Martin, just relax now.

I'll straighten it all out.

(upbeat orchestral music)

- We end the recess now.

Please, ring the bell to get the children inside.

(bell ringing)

- What you're doing is all wrong, Miguel.

Not only a violation of the law, but morally wrong.

And you know it.

- No man can tell Miguel Delgado, what is morally wrong.

Except Father Montoyez.

- Yeah, and I'll bet ya he doesn't know about this.

- He has many parishes to tend.

This is one of the least of them.

- Look Miguel, I'm gonna take the long view about all this.

I'm gonna forget that you, personally caused some 50

children to miss the opening day of school.

- How can you say that?

Look for yourself, do they not answer to the bell?

Are they not being taught?

- Would you mind telling me, just who's teaching them?

- A graduate of the Yale.

- We'll get to him, in a few minutes.

Now look, whether you approve it or not,

these kids have got to go to the new school

and you can't give me one legitimate reason, why not.

- Three hours a day, that's why not.

That's 15 hours a week, on a bus.

Enough time to prune the trees, to water the stock,

to help in the fields, to study at home,

to pray in the church.

- Miguel uh, now I could say some things that,

well that would hurt you.

Argue some arguments right out of your own life,

but I'm not gonna do that.

- Anita?

She proves nothing.

I do not speak to her, nor of her.

- Look, let's face it, do you really expect to attract

teachers way up here?

Why, your own daughter, turned you down.

About the only way I know to get them, is to kidnap 'em.

Fellas.

Where did he dig you two up?

- Oh, we're from out of state.

- Oh?

Names and certificate numbers, please.

That is, if you have certificate numbers.

- Tod Stiles.

- Murdock.

- Numbers?

- They're being shipped.

In the, in the trunk with the rest of our papers.

- Yeah, we sort of, you know,

rushed in here the last minute, you know.

- Well, I'll check it out with the border supervisors.

Stiles, Murdock, right?

- Spelled with a K.

- Miguel, for the record, it won't make any difference

to you if they're both PhD's.

This school is closed, and the children of Cordova

are assigned to the Las Cruces district.

Now, either they are to report to class in the morning,

or they'll be considered truants.

And I'm holding every parent in this town accountable.

Even if it means jailing a few of ya, to set an example.

Now, I want those kids on that bus, in the morning.

If not, in you go.

Clear?

(dramatic orchestral music)

- Thank you for coming.

To many of us, Cordova has been more than

just a little place in the mountains.

It is, a manner of life.

Rich in old values, poor in such things, as money.

Still, we have never permitted our poverty,

to destroy our dignity, until now.

Now, we are too poor to pay enough taxes to support

our school and too proud to let our children

go to another.

It reflects badly on us, does it not?

Today, when you lied to Senor Canfield for us,

I was proud for you, but ashamed for me.

I was ashamed that I had tricked you and made you stay here.

One man cannot stamp down another man.

Anymore than you can tramp down the fragrance

of the fields without it rising from beneath the boot.

I have had your car brought back from the place

where it was hidden.

- Well, Senor Delgado,

we're not exactly in demand any place so...

- Ah, gracias Senor's.

Gracias! - De nada.

- Course we're gonna have to do something

about those certificate numbers.

- Oh, we ignore.

We claim the records are wrong, incomplete.

We fight!

- What about the Sheriff,

when they send the bus in the morning?

- Sheriff Canfield would never dare to put Miguel in the,

(speaking in foreign language)

- Papa, when are you going to stop?

When are you ever going to learn?

- There are saints on all sides of us.

You have not much respect for me, I know,

but please do not offend the holiness around us.

- Would you mind, please?

- I will not be left alone with her.

- Papa, I drove all the way up here to try to talk

some sense into you.

Now, if you want to humiliate us both

in front of these strangers, you go right ahead.

You are already the laughing stock of Santa Fe.

- You watch your tongue, girl.

- Papa, please let these young men go before you

get into real trouble.

- Who is holding them?

Let her see the key.

They will leave anytime they choose.

- Then go, right now.

Before he talks you into throwing away the keys and staying.

- Well, we don't have any place particular to go.

Not tonight anyway, and not even tomorrow.

- Besides, we kinda like what your father's trying to do.

- Do you know what he is trying to do?

He is trying to hold on, to yesterday.

He is trying to bring up the children of this town,

for a life that no longer exists.

He will not face facts, and he won't allow anyone

else in Cordova to face facts, but it won't work.

He can't do it, the world doesn't care about places like,

like Cordova anymore.

Believe me, Papa.

Please, believe me, because it is true.

Why can't you see it?

- When you went away to college, that day I carved a saint

for you, to watch over you, and bring you back to Cordova,

as a teacher.

Oh, I carved badly, that day.

- Please, let the children go tomorrow.

If you don't care about yourself,

care about them and set them free.

Please, Papa!

(dramatic orchestral music)

(bell ringing)

(horn honking)

- Quickly, get those children inside and keep them there!

- Okay, let's go.

- Come, quickly.

- Come on, kids.

All right, let's go.

Come on, come on.

- Come on, let's go.

- Come on, the last one inside is asleep.

- Come on, come on.

(door slams)

- Well, you've shown everybody how defiant you can be.

Now, show them that you also have some common sense.

- Let us see, your sense.

- Let us see you take this bus,

this big shiny air-conditioned bus,

back down the valley and leave us alone!

- Oh, I'll leave all right,

but with you!

- A gem cannot be polished, but with friction.

A man cannot be perfected, without trials.

- Look, do you want everybody to see you cuffed

and taken out of here like a common criminal?

You two, clear out of here, tonight!

If I find you around here tomorrow,

I'll throw the book at ya.

Let's go.

Tomorrow morning, if your children are not on that bus,

you will really see some arrests being made.

♪ This old man he played one

♪ He played nick nack on my thumb

♪ With a nick nack paddy whack

♪ Give a dog a bone

♪ This old man came rolling home

♪ This old man he played two

♪ He played nick nack on my shoe

♪ With a nick nack paddy whack

♪ Give a dog a bone

- Oh, Sheriff?

♪ This old man came rolling home

- What am I supposed to do now?

♪ This old man he played two

- Why don't you just turn off the air-conditioner?

♪ With a nick nack paddy whack

♪ Give a dog a bone

♪ This old man came rolling home

♪ This old man he played four

♪ He played nick nack on my floor

♪ With a nick nack paddy whack

♪ Give a dog a bone

♪ This old man came rolling home

- Aurora borealis.

Now, just the 6th graders.

- [Class] Aurora borealis.

- Good.

- [Cameraman] Mr. Stiles.

Thanks.

- Now, did ya understand anything of what I've told ya?

You see what you'll have to learn is that everything you see

is all hooked up to everything else.

If ya wanna get a clear picture,

you have to look at all the parts.

But, it's all hooked up like, take for instance, the sun.

Now, can you take a piece out of the sun?

- Mr. Murdock.

(camera click)

Thanks, pal.

- He just did.

- Did what?

- Take a piece off the sun.

- Listen, who's the teacher here, me or you?

Now, let's get back where we, where was I talking,

oh the sun, that's right.

- For millions of years, the changes on the Earth

have been going on.

Some species of plants and animals have survived--

- Senor Stiles!

Senor Stiles, he is for you on the telephone, long distance!

- For me?

- It is Fabian Chavez from the capitan from Santa Fe, Senor!

- Chavez?

- Senator Chavez, he say it's very important!

- Just keep working on that chapter.

(speaking in foreign language)

(grand orchestral music)

- Look, why don't you look at it this way?

If mister uh, what's his name, Mr. Smith

can go to Washington, why can't you come to Santa Fe?

- Then, why don't you make the speech to the Senate, then?

- Oh no, I only teach the 1st and 2nd graders,

what can I teach a politician?

- Ya know, the thing that bugs me, is all this destiny jazz.

I mean, four days ago, we're driving down the road

trying to decide whether to go north or south.

And that's the big problem, north or south.

Now, all of a sudden,

we're in the middle of a political issue.

Miguel's in jail, 50 kids are playing hookey,

and I've got to address the legislature

of the sovereign state of New Mexico.

- That's okay, my money's still on you.

- I went to the jail, I saw my father

and I spoke with Sheriff Canfield.

And he says that if you would just leave,

he will drop all of the charges against my father,

and all of the children will be free to uh,

to go to the new school.

Papa is stubborn, but I'm sure that once he sees

it is best for everybody, he will forget all this.

- Do you really believe that, Anita?

- I don't know.

I don't know what to believe anymore.

I just don't want my father

and my town made to seem anymore, ridiculous.

I mean the center of a, of a public debate.

- Well, it's too late to stop now.

- Even if it wasn't, I mean,

we've got ourselves all wrapped up into this too.

And whenever that happens,

you gotta go with it right to the center of things, right?

(soft orchestral music)

(hammer banging)

- Senate will please come to order.

- Mr. President.

- Gentlemen from Santa Fe.

- Because of a special situation's arose just yesterday

and because there are certain interested parties that would

like to be heard before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent

that the Senate will resolve itself

into a committee of the whole.

- If there's no objection, the Senate will resolve itself,

into a committee of the whole.

(hammer bangs)

- Mr. Chairman, Senator Chavez, and members of the Senate,

it was brought to my attention yesterday,

that because of the circumstances of which come about

from the consolidation of school districts,

and the consolidation of schools within districts,

that the Department of Education has directed a small

village to send its children to another school.

Now, while generally speaking, the legislature

does not direct executive departments concerning certain

actions or policies,

I feel that in this case we should listen to the issues,

then take whatever action is necessary.

I have directed the legislative council

to give me certain data and information,

which I will present to the Senate at a later time.

At this time, I would like to present, Mr Tod Stiles.

- When Senator Chavez called me yesterday,

and invited me to speak to you about the town of Cordova,

I asked him which side was he on.

He said he reserved the right to answer that question later.

He told me there were a lot of little towns like Cordova.

Towns that are growing smaller and smaller,

some of them are already gone, forever.

He explained to me about district zoning, school bonds,

and ad valorem taxes, a lot of other things that,

I don't pretend to understand.

But, then he added, when all was said and done,

that you gentlemen here were as interested in the human side

of this issue as you are in the financial side.

I'd like to speak to you on that level, if I may.

My friend and I, we got into this thing,

pretty much by accident.

We came into a little town we didn't even know existed.

There's nothing in Cordova, really.

Just people.

Well, they have some livestock and some orchards,

they grow their own food, they weave a few blankets

for the tourists, and they carve a few statues,

but there's no big industry there.

The place isn't going anywhere.

Actually, there's no justification for Cordova at all,

on the basis of economics, but it exists.

It's there.

And it's been there, a long time.

The only thing they,

they really have in Cordova is their children.

You might say their children

are their only natural resource, their only future.

Now, the issue of the school and Cordova,

whether it's right or wrong for the kids to be kept there

or sent to a new school, is another issue, I think.

It's, it's a question of what's more important,

today or tomorrow.

In Cordova, they live for today.

Like Senor Delgado said, "today the sky is filled with God's

sunshine, tomorrow may never come".

They don't wanna think ahead in Cordova,

they don't want to be pushed into progress.

Okay, maybe that's wrong but, but maybe it's not, either.

I think people have the right to choose.

They found something up in Cordova,

something to believe in, something that works for them.

Well, maybe it would be better for the state

and the county to take the children away from Cordova

and send 'em to a, a new school

with the teachers from the city.

But is the, the new school really that much better

than the one they have?

Would it really cost that much more to pay

a couple of teachers to live up there with them?

I don't know the economics of the thing.

I don't know if you gentlemen

could do anything about it now, even if you wanted to.

I guess all I'm really saying is that the world's

already moving fast enough.

Do we have to take all the little towns

and speed them up too?

If Cordova's going to die,

let it die a natural death, in its own time.

Meanwhile, let them live their own way, in peace.

Then, maybe they won't die.

You know, they just might out live us all.

Thank you.

(group applauding)

(lively orchestral music)

(townspeople chattering)

I thought we might get some action,

but I didn't think it would be this quick.

(bell ringing)

Hey Tino!

What's going on here?

- Anita's back!

Oh, I do not mean that we don't want you, Senor.

But, Anita, she is one of us.

Pardon me, I do not wish to be tardy.

- Thank you, for bringing me home.

(horn honks)

(slow guitar music)

- Hey, no, no, no. (speaking in foreign language)

- Well, you're quite a spellbinder, they say,

the governor himself called,

suggested that Miguel go on home and the legislature,

I heard they passed a special appropriation for Cordova.

- Well, when they move in New Mexico, they really move.

It's only been a couple hours since we left Santa Fe and...

- Oh that, well uh, you see they're putting in a new school

down county and since they don't open till next year,

I figure we could uh,

borrow the equipment earmarked for them.

If I get into trouble on account of it,

I just may have to send you

back to Santa Fe to make a speech for me.

(group laughs)

- Ah, Senors! (laughs)

(speaking in foreign language)

Senor, come here, God bless! (laughs)

(dramatic music)

But, why do you wait out here?

There is need inside,

and many hungry minds to feed.

Hey, muchacho, hey!

(lively orchestral music)

This has been a Screen Gems Film Presentation,

from Columbia Pictures,

Herbert B. Leonard, Executive Producer.