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Chapter 1: What stories of identity are explored in this episode?
This is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm your host, Jay Allison, producer of this radio show. In this hour, stories of identity fabricated, forged, and forgotten. First up is Judith Samper-Alibero from our 2014 Moth Community Showcase. The showcase features some of our favorite stories told through our community workshop.
Those favorites include this story, which revolves around a forged bus pass in London. Here's Judith, live from the Housing Works bookstore in New York City.
Hola, me llamo Judith. Soy española y mucha honra. Well, maybe you want me to talk in English, right? I don't know. Maybe you can understand me better. All right, so before telling you my story, I need to tell you a little bit about my culture. I'm from Spain, so I'm gonna let you know how the Spaniards are. The Spaniards, we love to get things for free. The more we can get, the better.
Just imagine you have, a bowl of candies, and the spinner will get one. for themselves and one for the cousin, one for the father, the sister, the daughter, for all the whole family. If there is nobody in the room, they will take all the candy and the ball because it will look amazing in the living room. Well, when I was 25, I was an art student in London and I was broke.
As you can imagine, paying rent or paying for food, it was a struggle. And... certainly was paying for transport. One day I was waiting for my bus at the stop and I was looking at my bus pass and thinking, this will be so easy to falsify. You know, like I'm an artist, I can't do things.
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Chapter 2: How did Judith Samper Albero use art to navigate financial struggles?
So I was thinking, oh my God, I can't do this with my eyes closed. So I decided to give a try. And the first time I tried, I was a bit scared. But you know, it worked. It worked. So after a couple of weeks, it just became a routine to start my week clicking around the computer, hitting print. I was ready to go.
So after a couple of months doing that, it was so easy that I didn't feel that I had any more fake bus pass. It was totally real for me. So another day I was just going to downtown London for a party, and I was going in the bus, listening to my music, looking through the window, and I feel that somebody's tapping my shoulder. I turn around, and I see an inspector asking for my bus pass.
So I just hand it to him, and as soon as I give it to him, I remember that I'm giving him a bus pass that is fake. And I look at his face, and I can notice that he knows it too. So the next thing he does is take in his notebook. Name, please. And without even thinking, I say, Antonia Gonzalez, which obviously is not my real name.
And Antonia Gonzalez is kind of the most common name that you can find. It would be like here saying John Smith, something like that. But you know, I thought, okay, he's gonna put me a fine, this fine that they give to everybody when they don't pay their tickets, like it's 20 pounds, and that's a shame because that would be a few less beers tonight. But what can I do? Just will pay, that's it.
So the next stop, he made me go down the bus, and there is a line of 10 policemen waiting. Two of them, they grab me by my arms so high that my feet can barely touch the floor. And like in a movie, they bring me to the police station reading my rights. When I arrived there, I managed to sneak my ID into my panties. Because I realized they think I'm Antonia Gonzalez there.
And I don't want they think I lie about my name. So after that, they freeze me and they take everything I have in my pocket. They take my piercing, everything. And they couldn't find it. And they asked me as well where I bought the bus pass. And I say, I bought it on the street. I didn't know even it was fake.
So I don't know, they didn't believe me too much, but they have to ask if I wanted a court appointed lawyer. And I say, of course, you know, I needed to defend my innocence. So I have to wait for a couple of hours until he came and they brought me into a cell. They took off my shoes, they opened the door,
and I see a cement bed with a blue mat, like this one that you can find at the gyms, a metal toilet, and in front of it, a camera. So they cannot lose any detail. They cannot even if you are constipated there. In those two hours, I was thinking about my story, what I was gonna say.
Like thinking about where I bought it exactly, from who I bought it, but without trying to give too many details, I didn't want it to point to anybody in concrete because I'm a good person, you know? So my lawyer came, I tell him all my story, and they bring us to an interrogatory room. with another police officer, with a police officer, and she start recording and make me all kind of questions.
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