!Ancestors_Story (&19520609)

!Ancestors_Story

Greetings Friend,

On &20230505, I sat across from my father and asked him a question I’ve been wanting to ask for some time, given the nature of my meditations over time, memory, and theology these last two years:

@Leonard: “Papi, what was your childhood like?”
@Ricardo: “Que?”
@Leonard: “I’ve been wanting to ask you, what was it like growing up as a child? What do you remember? Like, do you have any stories about coming here or anything?”
@Ricardo: “I came here without my mom and half a dad.”
@Leonard: “Wait, I didn’t know your father came up with you. Abuela stayed behind?”
@Ricardo: “Yes.”

:: @Ricardo is visibly agitated and uncomfortable at this point. @Leonard makes the visual assessment, and decides to change subject about his parents. ::

@Leonard: “So, Papi, what was it like growing up in Miami?”
@Ricardo: “It was tough, Papa,¹1 ((Papa, pronounced “pah-pah,” is an endearing nickname he has for me. He speaks it with a heavy Cuban spanish accent, and a kind fatherly tone.)) it was tough. I didn’t have a room I had a porch, outside. Like this big.”

:: @Ricardo gestures the length of the table we’re seated oppositely at. ::

“I slept on a couch in the porch.”

@Leonard: “That’s right, I remember you telling me this. You slept on a couch outside in a porch. That must have been very difficult.”
@Ricardo: “As a kid I would have to go to the street to get food. I don’t like to think about it. It was hard. I had to survive.”

On &19520609, my father Ricardo Jose Goenaga was born somewhere in Cuba.

²1 ((Testing)) lorem ipsum dolor sit @Leonard,³2 ((Putting an image here?))  consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam nec urna eu neque commodo lobortis sed vitae arcu. Ut eu accumsan sapien, ultrices imperdiet elit. Nam erat nulla, elementum a volutpat at, volutpat sit amet nunc. Vivamus in massa in sapien condimentum rutrum. Fusce sed efficitur purus, eget rutrum ligula. Morbi consequat facilisis arcu, sed convallis est tempus sed. Fusce porta nisl dui, non porta turpis hendrerit in. Maecenas sed nisl vel sapien vulputate eleifend ut ac sem. Vivamus ut finibus ante, consequat porta ante. Vestibulum nisi massa, volutpat a dui id, feugiat varius felis. Aenean quis nisl purus. Morbi sem neque, dictum a ultrices non, feugiat sit amet metus.

&RGBY:

@leonard
!ancestors_story (
&19520609) (
#cuba:
     #habana:
         #ricardo:
             #13_years_old,
               #political_refugee:
                    #plane;
#usa:
     #florida:
          #miami:
             #porch:
                 #couch;
             #streets;)