The story of Carlos M.
Executive Summary (third person):
His mother moved to Detroit while pregnant and married a dentist. They had the child anyway and only years later it was to explained to Carlos that he was indeed a "love child" at a time when that sort of thing wasn't very common, especially when the woman was the American.
Detail (first person):
In this case my mother was a Navy nurse and their boat (enroute to the Philipines in 1943) off Yucatan. She fell for a luchadore (off duty when she met him as the story goes) and became pregant. When the Navy discovered this, she was discharged (honorably, they hid everything) and moved back to Detroit to wait for he fiance, a Marine and dentist to return from the war so they could get married.
The story is fuzzy after this. Did my father know that I was not his child? How could he not?
He died with his secret. Only years later when my mother discovered my collection of luchadore masks and she broke into tears, did I hear the true story of my life. My features look Euro, German mainly, so it was hard to believe my father was a luchadore. He was more Spanish than Indian-looking my mother said, though I am not so sure what that means.
So here I am, years later. I am Carlos and I am for the first time learing Spanish.
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