Brian was the crying-est baby in the history of crying babies, but his birth gave my mom a much-needed relief in the marriage.
Johnny
Half-brother Bach, the “Mexican brother”
My father started rampantly cheating on my mom.
Which happened first depended on whose version of the story you listened to. My father’s version was that he left his partying ways and became a hardworking provider once I was born. He only cheated because my mom really hurt him and therefore made him do it. My mother’s version was that he was already a cheating bastard and now had more reason to cheat. I definitely agree with my mom.
Birth, cheating, and abandonment
Everything that went down around me when I was born.
My parents become immigrants
Father went to the US. Mother went to Italy and later to the US when she married my father.
Once they resettled together in Los Angeles was when I was finally born.
My parents’ escape from Vietnam
My parents escaped their war-torn country and became refugees.
Luckily for them, finding a new home country was easy. Making themselves at home in this new country was however challenging. At the time, escaping Vietnam during the war more or less had 4 options:
- Stay – some people stayed because it made sense, or they didn’t like the inconvenience and ambiguity of starting their lives over elsewhere, or maybe it just felt too dangerous to try and leave.
- Sponsor – when a friend, family member, or stranger in another country agrees to take care of you and does the paperwork to bring you over and immigrant into their country. You would be coming over by plane…very easy and safe transport route this way.
- Boat people – when you escape by a private boat and god knows if you’ll successfully reach another country alive. Awfully dangerous journey full of death, sadness, and sorrow.
- US boat – when you escape by jumping onto an American marine boat and they then allow you to immigrate into the United States.
Let’s go over the wide realm of possibilities, shall we?
My parents’ lives in Vietnam
To start any story about me, you’d have to read about my parents first. Especially since they form the background for a major part of my childhood.