My Search For Importance

Juan M. Pérez was born to an angry mother whose primary pastime seemed to be to make others, especially her children, unhappy. His father, "a coward" (as Juan sees him), left his family and started a new one. Juan Pérez grew up in a dysfunctional home and left immediately on the first chance he had to make a life on his own. With him went his anger, frustrations, bitterness, and dreams. He dreamt of finding importance, of belonging, of making a difference, and the search was full with disappointment after disappointment. From the time he was 12 years old, he spent more time inside juvenile centers than on the "outside." He would always joke that they his name engraved on one of the beds, because he ended up there so often. On the heels of his petty crimes, Juan came to join a local gang and things started getting worse. As he grew, joined the Brown Berets Organization in Dallas, Texas. At last, it seemed he found a means of finding importance. What he found instead, was disappointment after disappointment. The dream, Aztlan, was an impossibility. The people did not come to the support of the Brown Berets, and often there were only a few supporters. Along the line, he met and married his wife, Lydia. What should have been another opportunity for importance, turned sour as he became addicted to cocaine. Along with his already exiting bitterness, his anger would often turn to rage. The drug only exaggerated an already bad character and lifestyle. After the birth of his second son, the couple almost ended their marriage in a divorce. And, these were just a few of the circumstances which resulted from Juan Pérez' ill-fated Search For Importance.