I was born on May 2nd, 1971 in Lima, Peru. I spent eight years with my family before we moved to the United States. Now, some people can remember a lot of their childhood and can recall things even from an early age. That's not me. A few memories are there and if you combine that with what my parents have told me and all the things that your mind makes up to fill in the void and you have a rather skewed view. Regardless...

Lima is a city, much like any other city I suppose. Sure, there are cultural and economic differences, but it still was a city. People lived, shopped, went to school, worked, raised kids, and everything else that's normal to any city. Where I lived it was more run down and I suppose more primitive than the San Francisco Bay Area where I now live. But you don't notice those things growing up.

There was a market where I tagged along with my mom when she bought groceries. A couple of blocks away was a small park that I never went to as far as I recall. A little farther there was a movie theatre. The only film I remember seeing is "Gray Lady Down" (called "S.O.S. Submarino Nuclear" I think), which is about a submarine in distress at the bottom of the ocean. The climax is a scene where David Carradine uses his little mini-sub to prop up the big submarine, giving the rest of the crew time to evacuate before the submarine rolls over (crushing Carradine) and down into a deep trench. Beats me why I saw that as a kid -- maybe it was my birthday.

My grandmother had a house that we lived in. It was at the end of this little alley. And I can't do it justice because it's not like an alley in a movie. It was paved to smoothness in a black and white wavy pattern and had four house entrances opening into it. But it was a two story house, three bedrooms, hardwood floors. The downstairs was kind of dark because there were no windows. There were more dwelling on three sides so at least in the bottom floor there were only windows on one side of the house. Kind of like a townhouse except the walls are brick and cement so you don't hear your neighbors at all.

Silvia was the maid, and in fact was still my grandmother's maid when my grandmother died a couple years ago. A nice woman even though we were not great kids. I remember my sister and I throwing toys randomly from a staircase hoping we'd hit Silvia when she passed by. Not that we were aiming for her, we just started throwing the toys up in the air and maybe one would land on her. Yeah, kids are cruel.

Renaldo was one of the neighbor kids back then. He was like 14 and I was a little kid and probably bugged him a lot. But he did have cool toys. There was this soccer game where you kick a little soccer ball back and forth. And he had a whole lot of toy soldiers. Metal ones, plastic ones, cowboys and indians, world war 2, medieval and ancient, even castles and forts. We'd set up the soldiers then take turns throwing marbles at them. That's how we simulated a battle -- I throw a marble and try to knock down one or two of his men and then he does the same until there's nobody left.

On the other side of the alley were Ursula and her little sister Teresita. My younger sister Stephanie and I played with them sometimes. Probably girl stuff but at that age like I should care. Outside we would play jacks and marbles and hide and go seek and all the normal games that kids play. And we never had to leave the alley (it wasn't a vehicle thoroughfare) so we were safe.

I went to grade school for kindergarden and first (and maybe second) grade. We wore these gray and white uniforms. There was a big stone wall all around the school and it was two stories but no big lawn for outdoor games, as I recall. I don't remember any school friends -- in fact no friends at all other than neighbors and cousins. I must have had some since I had birthday parties and lots of kids came. I just don't remember them.