Me

many things about her that I would have wanted them to know, and no matter how much I tell them about her, I feel that I will never be able to fully explain. For example, when I was younger, she would sing this beautiful lullaby to my cousins and me. I often close my eyes and try to remember it, but I become frustrated because I can’t. I can perfectly recall the tone of her voice and the expression on her face as she sang to us, but no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot remember the lyrics or the melody of that song. I just can’t. So I pray that this song will one day come back to me in a dream. I ask: “Dear God, Grandma, wherever you may be, if this is true or not, if you exist or not, if you are there or not, please remind me of that song. I want to sing it to my children.”
    It has not come yet, but I have not lost hope. I know that the afterlife exists, and that she is watching me with a great big smile on her face, because she can see that her first grandson walks through life with the same determination that she possessed, being a strong and independent man, just as she raised me to be.

A TASTE OF FAME
    MY FAMILY ALWAYS supported me when I began my artistic career. They came to recognize that music was more than just a game for me. Seeing that I was so passionate about it, they encouraged me to follow it, and that alone gave me a lot of strength: The simple fact that they believed in me gave me a lot of security and nourished my self-esteem. This is why it was no surprise to them when I started doing television commercials in Puerto Rico at the age of nine.
    One day, an ad ran in the newspaper saying, “Agency seeking talent for TV commercials.” My father read it and asked me, “What do you think?” I thought it was a great idea, so I answered: “Let’s do it, Papi, let’s go!” That very Saturday we went to the audition. The audition was just to see if the head of the agency would even accept me, and from that moment on, I would start going out on auditions for the actual television commercials. They stood me in front of a camera, asked what my name was, my age, and which school I attended, and honestly, I don’t remember what else. I suppose they had me act or read something . . . Maybe they gave me a small scene, the typical things they have you do at an audition. What I do remember well is that I felt very confident. I was not nervous at all. When I finished I returned home, and just days later I was called up again for my first audition.
    The first commercial I did was for a soft drink. It was four days of shooting, four intense days, because they would start at six a.m. and end late in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I never got to see the commercial because it was for the U.S. Latino audience and Mexico. But what I do recall is that at the end of it all, they paid me $1,300. And that was not all; every six months I would receive another check for $900 (residuals). It was an amazing job! I was doing something I genuinely enjoyed, and on top of it all I was getting paid well—I couldn’t have imagined anything better. A whole new world had opened itself to me.
    Many more commercials would soon follow: one for a toothpaste, one for a fast-food restaurant. . . . One commercial would lead to the next one, and the next one, and the next. Once I was in the game, the opportunities started cropping up, and in a year and a half I had done eleven commercials, which I know thanks to my father, who has them all written down! It was so long ago that if it were not for his meticulous record keeping, I would never be able to remember them all. I had a lot of success doing commercials, and after a while I started to become recognized in the field. Since I already had experience and I loved being in front of the cameras, the producers were always inclined to cast me, and that of course kept giving me even more confidence and experience.
    Those commercials gave me my first brush with fame. When I’d walk down the street, sometimes I’d hear people say, “There’s the kid from such and such commercial!” or “Look! There’s the boy from that soft drink ad!” In those days, I got a kick out of being recognized. Since back in the day televisions had no remote controls, people had to sit through the commercials, unlike now, when we can simply switch the channel from the comfort of our sofa. This is why people started to recognize me—more and more with each commercial—and I have to admit that I