Early Chronology

I was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico to a beautiful Puerto Rican woman. As I understand it, my biological mother and my five-year old half brother lived in a sub-poverty level, one-room shack with a leaky roof and dirt floor, complete with chickens running in and out. I don’t know for certain, but I suspect that malnourishment took this half brother not long after I was born…, which clarifies why I was placed up for adoption. I had become dreadfully sick and my biological mother could no longer find a consistent way to feed me.

The exact circumstances of my birth are factually uncertain. My mother (my soon-to-be adoptive mother, and for me my real mother) recalls in her remarkably detailed written account the following:

“Was born in the District Hospital in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, weighed 8 pounds at birth. Father (biological): Continental G.I. (whose name his mother would not reveal). The mother stated that there was no record of any serious diseases, or any insanity in her family. After coming home from the hospital with the new baby, the mother had to register him in Superior Court. In order to avoid any future embarrassment for the boy, and not wanting to list him as illegitimate, she registered a friend’s husband as the father (without his knowledge or consent, but purportedly with his wife’s consent). She also found that she could not take proper care of him (whom she named José Antonio) or feed him well and also feed her 5-year old who was sick and needed medical attention. At this point she gave José Antonio to the Morales’. The man in the family did not want the boy in his house from the start since he had six or more children already. So when the baby came down with a serious siege of diarrhea the Morales’ handed him back to his natural mother. She started paying a neighbor 25 cents a day to take care of the baby. At this point she turned to Mrs. Garcia for help in finding someone who would take the baby for adoption. This is where Mommy and Daddy came in and found him still sick and thin and weak from diarrhea.”

My father told me that he didn’t want me because I was such a “sick little piece of s--t,” but that my mother (his wife) talked him into it. Of course, he was BS-ing me – he was spectacularly tough, and sought to make me that way. (I’m sure he had no idea how I could become a wimpy musician.) If you leave home at 15, ride the railroad, and join a carnival, you’re not like everyone else. By his early 20’s he was fighting a war in China and Burma as part of the famed Flying Tigers – he was a cross between John Wayne and Indiana Jones. I got to meet a number of the original Flying Tigers. They were bold, yet humble, and possessed toughness far beyond anything I witnessed in my generation. I’m sure that Flying Tiger experiences prepared them well for later life events. For instance, Chuck Older, one of the noted Flying Tiger pilots, later presided as judge over the Charles Manson murder trial.

My father’s (adoptive) parents had emigrated from Russia, entering through Galveston, Texas, ending up initially in Minneapolis (where my grandfather ran moonshine for the mob). One day, he picked up all the kids from school and the entire family rushed off to Chicago – apparently work relations with my grandfather’s employers had soured to the extent that the family needed to immediately leave Minneapolis abandoning all possessions.

My mother’s side of the family came from Louisiana and was sort of like the Beverly Hillbillies without the Beverly part. I loved these relatives very much and the whole family vibe, and even today, many years beyond my childhood, this unique part of my family seems intriguing in a Sam Shepard sort of way.

After leaving Puerto Rico my family moved to Chicago (my father’s hometown), Germany, Washington DC, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. During my first years in Albuquerque my nickname was “Jigaboo.” By the time I was in Jr. High School my nickname had evolved to “Chief Crazy Hair.” Being young, I did not recognize the bigotry embedded in these names. Along the way I played in rock bands, challenged the National Guard, got a job as a Chippendale type dancer, and was questioned by agents of various law enforcement organizations. Because I am not absolutely certain if or how the statue of limitation applies to certain events in my past just let me say that …

Later I lived in Detroit, Cincinnati, Austin and Los Angeles. After residing in these places my official and proper story begins. At this point in time I should also note that I have been very respectable for many years.