Roberto Torres
 Roberto Ramón "Alonso" Torres |
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| Born | February 14, 1986 Manchester, NH |
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| Nationality | Mexican, American |
| Occupation | Public Health Sanitarian New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene |
| Religion | Raised Catholic |
| Google+ | Google+ |
Roberto Ramón "Alonso" Torres (/tɔɪrĕsj/) immigrated to the United States from Mexico with his mother in 1991 and now works as a sanitarian for The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Contents
Early life
Mexico City (1986 - 1991)
Roberto Ramón Torres was born on February 14, 1986 at Hospital General de México in Mexico City[1].
Family Background
Roberto's mother, Valentina Torres Teberez was born on November 22, 1958[2] just outside of Pachuca de Soto in Hidalgo, and is ethnically Mestizo (specifically of Nahua descent.) She completed her high school education, and went straight into the workforce as a domestic worker. When she was 21, Valentina was diagnosed with Crohn's disease and began to receive treatment when money would allow, frequently using her Tarot cards as a guide when making medical and financial decisions.
In 1985, during her pregnancy with Roberto, Valentina experienced a remission. According to family, she said repeatedly of her self-declared healthy period, "Roberto came during my Saturn's return. He is my miracle baby: saving me from pain." Unfortunately, the remission did not last, and she began treatment again in 1987 that seemed to keep most of her symptoms at bay.
Her brother, Miguel Torres Teberez (1949 - ) was responsible for caring for Roberto from time to time when Valentina's work or health necessitated his help. Miguel currently resides in Mexico City with his wife, Abra Torres Sanchez. Their son is notable Mexican-Colombian writer, J.C. Torres[3].
There is no verified information on Roberto's father, although there is some speculation that he was a high level bureaucrat working in Mexico City at the time of Roberto's birth[citation needed].
Eliseo Alonso Diaz
Roberto and Valentina spent the first years of Roberto's life living in a small apartment in Central Mexico City. In the years before her departure to The United States, his mother worked as a domestic worker for a handful of senior administrators at Instituto Nacional de Migración. Valentina took the job in September 1986 as her meager savings began to dwindle.
During this time, she met Eliseo Alonso Diaz, who was working as a go-between, or gestor, for private foreign customers dealing with public sector bureaucracy. As her relationship with Diaz grew, he soon became a de facto father to Roberto and moved into the Torres apartment.
In order support the family, Alonso ran a small forgery business out of their home: one of many hubs connected to Mexico City's ever-growing black market. Through his regular contact with American citizens, and his flare for navigating Migración, he was able to fabricate the papers necessary to pass freely over the boarder into the United States for Mexican citizens, especially those Mexican citizens whose children he looked after.
July 11, 1991
On July 11, 1991, a total eclipse of the sun occurred[5]: the totality beginning over the Pacific Ocean and Hawaii moving across Mexico, down through Central America and across South America ending over Brazil. It lasted for 6 minutes and 53 seconds at the point of maximum eclipse, a perfect amount of time to do something unnoticed (if one were so inclined.) There will not be a longer total eclipse until June 13, 2132.
This eclipse was the most central total eclipse in 8 centuries, with a gamma of -.0041. There will not be a more central eclipse for another 8 centuries. Its magnitude was also greater than any eclipse since the 6th century.
At the point of maximum eclipse, there were record sightings of UFOs: fifteen separate video recordings, and a myriad of written testimonials including a first-hand account from Miguel Torres.
At 1:22PM, Miguel managed to record a short clip of what he describes as a "UFO in the clouds emanating bursts of color[6]." Upon recording "such historic events," he frenetically called his sister, Valentina, away from work to bear witness to "the miracle."
Upon viewing the footage, Valentina fainted. She remained unconscious for three hours and dreamed. Miguel let her rest; he knew it was best to not disturb the natural order of things. In the mean time, he waited, played his UFOs over and over, and saw that it was good.
At 1:25 PM, Mexico City was completely shrouded in darkness[7].
At 1:26 Eliseo Alonso Diaz was killed by agents of the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI) and the Policía Judicial Federal (PJF) in a jointly led, city-wide black market sting. Under the cover of the eclipse, a team of armed men swarmed the apartment complex where Alonso and the Torres' were staying. A brief fire fight ensued, and Alonso and Roberto were cornered in the Torres apartment. After repeatedly refusing to relinquish his sidearm and vacate the premises, Alonso was shot twice in the chest and once in the head.
At 5:12 PM, Valentina Torres came home to find blood, and a despondent Roberto, scrubbing Alonso's blood off the floorboards with dish rags. Later, Roberto told his mother, amidst tearful gasps, that he thought if he scrubbed hard enough, "he could uncover the place under the stains from before his father was murdered."
At 5:15 PM, Valentina Torres consulted her Tarot.
Moving to The States
A week after Elsio Alonso Diaz's death, Valentina moved Roberto and herself to the United States of America using the papers that Diaz was able to acquire through his work.
Once safely in Texas, the Torres family moved through a series of temporary living arrangements in North Texas, Colorado, and Iowa until finally making a push to New Hampshire where Valentina finally was able to find work as a housekeeper for a wealthy family[citation needed] in Manchester.
Life in the U.S.
Manchester, NH
In 1992, Manchester, somehow one of the cheapest places to live[8] despite being one of the wealthiest suburbs in New Hampshire[9], commonly referred to as Manch-Vegas[10] became home to Roberto, a boy of six who had hitherto not experienced the splendor of US suburbia. It was here that Roberto met his life long friend, Joshua Bloom.
Colon cancer
In 2004, Valentina was diagnosed with colon cancer as a complication of her Crohn's. In 2005, she died in Manchester, New Hampshire with Roberto by her side. Shortly after, she was cremated, her ashes were kept by Roberto in a mason jar: one of many that Valentina had saved and collected. With no remaining family left in the United States, and no desire to return to his native Mexico, Roberto moved to New York City to begin studies at Marymount Manhattan Collage.
Education
Roberto began his education at Marymount Manhattan Collage in 2005, in the Division of Humanities as a Communication Arts major with a minor in English and World Literatures. During his time as a student, Roberto began living with his childhood friend, Joshua Bloom who had followed him to college from their hometown.
Peter Staunberg
In his first year of school, Roberto was introduced to one of Josh's acquaintances, Peter Staunberg. Josh and Peter had met at one of the freshman orientation parties - gatherings that Roberto had since avoided after taking advantage of a $10 open bar and vomitting first off of a 14 story roof, next down a business' basement stairs, and finally in the potted bushes in front of 55th Street Residence Hall. After their first meeting, Peter would regularly come by Josh and Roberto's dorm room for "help with homework" as he "had great difficulty concentrating." Attention deficit is a problem for which Peter continues to seek out Josh for help. Regularly.
The Margites
The Margites, a comic mock-epic of Ancient Greece, is about an idiot named "Margites" (from ancient Greek μάργος, margos, "raving, mad; lustful") who was so dense he did not know which parent had given birth to him. His name gave rise to the recherché adjective, margitomanes used by Philodemus.
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- ↑ http://www.rcivil.df.gob.mx/
- ↑ http://www.rcivil.df.gob.mx/
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Colombians#Writers
- ↑ http://home.comcast.net/~tprinty/UFO/mexico.htm
- ↑ http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=19910711
- ↑ http://home.comcast.net/~tprinty/UFO/mexico.htm
- ↑ http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEdata.php?Ecl=19910711
- ↑ http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/13/cheap-cities-property-lifestyle-real-estate-cheap-places.html
- ↑ http://wealth.mongabay.com/cities/NEW_HAMPSHIRE.html
- ↑ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Manch-Vegas
