I remember the moment when at age 25 I became a man.

Before I took my soon-to-be bride to Veracruz sometime near Christmas 1967 to meet my mother, I would often drive my VW Beetle where I would enjoy the tropical and humid heat of the port city. I would usually arrive on a Friday evening as I had a job to teach English at American companies.

Come morning I would hear my mother tell our live-in maid, “Prepárale el desayuno al joven.” Or “Make the breakfast for the young man.”

When Rosemary and I arrived on Veracruz, and I was dying to show off my blonde to my mother, Rosemary could not handle the heat well and took many showers. In the morning I distinctly remember my mother saying to the maid, “Prepara el desayuno para el señor y la señora.”

And so it was that I became a man close to Christmas 1967.