Welcome to our brilliant community near and far! The Beat Within is back with another double-dose edition of personal stories, poems, self-reflections, great wisdom, and invaluable insight. The weather may be cooling down but The Beat is going strong as ever, fueled the light and fire within each one of us.
We turn our editorial page over to our longtime friend and colleague, Omar Turcios to take us on a journey of his personal history. Please join us in giving Omar our full attention!
It’s OT once again tasked with giving you guys the positive message of the week. Usually, I like to write about our current topics, but I’ve been wanting to give this message out for a while now so let me get into my spiel.
First, I would like to go ahead and let you people know that I’m about to be a dad, (again), and my son should be born within the next week. My girlfriend and I went to the doctor yesterday to do an ultrasound and he’s in great health and all we’re waiting on now is for her water to break. Honestly, I’m thirty-nine years old, and I didn’t think I would be a father again at this stage in my life.
For most of you that don’t know my story, I’m not going to tell you the whole thing, but I will summarize it. I’m currently relocated outside the country, not because I want to, but because of the poor decisions in my life.
I was born in the beautiful country of Nicaragua and my family started migrating in the late 80s because of the civil war going on in my country. So, I ended up in San Francisco right in the nick of time for the famous earthquake of 1989 when the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s were playing in the World Series. Many of you, and maybe most of you, except the OG’s, weren’t even born yet!
I had just turned four, and if you ask me if I remember the earthquake, Yes I remember it vividly, just like it was yesterday. For some reason God has blessed me with an outstanding memory and I remember a lot of things from my early childhood. At the time I was living in the Mission District, right across the street from the Army Street Projects.
I remember the house shaking and I believe my mom was out working with her sister-in-law from my dad’s side of the family. FYI, my dad had stayed in Nicaragua because my mom fled Nicaragua without his knowledge nor consent.
I remembered I had just took a bath and got dressed, ready to go play outside when the whole house started shaking. I remember we had two big chandeliers made of glass. I was standing right under one of them on the second floor when my cousins and my aunt told me to get by the door and just hold on. Luckily none of them fell, but they did swing violently and I believe a piece of glass fell but it didn’t hurt anyone.
Maybe because I was little at the time, or maybe I was exaggerating, but the whole house shook so hard as if the big bad wolf was outside trying to blow the house down so the three little pigs could come out. The walls cracked. Tupperware, pots, pans, spoons came flying out the kitchen cupboards as I can hear the clank! Clink! Pop! Plop! Ting! Doors swung open and shut as if a poltergeist ghost was in the house pissed off because the Giants were losing the series to the A’s.
The shaking stopped as soon as it started. The house looked as if the Tasmanian Devil came in hungry gobbling up everything. I was scared, and didn’t know what just happened. I was a little Nicaraguan kid, that didn’t know a lick about earthquakes.
That was my welcome to United State of America moment. I shared that with you all to tell you that coming here at the age of three, and spent my whole life in the San Francisco Bay Area. I went through the whole street culture, caught juvenile cases, adult cases, and in 2006 with my then girlfriend, we had twin girls. They were born preemies, two and half months early, and they were in the hospital for two months before they were allowed home.
To say I was knee-deep in the streets when they were born would be an understatement, but having two daughters didn’t slow me down and I kept going hard until I caught a federal case. After my time in federal prison, at the age of twenty-eight years old, and after being a permanent resident in the United States for twenty-five years; the government took away my residency. They deported me to my country of origin, of which I knew nothing about.
That was ten years ago and trust me, it’s been a struggle these past ten years here, and even though I can’t ever get used to this system and culture, I’ve manage to be able to have an opportunity to be a dad again. This time I’m not gonna waste it and I’m going to take full advantage of it. I’m going to take this opportunity as an honor and as a huge responsibility to make sure to raise my son the proper way.
I’m going to make sure to teach him everything I know and much more. I want him to be better than me. I’m going to spoil him with love, but not with material things. I’m going to show him that life is not all about just receiving gifts, benefits, material things, nor love for that matter.
I’m going to show him that life is all about giving, especially giving love and support, to those who need it and deserve it. That’s what The Beat Within has taught me. I didn’t have a dad growing up, but I did have some great people in my life that helped me become the man I am today.
One of those people, was the founder of this magazine, David Inocencio. David, was, has been, and even until this day he’s with me in spirit, and has been one of the most important people in my life.
He, believed in me, and supported me through my ups and downs, and that’s exactly what I will continue to do with all of you, and my son as well. So, I wanted to share with you all what I’m naming my son. His name will be Jayden David Turcios.
The name Jayden is of Hebrew origin. Ja is a shortened version of the personal name of God, Yahweh or Jehovah, while den is derived from the Hebrew word “yadeh” (grateful or thankful). This is because I’m thankful to God, that he blessed me with David in my life.
And because of David, I am blessed to have you all in my life. I’m grateful for another opportunity to be a dad again. So, to those of you, who think you won’t get that chance, stay positive and be patient. Your time will come. Always stay grateful.
I thank everyone for sharing this moment with me and I exit with the utmost love and respect for every single one of you. The Beat goes on!
-OT!
Thank you, OT, for trusting us with your story and for being so vulnerable and reflective in your telling of it. We can’t wait to meet your son and hear all about him when he arrives to our world! Keep us updated!
Thank you to our readers and writers across the nation for sharing your stories with us in every issue of The Beat. We could not do this work without you, and we look forward to hearing what you have to say day in and day out. We hope you enjoy this latest issue, 29.43/44!