Dear Editor, Papito started as an altar boy at
the age of 7 years old and took his religious duties very seriously.
Born into a solid Catholic family in Benque Veijo Del Carmen, Belize, on
the Guatemalan border, he was taught to respect the priest and the
church and have pride in his position assisting the Jesuit priest in the
daily rituals in the Benque Catholic Church.
Even if sometimes his daily religious service was strenuous, the hands
in blessing on his head were always reminding him that he was doing an
important job. In his innocence he was rather happy with his life, and
his dream was maybe one day after finishing school he could become a
priest too. After only a few years as an altar boy, at the age of 12,
coming into puberty, his harmonious life got turned upside down when one
schoolmate a year older than him called him a “maricon”. It was the
year of 1961, and in this small British Victorian-ruled colony sexual
education was not yet in the curriculum for the primary schools.