I was born after my parents had been married for eleven years. My mother spontaneously aborted two babies before me. The doctors said it was “acetonemia”. From what she and my father told me, I think she was really scared to have a baby. Her doctor, in agreement with my father, who was a maxillofacial surgeon and odontologist, decided to provoke false diabetes in her as an antidote to the acetonemia. So my mother spent the first five months of her pregnancy with me, in bed, eating one roasted apple a day with five spoons full of sugar. She could not stand anything else on her stomach. After the five months she also could eat raw oysters accompanied with hard bread, made with whole-wheat flour, spread with butter. That was also my favorite treat since I was 2 years old at the Oriente bar and restaurant on the first floor of our building.

Rhesus factor (Rh) was discovered in 1940 by K. Landsteiner and A. S. Wiener. I guess the information did not reach Chile until much later. A blood test when I was probably 11 years old revealed that my Rh was negative. My mother also took a blood test and she was Rh negative. So doing the math, probably I was the only compatible baby she could have. I told my parents then, that I knew I could not come from a monkey.

My parents lived in the apartment building Turri in Plaza Baquedano right on top of a movie theater called Baquedano. My parents used to go see all the new movies there. The teenagers that cleaned the theater and served as ushers loved my mother. She was pretty and very nice to them. She would bring them some French pastries she loved to make. One Tuesday night when my mother was watching a movie by a well know comic Argentinean actor, Sandrini, she laughed so much that my father had to take her to El Salvador Hospital to deliver me. (El Salvador means The Savior.)

I was born on a Wednesday at 5 pm. Tea time.

I was considered a miracle because the doctors had predicted that, due to the strange pregnancy treatment, I would be some kind of a monster. But my parents new better. They had offered me to God. They made that promise through the Virgin of Lourdes. I was born the same day and month the virgin appeared to Bernadette in France and at the same time, 5 pm.

After me, my mother had two more spontaneous abortions so I remained an only child. Proudly, I use to say: ‘I might be one child but I’m worth five.’