They met when Julia was almost eighteen and Fernando was nearly thirty: handsome, articulate, unemployed, and overdependent on his mother.
His last name still carried a small degree of influence. Before the family moved to the capital, they had enjoyed considerable wealth through land and investments.
The entire fortune, family legend suggested, had been lost to poker tables and Cuban cigars lit with large bills.
Fernando lived with his mother and father in a large house. His mother was known to discreetly fill his pockets with cash and cigarettes.
A broker of favors by day.
Don Juan by night.
Across town, the Berkemeyer family lived in an affluent community and were known for owning several household-name brands. One of their sons, Gustavo, had also shown interest in Julia.
There are not many details about how she met either man, especially the wealthy one.
But she boasted of his pursuit for decades.
Julia’s two suitors.
Fernando and Gustavo.
One with a name still faintly perfumed by old money.
The other with money.
***
In the middle of 1949, Fernando arranged for Julia to give birth at a relative’s home in the next town over.
When the baby girl was born, Gus made his way to the remote place locals referred to as “down by the river, under the bridge,” and presented Julia with a stunning arrangement of roses.
Julia’s sister, a teenager then, remembered those roses for the rest of her life.
What Julia did during the next few years was rarely discussed. She had a baby to care for, no income, and no wish to seek support from relatives.
For a couple of years, she avoided more pregnancies.
But by the end of 1954, she had given birth to two more children.
And she was pregnant with her fourth.
***
Then Julia had a striking realization.
Leaving her three small children on Fernando’s parents’ doorstep might force the matter.
So that is exactly what she did.
She walked up to their front door, settled the children there, rang the bell, and walked away.
It worked.
Soon afterward, she was invited to stay.
His parents fled the house.
After ten years or so, they were all evicted.
***
Rumor had it Julia wanted no more children because she already had two girls and two boys.
And for the first few years of marriage, there were none.
Other than the broken mahogany chair and the marble telephone stand, the house had no furnishings.
Well, old beds.
Four children.
A house that had once belonged to someone else’s parents.
A pressured marriage.
And then, at thirty-two, Julia found herself pregnant again.
The same rumor had it she never wanted it.
Whether “it” meant the pregnancy, the child, the marriage, or the life that had closed around her, no one ever said.
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