Identity: Reflections on my Father

Dave Morales

Dave Morales’ biggest gift to me was to teach me how to swim in the ocean. I remember clearly being on his shoulders and us diving under waves. Learning to look at them, the timing of everything, how to never turn your back on the ocean and how after all the calculations you still need to be prepared to be hit, knocked down, enjoy the excitement of the unpredictability and the impossibility of ever having complete control of the experience. I never understood how having grown up in the suburbs, he knew how to do this.

To be confident and capable of catching lizards and snakes for the purpose of showing them to me. To know the quickest way to get to places and to never seem to be lost. How he was the person that we knew, knew best how to treat our animals ailments and care for them. He taught me how to talk with them and listen deeply. And to Dance!

When pressed from others to explain my ethnic origins, tinged with their uncertainty (discomfort) of where my melanin and features were from and the urgency to ask, Where are you from?…..

I always felt the most honest answer was, The Ocean.