Character Study! Carlos
Warning: Pic heavy, some barechestedness for men and ladies, and also talks of drugs, sex, alcohol... etc. It's a dirty life, but someone's gotta live it... ;)
Carlos’ mother was Lupe Vasquez; a troubled and misled young woman with a notorious drug habit that began when she was a teenager. When she was eighteen she fell in love with a lucrative businessman, Alberto Castillo, and she tried to reform her ways for him. She had a son with him, named Hector Alejandro, but soon after their son was born, Lupe fell back into her old habits. Alberto learned of what she was doing behind his back and he filed for divorce and was granted sole custody of Hector. He chose to move to Miami with his son to further distance himself and Hector from Lupe.
Lupe fell deeper and deeper into depression about the loss of her husband and child, and she soon started selling her body in exchange for drug money or in some cases, for even just a hit. She was popular among the local men because of her vivid green eyes and dark brown hair. Being half Puerto Rican and half Italian, her skin was a shade lighter than most, and she was very pretty in her youth. By her mid-twenties, she was scrambling for money to try and make rent every month, and then she learned she was pregnant again. She had no way of knowing who Carlos’ father was.
From the time that Carlos could walk, she had him out with her on the streets in La Perla for she soon learned that he brought in triple the amount of money than she could. She enrolled him into school briefly, where he learned to read and write moderately, but she was constantly unhappy with his performance, and by the time he was ten she had pulled him out of his classes for good.
Carlos grew up with a deep sense of responsibility to his mother. His innocence and naivety were both a blessing and a curse, for he thought that Lupe’s problems were due solely to their surroundings, unaware that it was her choices that were keeping them there. He constantly longed for the day when his father would show up unannounced and take them both away from La Perla, and they would live like a true family. He always thought that if Lupe were given better surroundings, she would make up for the horrible treatment she’d given him.
As he aged, Lupe’s drug binges became more and more frequent. She brought in men by the droves, and their house was always filthy and smelled of spoiled and fermented food. There were many nights that Carlos was forced to sleep on the beaten down chair in the main room while his mother entertained her ‘friends’. When he was twelve he was so used to this way of life, so used to providing for his mother, he was unaware that life shouldn’t have been that way for him.
When Hector came and offered to take Carlos with him back to Miami, Carlos wished that he could go with him, but somehow at only twelve, he knew that if he left Lupe, she would end up killing herself even faster than she already was. Carlos did not want to feel that he had caused her death, even if inadvertently. He was still young enough to hope for and believe that she could change.
Lupe died at the age of forty-five from a drug overdose. Carlos was the one to find her - he was just barely eighteen. He contacted Hector (who, over the years, had continued to visit Carlos and teach him minimal English and improve his spelling), and with the wired money that Hector sent him, he flew to Miami.
Once there, Hector helped him find his own place - something Carlos insisted on, as he did not want to act as a burden any longer - and he began working as a janitor at the hospital where Hector worked. He started taking night classes to improve his English and to get his G.E.D. He met Lizzie in one of his classes at the college, and she was the first girl he had ever been in a true relationship with. Before her he’d only slept with women casually, never wanting or needing to get attached.
Lizzie helped Carlos tremendously with figuring out what he wanted to do. She encouraged him when he expressed interest in police academy, and she helped him with his English until he became almost fluent. Their relationship didn’t last much longer after Carlos had begun at the academy, but they ended the relationship mutually, and remained close friends afterward. Carlos was still too lost in trying to find his true footage, and Lizzie was working hard at her masters to teach Spanish.
Once Carlos had begun working at the Miami police department, he was assigned a partner; Mark Callaghan. Mark was a couple of years Carlos’ senior, and he had an infectious and mischievous attitude. It soon became a running joke between them that Mark had “taught Carlos all he knew.”
Carlos introduced Mark to Lizzie at a party, and was pleased that they were an instant match. They were engaged only seven months later after that initial meeting, and they chose to marry at an exotic location - Edanomella. Carlos was the best man at the wedding, and after the couple left the reception for their honeymoon, Carlos still had one more day in the busy city before he had to leave. He spent the day touring and that evening he and a few coworkers had decided to go to a local club for some dancing and drinks.
After a time, his coworkers had left to go back to their hotel rooms, but Carlos chose to stay behind, still too energized to think of sleeping. He met Christiana just a short while later, and even though he hadn’t originally been to the club to hook up with anyone, he went with her to her apartment anyway. She was beautiful, intriguing, new. He loved the way she moved, danced, kissed… everything about her drew him in.
He quickly realized he could quite comfortably have fallen into a relationship with this girl, and he couldn’t figure out why. He felt at peace with her in a way he had never felt with anyone before. The idea scared him, as well as piqued his curiosity. When he left, he went back to Miami and he began looking for that same connectivity that he’d had with Christiana. He looked for it with almost an obsession, until he finally began to realize (almost three years later) that it was most likely only something he could find with her.
By that time in his career, Carlos was not in a place where he could feasibly take time off to go travelling to find his mysterious Christiana. Mark tried to encourage him to find someone in Miami instead of being fixated on Christiana, as did Hector, but their combined efforts seemed to have the opposite effect on Carlos. His sexual encounters became less frequent and his outlook on sex in general became more disconsolate than anything, as nothing he found could compare to the night he had in Covena. He was not celibate, but he was far less impressed with the idea of sex from then on; it became just a bodily function to deal with when absolutely needed.
After the accident, Carlos changed. He is more impatient with people; angry and bitter at the disfigurement he's endured, and mad at himself because of it. He still blames himself heavily for Mark’s death, and the shock of having lost his best friend was something he won’t get over quickly. He is angry at himself for having been so hasty in trying to bring down el toro muerte. His only consolation is the knowledge that when the explosion went off, the gang and its leaders scattered out the side entrance, only to run head-on into his team of cadets. Angel Delgado and his cronies, Luis and Diego, were apprehended, as were the rest of their members. Those that were underage were put into the same type of custody as Juan. The adults were sent to the county jail and Angel, Luis, and Diego were placed in a high security prison to await trial.
Troy, it turns out, had known about the trap of the explosion, which was why when she had written down the address she had made a symbol for herself to remember not to tell Carlos about the address yet until she was able to determine from Juan where the explosives were. In the months that followed, Carlos was careful not to tell her he had found the address, and she had never thought he’d found it. She learned where the explosives where from Juan not too long afterward, but she didn’t divulge the information to Carlos because she wanted to keep seeing him, and she felt like he would end their arrangement when he found out she’d been keeping information from him about the case.
When she heard of the explosion she went to the hospital to see him, only to be repulsed by his appearance and attitude. She saw him the day after his skin grafts had been applied, while he was still coming to terms with the death of Mark, and he was angry and bitter and impatient. She barely spent twenty minutes visiting him, and when she left, she was completely over her infatuation with him.
Carlos loves children, especially his nieces, but he has always believed he would be a poor father. He is scared that he would turn into his mother - not with the drug use, but with the cruel words she used to say to him, or the high expectations he could never fulfill. He assumes that because he never had a proper father figure, he wouldn’t know how to be a father, and would therefore mess up the child’s life. Because of this, he makes sure he always uses protection, no matter what (yes, even with Christiana). To his knowledge, the protection has never failed… although we all know differently.
He is a private man, keeping mostly to himself. He is respectful of women and he knows how to pleasure them. His reputation when he was younger (specifically the ‘rumors’ Troy referred to in chapter 1 and 2) referred to him as something of a Casanova. He wasn’t categorized as a womanizer merely because most of the women he ended up with never ended up feeling jilted when he was finished with them… somehow his charm and seductiveness were used to his advantage, and the women he’d dated all had one opinion in common: He was the best lover they’d ever had.
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I will be posting questions to the characters in their character studies now. If you have questions you can post them in the comments, or you can post them on formspring.
Questions for Carlos:
Carlos&Hector: I've noticed that you two speak in English together, even though you are both Hispanic. Why is that? (asked after SL chapter 3)
Hector: I'm fluent in both languages, but I was raised in Miami. I went to school here and ever since I was able to talk, English was my first language. My father made sure of that because he wanted me to become a businessman like him. I have no problem speaking Spanish, though.
Carlos: I didn't learn English until I was 18 when I moved to Miami. Hector had taught me a little when I was younger, but none of it stayed when I didn't use it. Moving here forced me to use it more, and then when I went into school and police academy I had to be able to speak it fluently. I tend to revert back to Spanish when I'm angry or in a more intimate setting, but I am comfortable with both languages.
Carlos, you seem to have your heart set on finding Christiana. What makes you want to see her again? (asked between SL chapters 3 and 4).
She was compelling. There was something about her that made me want to stay... something that shone from inside when she danced, and later, too. I was not lying when I told her one more night would have kept me there. I couldn't tell you what it was... since I didn't stay to find out. I believe heavily in signs, leading you in your life and assuring you are on the right path, and I feel like since I haven't been able to forget about her, the stars are telling me I made the wrong choice. Hopefully by going back, I may find out if that was true.
Carlos: Are you actually alive and well? Do you still have 20-20 vision? Can you smell? Can you taste? Can you engage in conversations? inquiring minds want to know! (asked between SL chapters 4 and 5)
Hector (on behalf of Carlos): Alive? Yes, but just barely. Even I don't know the outcome... it's been one heck of a night. Being that close to an explosion... well... it's not a good thing. We don't know what's going to happen.
Who was your longest relationship with? (asked after SL chapter 5)
My longest relationship? Definitely Lizzie. We dated for a year and a half I think before breaking up.
Carlos, how do you feel about finding Christiana now that you are sent to Covena? Do you feel self-conscious about her seeing you after the accident? Do you want her to see you? (asked after SL Chapter 5)
I am half the man I was when she knew me. Not just in appearance, but in spirit as well. I can't imagine why she would want anything to do with me anyway, I can't see her properly, I can't feel anything on that side of my face or shoulder or chest. No. I don't want her to see me. No. Because if she does, then if she had any good memories of what that night was, like I do... they'd be ruined by the sight of me. She would instantly regret it. And I don't want to be the reason she regrets anything.
**A/N: Anon, just so you don't think I'm being difficult; Carlos is not quite feeling himself during the period that this question was asked. He currently has no plans to seek out Christiana when he goes to Covena, whenever that is. He is unfortunately still dealing with the loss of his friend, and adjusting to his injuries and their limitations.