Carlos E. Cortés - Rose Hill: An Intermarriage Before Its Time

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Made in the USA

1

A Couple before Their Time

Dad was a Mexican Catholic. Mom was a Kansas Cityborn Jew with Eastern European immigrant parents. They fell in love in Berkeley, California, and got married in Kansas City, Missouri.

That alone would not have been a big deal. But it happened in 1933, when such marriages were rare. And my parents spent most of their lives in Kansas City, a place both racially segregated and religiously divided.

Mom and Dad chose to be way ahead of their time; I didnt. But because of them, I had to be. My mixed background meant that, however unwillingly, I had to learn to live as an outsider.

Rose Hill

Today they all lie quietly in Kansas Citys Rose Hill CemeteryMom, Dad, Grandma, Granddad. Maybe I shouldnt say quietly. If the dead can bicker, theyre probably still at it.

Someday Ill join them at Rose Hill, but I probably wont die in Kansas City, as they did. When I left home in 1952, it was for good. More precisely, it was for life, since I, too, have a Rose Hill plot.

I hope they are at peace at Rose Hill, a peace they seldom found while they were alive. Conflict was the norm in my family. I lived with it growing up, and even after moving away, I continued to be part of it. I still feel it when I go out to Rose Hill to visit my familys graves. Conflict is part of my story.

My story of a childhood spent in a constant crossfirestraddling borders, balancing loves and loyalties, and trying to fit into a world that wasnt quite ready for someone with a Mexican Catholic father and a Jewish American mother. My story of conflicted choices about my personal survival and happiness, even while knowing that some of my decisions would bring pain to those who loved and raised me. And my story of how I finally grew to develop greater compassion for my family and a better understanding of myself in the more than half century since I left Kansas City.