photo: sara y tzunky/ BY-NC

The following is the transcript of a Youth Radio commentary aired on KCBS-AM, San Francisco. 

Visiting Ecuador this summer felt kind of like being Harry Potter. Everyone there seemed to know more about my family history than I did.

I’m Austin De Rubira with a commentary from Youth Radio. A few weeks into the vacation I was playing poker with one of my new friends and his parents asked me about my family. I told them my father’s name and they immediately exclaimed “OH! You’re a de Rubira!” They pulled a large book off the shelf, containing dozens of pages of notes on my lineage.

In Ecuador, a familiar name is as important as a first impression. Close relatives of course knew my father, Carlos. But even the most distant relations would always tell me I looked like him. My name might as well have been Carlitos.

Some people even compared me to my great-grandfather, a turn-of-the-century aristocrat who, like me, had a fashion sense inappropriate for the climate. It was an honor.

And yet, I was happy to fly back to the US. My friends here call me Lord Austin -- not because of my bloodline, but because of my own quirks and eccentricities. A reputation is better earned than inherited.

For Youth Radio I’m Austin De Rubira.