Jay Cee Dee

As the Captain announced they were now flying over the city of Tukuman, the birth city of Argentina, and would be landing in Buenos Aires in one hour and fourty-five minutes, John took a little piece of paper from his shirt pocket.

It was handwritten by grandfather Culvert, just five months before his death:

"From Buenos Aires, you take a bus north to San Antonio de Aresgo. Once you get there, you ask for Señor Esteban Calderón. Everybody there knows him. His rancho is located seven miles east of San Antonio, in a road called El Camino Real."

John looked again at the note:

"Calderón".

"What a strong name, Calderón", he thought.

John liked those Spanish names ending in ón, as they conveyed to him a sense of manhood. From his high school years in Austin, Texas, his friends used to call him JCD (Jay Cee Dee), but he didn't like it. There were far too many ee's in it. It sounded weak, even effeminate.

Six month earlier, one afternoon as he was planning his trip to the Pampas, he made the decision that he would look for a new nickname in Argentina. It would be a very strong Spanish name and it would start by El which gave him a sense of imperial grandeur he could not find in his native America.

That afternoon in the privacy of his apartment, he longed for the day he could introduce himself to new friends as "John Culvert Dwight, also known as El ..."