Esteban, Ready to Risk It All

Chapter 17~ Liberty or Death

Mr. Navarro began

"Over thirty years ago Baptiste and I met and we often did business together. Real estate mainly. During that time Miami was different a lot rougher and it was necessary to have certain protections in place, to protect your businesses and property from falling into the wrong hands"

Mr. Navarro glances around the room.

"We brokered a deal to purchase a apartment complex that was being overrun by drugs and violence, the owner of the property didn't care what was happening because he didn't live in the community"

Mr. Navarro sips his drink and thinks before continuing.

" Baptiste and I purchased the building, we cleaned out all the dealers and prostitution, renovated so the residents could live in clean, safe and respectable homes."

" All was quiet for about six months. Until-" my father takes over the story

"Until someone, set fire to several of the buildings while people were still asleep" The emotion in my fathers voice is thick.

"Including the building were we all lived, you boys were small, Dominica you weren't born yet" My mother reaches over and grabs my fathers hand.

"Thank God, no one lost their lives, but the fire took what a lot of people had, including our families' ' my father continues. His look is like steel, I can tell our parents are lost in the memory. "

"Navarro, and I decided to renovate once again, but before we could, different elements began to move in and change what we had just cleaned up." My father looked at Mr. Navarro who continued

"Baptiste and I tried to handle things the right way, we went to the police, we went to city hall meetings, we patrolled the property ourselves, to keep everyone safe but we kept running into problems and people who didn't play fair." Mr. Navarro looks around the room at each of us.

"We decided to partner up with a few of the other Men who lived in the complex and surrounding areas, people whose livelihoods were being affected by what other people were doing., it was bad shop owners couldn't open there business with all the robberies and violence and children couldn't go to school safely-"

Mr. Navarro chimes in " We couldn't let your mothers go shopping or take the boys outside and we couldn't afford to move either." I see the same look Esteban gets when he is thinking

"We formed a organization to help keep things safe and protected, to help form security patrols of the neighborhood." My fathers says.

"la liberté ou la mort" our fathers say  in unison

"Liberty or Death?" Esteban said. "You and Mr. Baptiste are the founders of the L.O.D crew?! Esteban rose from the chair.

"Sit down Babe" I pulled him down next to me.

I knew all of this but Esteban didn't, so I understood his shock.

Our fathers shared a look and Mr. Navarro continued

"The L.O.D grew and became strong, we made our neighborhood safe, and over time people knew not to bother us. Until Francois Rueben wanted to do business in our area and with the L.O.D. " My father spoke lost in the past, my mother moved closer to him and for the first time I saw a crack in my fathers armor.

"Francois wanted your father and I to allow him to open up a leg of his operation in the heart of our area. We said No. We didn't do any business that involved drugs or the abuse of women or children, those were his main business, drugs and prostitution" Mr. Navarro glanced at my father whose head was hanging low.