What's in a Name?

Lester Vasquez

Lester Vasquez- Afro-Puerto Rican ancestry; Lester is the stern, hard-nosed father of Mia Vasquez-Rivera and stepfather of Mandy Suarez, whom is noted for his logical mindset and concern with practicality and tradition. Focused and driven, he is very detail-oriented and principled, having developed a strict, if callous demeanor, as well as a formidable temper, after several years of serving as an enlisted soldier in the US Army. He is noted both by Mia and his wife Linda to be a very intense person whom frequently clashes with his multiracial daughter due to their differing personalities, yet similarly hot-blooded temperaments. His relationship with his daughter is often relatively difficult with their inability to come to an agreement and make a compromise with Lester's prideful stubbornness and Mia's hypersensitivity to her father's words. Lester is regarded as being completely unflappable and rarely appears anxious or stressed, even under seemingly difficult circumstances. He is described as a good provider for his family, but an emotionally distant husband and father, having had a single, similarly unaffectionate mother named Penelope from Florida, Puerto Rico, who was troubled by her own insecurities and the burdens of having to provide for Lester and four additional children. Despite his blunt demeanor, he is willing to adjust to certain things that do not bother him, such as turning down the temperature in his house whenever Linda asks him to. He is also secretly sensitive to the rumors that other people spread about him, saying that those are what really hurt his feelings. Lester is a Trump supporter and was raised by parents who were from the Boomer generation, identifying as a right-wing Republican. He grew up watching the Flinstones and Jetsons and was considered to be the best English student in his class in Puerto Rico due to having lived in the US for a year as a child. 

He states that the 80s were a special decade for him and that he came of age during this time period, having finished basic training and just gotten his driver's license shortly before receiving his first assignment. He also played the tuba for the school band and has participated in beach volleyball tournaments, and he says the first CD that he ever bought was from the late singer Prince. Lester can appear overbearing, although he claims it all comes from a place of love, and he is also this way towards others, even strangers. He has a complex relationship with his daughter and is a controlling parent who relies on Mia to not only be an extension of who he is, but give him blind obedience. He becomes very observant of her life, with his beginning to openly watch her during school or restaurant outings, and he is adamant that she find a way keep her emotions in check. He has a problem in assuming the worst in certain situations and not listening to her, such as when he witnessed Mia's phone calls with Mandy and tried to snoop in on their conversations. Lester's harsh, scrutinizing words and disappointed eyes have pushed Mia to try harder and do better, but other times, they've only served to make her feel like a failure. He has unintentionally made her think about quitting on her goals, since neither she nor her father feel like she's up for it. Even so, he often tries to encourage her to be proactive in some occasions and apply for steady government jobs that he feels will allow her to have a more reliable income. He also tries to monitor her eating habits and spends some Sundays talking to her in the car while running his usual errands. Although Mia's grandmother tried her best to sustain her 5 children as a textile worker at a factory, she often succumbed to recurring depressive states. She had limited energy to devote to Lester and his siblings after a long day's work beyond a stern reprimand or scolding of her children for misbehavior. 

Penelope also carried a bitterness regarding her turbulent past with Lester's biological father that hardened her over the years, causing her to transmit her lack of demonstrativeness onto her children and rear them in a secure, but cold and unloving environment. She carried the trauma of having seen Lester beaten by her former husband at age 5, leading to his developing permanent liver issues and receiving an emergency operation that left a thick scar across his abdomen. Lester nevertheless loved his mother and was fiercely protective of her until her sudden death from a massive heart attack at 75 on New Year's Eve, after some brief struggles with what appeared to be flu-like symptoms. He often worked odd jobs in the summer with his siblings to raise money for his college funds, putting significant effort into his studies and academics in hopes of receiving a scholarship to study medicine. He buried his feelings and sacrificed his own education however, as he was recruited into the army and chose this path to help support his impoverished mother and her new partner. He also helped ensure his physically disabled younger sister Talia could pursue her dreams of attending university and becoming a teacher. Lester had 2 previous marriages before meeting his wife, including a relationship with an African American woman named Chameca and a female of Samoan descent named Charlotte. He spent much of his early 20s going to clubs with other young men that he had met in the service and was at one point living in Watertown, New York. He shared a deep bond with Clarence Miller, who became his good friend when he attended survival training with him in the woods, and he has also been to Busan, Seoraksan National Park, and Gyeongju, South Korea. His estranged biological father is shown to be residing in Lexington, Kentucky, which he was notified of by his brother Javier.