My mom is from Madrid, my dad is from Mijas (Málaga), and I was born in San Clemente, California, a small coastal town also known as the "Spanish Village by the Sea," but I grew up in Spain. Someone from my dad's family somehow went from Mijas to California. I don't know exactly who it was, because I never went deeply into that subject with my dad. But that person worked very hard and managed to buy a small ranch on the outskirts of San Clemente. That person eventually returned to Mijas after some time, but the ranch stayed in the family and prospered as a horse ranch, where horses were trained for equestrian activities: dressage, show jumping, and polo. Eventually, my dad, my uncle, and some relatives inherited it. In the summer of 1991, my parents, my brother, and my sister went to California to visit my uncle, who at that time had already been living there for years, had married my aunt, started forming a family, and was managing the ranch. A few weeks after they a...