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Carrillo may have settled on his post-revolution Cuban identity in a more subconscious way. “Taking on these new identities is often a way of working through really complicated psychological issues,” says Browder. “Because we do see a lot of fake Vietnam vets. Fake Holocaust survivors. People who feel like their suffering — while real — isn’t really visible or understood. And by attaching themselves to an identity that everyone understands involves trauma, they’re able to be really seen for who they are, paradoxically.” In adopting a new identity, as Gina Franco notes, Carroll erased his own story, which came with its own historical narratives of enslavement particular to the United States — a place where inherited black generational trauma is rarely acknowledged. “I think that you always have to ask, ‘What are people trying to escape, and what are they running towards?” Browder adds.

--The Secret Life of H.G. Carrillo