A Flower In the Sun

This short autobiography describes the life of a young man, who 1993 died of AIDS at Bethesda Naval Hospital. His family originally from Puerto Rico moves to New York in 1952, the year that he was born. He attends the High School of Music and Art, but drops out after getting involved with drugs and discovering that he is gay. He goes through a period of dissolute living during which he meets the love of his life, who unfortunately soon dies of a drug overdose. The tragedy drives Rafael to attempt a change of life. He marries a young woman. The marriage is beyond what either one of them can handle, and it doesn't last long. At loose ends, he joins the navy and becomes a medic. Navy life is a path to a workable life, until he discovers that he has AIDS.