Early Life
Perez was born on December 29, 1923. He was a native of Delacroix Island, Louisiana, where he grew up with both his nuclear and extended family. He spoke very little English until he began attending grade school. His grandfather, Mimiro Perez, lost over $9,000 when the banks went out of business during the Great Depression. Perez's father, Serafin Perez, taught him how to sing the traditional décimas and to carve decoy ducks. Perez's carvings were used in hunting, as well as art. Serafin Perez lost his home, as well as eighty decoys, when Hurricane Betsy devastated Louisiana in 1965.
When World War II broke out, Perez dropped out of high school and enlisted in the United States Army. He served in the Pacific during the war and returned to southern Louisiana after it ended. He found work at the Kaiser Aluminum factory in Chalmette, Louisiana, from 1950 to 1975. He later earned his high school general equivalency degree.
Read more about this topic: Irvan Perez
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.”
—Henry Reed (1914–1986)
“I sit astride life like a bad rider on a horse. I only owe it to the horse’s good nature that I am not thrown off at this very moment.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)