Mateo

He's not mine per se. I've never held him. I've yet to see his eyes. But I'm brutally in love.

I've been an uncle for something like 19 years. Of a lot of kids. In line with current childhood expectations statistics for Mexico, people in my family like to stay comfortably above the replacement rate of 2.1 children per family. My sister has 3 kids spanning ages 18-22. My brother has 2 kids ages 16 and 19.

But none of them call me uncle.

Immediate assumption might lead you to believe that that's because I'm so close in age that our relationship falls into that weird uncle-cousin dichotomy where the term uncle is only used to gain an upper hand at a game of tag (when we were younger) or in getting the first round (as we got older). We never played together. Never was there an opportunity for them to call me anything. Nor was there a need.

I do remember helping my dad pick out the "cool" video games for my nephew as I was 11 and could probably tell what an 8 year old might crave - within the specified guidelines of parental control.

And one time, I participated in the decision for Montse's quinceañera birthday present. She got a lavish party. I voted for a trip to Turkey.

But with the coming of one of the twelve apostles I'm over the world. He's at least a year from ever needing the word. The first time he does use it he will probably not have met me. It will probably not be used on me. I will probably not hear about it.

I'm excited to pretend it is.

Sending him a Penn onesie is only the beginning. The gifts will keep coming. The next big leap is for me to confer with the son of Abraham and try to reconnect with him as I've slowly began reconnecting with one third of my family.

Having the courage to stand up for what you know is right is relatively straightforward. Standing up to an implied 25 year silence is somewhat more difficult. Particularly if the elephant in the room is both obvious - you don't know each other and yet you call each other brothers - and not - we've just never known each other.

Striking up a conversation with a complete stranger is easy.

Striking up a conversation with a complete stranger who looks like you, talks like you and thinks like you is entirely a different matter.

But Mateo. For you. I might have to do it.