Chris Negron: Hello, my name is Chris Negron. My last name, like my father comes from Puerto Rico. I pronounce it Negron, but in Puerto Rico they would say it differently with a bit of a roll of the R that I'm embarrassingly not too good at doing, but I'll try here anyway. Negron. My father's full name was Alberto Andres Negron, and his father's first name was Andres too. Both of their names having Andres in them explains why my middle name is Andrew. Christopher Andrew Negron. The Christopher part comes from my mom who just liked that name. It was popular, she's told me, in the seventies, and that was that.

I go by Chris. My father, however, went by many names, seemingly always trying to avoid what he saw as the stigma of having the ethnic names he was given at birth in the United States in the 1960s.

So in high school he went by Andrew not Andres. And I understand some friends called him Andy. Later in work life, he went by Al, shortened more likely from Albert and not Alberto. Stories about them my father feeling like he had to change his name to suit the moment and situation always make me sad, but they probably also explain why I grew up to pronounce my last name the way I do. NEG-RON, not NEG-ROAN. It was the way my dad preferred it and the way he taught.