And Then There Was Freddie – Excerpt from Call to My Soul – Dancing the Path to True Love

Freddie’s exotic looks came from his Filipino, Mexican Indian, Spanish, French and German background. His five-foot ten frame was long and thin and strong. His mind was curious and competent. In 1948, when Freddie was nine years old, his mother had put him and his older sister Dorothy in a Flamenco dance class. “She loved Rudolph Valentino,” Freddie told me later, “but she couldn’t find a Tango class, so she figured Flamenco was good enough. It would do.”

Because Freddie was very shy and felt uncomfortable dancing, he asked Ramón, his teacher, if he could play guitar instead. “Yes,” Ramón told him, “when you get a guitar.” But Freddie’s widowed mother had very little money and couldn’t afford to buy him a guitar. Freddie’s father had died when Freddie was six years old, and his proud, struggling mother worked hard to take care of her family.

… However, the fates must have already had a path for Freddie. A short while later, a neighbor boy spent the night at Freddie’s house and peed in the bed. The little boy felt so bad that he gave Freddie his guitar. And so, at nine years old, Freddie began a lifetime as a Flamenco guitarist. …Flamenco had grabbed Freddie’s soul, as it later would mine.