I represent Lorenzo Francisco Perez, a pardo boy born in Pensacola in 1818. I was baptized by Father Coleman at St. Michael’s on September 20, 1818.
At the time of the 1820 census in Pensacola, I was 3 years old. I lived with my parents: Juan Perez, a Spanish carpenter; and Eulalia de la Luz Garzon, a mestiza woman. In my baptismal record, my father acknowledged me as his son, which was rare when a woman of color had a child with a white man. But families of mixed ethnicity like ours were quite common in Spanish West Florida, as the Spanish did not have the same social taboos as Anglo-American society. I had 3 siblings.