His father Ireño Castillo was born on a hacienda owned by a landowning family, performing intensive labor for the family, including instances of carrying the landowner across his tracts of land to keep his boots clean.[1][2] The family rented land from the landowners until General Juan Velasco Alvarado took power and redistributed property from landowners to peasants, with Ireño receiving a plot of land he had been working on.[9][12]