Abel Posse
Abel Parentini Posse was born on 7 January 1934, in the Argentine city of Córdoba where he only lived the first two years of his life. Two years after birth the family moved to the capital city of Buenos Aires due to his father's work commitments. His mother, Elba Alicia Posse, belonged to the creole landed oligarchy of Galician descent who held vast sugar mill estates in the North West province of Tucuman. Amongst the influential members of the Posse clan in the 19th century, the liberal Julio Argentino Roca stands out, twice president of the republic from 1880 to 1886 and also 1898 to 1904 (3). Posse fictionalized 19th century Tucuman in his novel El inquietante día de la vida (2001), where two distant family relatives are the protagonists; his maternal great-grandfather, Felipe Segundo Posse, and Julio Victor Posse, patron of the arts in the sugar producing province until the 1940s.
Abhay Patel
Abhay grew up in Forest, Mississippi – a small town of 5,000 people in the heart of the Deep South. Before moving there in 1982, Abhay and his family lived in five other states (IL, FL, TX, OK and LA), as his parents looked for stable employment and a place to permanently settle. With the help of friends, Abhay’s father ultimately found a small motel in Forest (Scott Motel, named for the county), which he owned and operated. The property was located on the edge of town, had 15 rentable units and doubled as his parents’ small business and home.