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Rafael Cruz

Rafael Antonio Cruz was a Puerto Rican construction worker, guitarist, and the husband of Marisol Cruz. Born on March 12, 1989, he became a father at seventeen, later sustained a permanently disabling back injury in a construction fall, and died from an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2022.

Early Life and Family

Rafael grew up in Puerto Rico with guitar, singing, bachata, and salsa woven into family life. He met Hector Burgos when they were nine, and the two remained close friends into adulthood. Rafael hoped to make music his profession.

Rafael and Marisol were high-school sweethearts in Puerto Rico. When Marisol became pregnant at fifteen, Rafael was seventeen. He found construction work that initially paid cash under the table, stayed with Marisol, and supported her throughout the pregnancy. Hector was firmly in the couple’s corner while others predicted that Rafael would leave.

Becoming a father changed the practical course of Rafael’s life: he continued construction work to support Marisol and Ezra, while music remained part of his home and family life. He did not resent Marisol or Ezra for the professional music career he set aside.

Rafael went ahead to the Miami area to secure construction work. Marisol followed with Ezra when Ezra was about two, and they reunited there to raise Ezra and Luna in Hialeah. The children grew up with kitchen dancing and backyard cookouts, where Rafael and Hector played dominoes while salsa came through the speakers.

Appearance and Presentation

Rafael stood approximately five feet ten inches tall, with a lean, strong build and broad shoulders developed through construction work. He had deep brown skin with warm mahogany undertones, dark brown eyes, and thick dark brown-black 3A/3B curls that he kept longer on top and shorter at the sides. His smile was bright, crooked, and slightly asymmetrical. Ezra inherited Rafael’s complexion, curls, eyes, lean build, and crooked smile.

His shoulders and forearms darkened further in the Miami sun than the skin his clothing covered. His eyes were heavy-lidded and direct, and his curls moved visibly when he shook them loose.

Rafael ran warm and held Marisol and the children firmly. Before the injury, they associated that physical warmth with safety; his hands and forearms were rough from work against the smoother skin of his chest and back.

His hands bore both parts of his working life. His left fingertips were callused from steel guitar strings, while his palms and knuckles were rough and scarred from construction. A pale scar crossed his left thumb from a saw injury at twenty-two. The fall that disabled him left a long surgical scar along his lower spine, in addition to smaller nicks and burns on his forearms from years of manual work. During his early recovery, Marisol traced the surgical scar; Ezra and Luna also saw it when Rafael was shirtless. His guitar and construction calluses softened after the injury as he played and worked less.

Rafael had multiple tattoos connected to Marisol, Ezra, Luna, Puerto Rico, music, and Hector. His daily construction clothes included steel-toed boots, work jeans or Dickies, tank tops or henleys, and a high-visibility vest. After work, he favored fitted T-shirts or button-ups, clean sneakers, one or two chains, cologne, and his curls worn loose. On weekends, he also wore shorts, graphic tees, and guayaberas.

The change from dusty work clothes to a fresh shirt, cologne, and loose curls was part of how Rafael presented himself to Marisol after a shift. He taught Ezra the phrase “tienes que verte bien para tu pareja,” connecting care for his appearance with care for his partner. After his injury, Rafael increasingly left the fresh shirts folded and the cologne unused as pain drained his energy.

The mineral smell of concrete dust after work, his cologne after showering, and the cedar and rosewood of his guitar became part of Ezra’s and Luna’s memories of Rafael. Ezra later recognized the worksite smell in a hardware store, while cedar on a stranger’s hands recalled Rafael to Luna.

Personality, Voice, and Movement

Before his injury, Rafael was animated, charismatic, playful, affectionate, and comfortable being noticed. He was ambitious and intensely loyal to the people he loved; he approached plans and hopes with the quality Hector described as dreaming “with his whole chest.” Rosa Reyes once joked that he had “come out the womb dancing salsa and causing drama.” When he was happy, he laughed with his whole body, hummed or tapped out rhythms, and reached for Marisol, Hector, or one of the children.

Rafael spoke in a deep, rough low register with a Puerto Rican accent shaped over time by his years in Hialeah. Before the accident, his gait was loose and rhythmic, with an easy swagger. Afterward, pain made his movement increasingly careful, uneven, stiff, and guarded. He often braced his lower back, clenched his hands, or locked his jaw during severe flares. Following the injury and Hector’s death, his former animation gave way to longer periods of quiet, withdrawal, and melancholy.

As his pain and depression worsened, Rafael’s humming, laughter, and guitar playing became less frequent. He sometimes tried to smile and keep moving through a flare, but Marisol could read the tension in his jaw and hands.

Work, Injury, and Chronic Pain

Rafael eventually obtained regular construction work in Miami. At approximately twenty-five, he fell more than ten feet at a job site after a coworker failed to place equipment safely. The fall caused a permanently disabling back injury and severe chronic pain.

Rafael faced a prolonged workers’ compensation dispute after the accident. His pain could become intense enough to cause vomiting, and opioid medication became part of his pain treatment.

Hector, who worked as a dealership mechanic in Miami, sustained catastrophic brain injuries in a car accident after Rafael’s injury, when Ezra was eight. Hector survived the crash and emergency surgery, but he could not recover from the brain damage. His pregnant girlfriend, Leslie, made the decision to withdraw life-sustaining treatment. Rafael became markedly quieter and more withdrawn after the loss and fixated on rare cases of people awakening from prolonged disorders of consciousness before his family helped him accept Leslie’s decision.

Rafael developed depression during the years of severe chronic pain, loss of work and mobility, and the workers’ compensation dispute. Hector’s death intensified the depression and withdrawal. Rafael’s fatal 2022 fentanyl overdose was accidental rather than a suicide.

Music

Rafael was a gifted guitarist and singer who had wanted a professional music career before the demands of supporting a young family redirected him toward construction. He continued playing at home and shared music with Ezra, becoming his son’s first musical teacher. In one of Ezra’s remembered good moments with him, Rafael played classic bachata on guitar while Ezra sang.

Family and Core Relationships

Marisol Cruz

Rafael and Marisol became parents while they were teenagers in Puerto Rico. He remained with her, worked to support their household, and cared for her during the pregnancy. Their relationship continued through the family’s move to the Miami area and until Rafael’s death.

Ezra Cruz

Main article: Ezra Cruz and Rafael Cruz

Ezra strongly resembled Rafael and inherited his musical ability. Rafael played guitar with him and encouraged his development as a performer. Rafael’s death left Ezra with lasting grief.

Luna Cruz

Main article: Luna Cruz and Rafael Cruz

Luna was Rafael and Marisol’s younger child. Rafael was especially gentle with her, calling her Lunita, princessita, and la Lunita de Papi, holding her on his lap, singing to her, and dancing with her in the kitchen. She was three when he sustained his construction injury. Although the family tried to shield her, she noticed his guarded movement, diminishing music, and her mother’s worry; he sometimes admitted to Luna how tired he was or how much he hurt.

Luna retained the warmth of those early memories alongside her knowledge of his pain, dependence, and death. As an adult, she resisted accounts that reduced him to the overdose and spoke honestly about the difficult history with people she trusted. His music, affectionate names, and gentleness remained important to her own identity and to the memories she later shared with Raffie.

Hector Burgos

Hector was Rafael’s closest friend and supported Rafael and Marisol from the beginning of their life as young parents. He later moved to Miami with them and worked as a mechanic. His death followed Rafael’s disabling injury.

Death

Rafael died from an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2022.

Memorable Quotes

“You’re gonna fucking dominate someday, mijo.”

Rafael said this to Ezra while they shared a good evening playing bachata together.

Characters Supporting Characters Deceased Characters Latinx Characters Puerto Rican Characters Disabled Characters Chronic Illness Characters Cruz Family