Skip to content

Julian Reyes and Ruben Alvarez

Julian Reyes and Ruben Alvarez were grandson and maternal grandfather. Ruben knew Julian during infancy but was separated from him after Zeek Reyes died. Julian reestablished contact with the Alvarez family in his twenties, shortly after the success of ‘’I Am Still Me’‘, and developed an especially close relationship with Ruben, whom he loved dearly.

Origins and Early Separation

Ruben was Ashley Alvarez’s father. After Julian’s birth, he opposed Zeek’s father’s decision to expel Zeek from the Reyes family home. Ruben ended his friendship with Zeek’s father over the decision and briefly housed Zeek before Zeek obtained a studio apartment for himself and Julian.

Ruben’s health had deteriorated by the time Ashley and Zeek died. Obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, recurrent syncope, impaired exertional capacity, and depression prevented him from safely assuming sole care of Julian after Zeek’s death. His inability to become Julian’s primary caregiver did not reflect indifference toward his grandson.

Exclusion by Julian’s Paternal Family

Zeek’s father remained angry at Ruben for opposing Zeek’s expulsion. After Zeek’s death, he and Zeek’s older brother Marco used their control over Julian’s upbringing and access to keep Ruben and the wider Alvarez family away from him. Their exclusion was motivated by anger and spite toward Ruben rather than by any decision Ruben had made to withdraw from Julian.

Ruben was already disabled, grieving, and without the financial resources needed to overcome the paternal family’s control. He could not sustain a fight for access while managing recurrent fainting, the loss of his employment, the disability-benefits process, and worsening depression. Julian therefore grew up without a remembered relationship with his maternal family even though Ruben wanted him in his life.

On March 20, 2037, Ruben watched the livestream of the ‘’I Am Still Me’’ premiere from his Fresno home with Amy and Jack. The three remained for the documentary and the interviews that followed. They saw Julian’s professional success before he reestablished contact with the Alvarez family.

Photographs of Kayla handling paparazzi around Julian reminded Ruben of Ashley. He considered the comparison silly because Kayla and Ashley were different women, but he recognized the same protective refusal to let a crowd treat Julian as something it was entitled to claim. The images reassured Ruben that someone beside Julian noticed when he was overwhelmed and acted before the crowd could take more from him.

After the premiere, Amy emailed Resonance Films through its general inbox to identify herself as Julian’s maternal aunt and tell him that the Alvarez family had wanted contact with him. The message was buried among the company’s post-premiere correspondence. Nearly two months later, while recovering from the film’s release and examining Zeek’s archive, Julian found Amy’s email and replied. He wanted to begin with email and asked about Ruben.

Adult Reunion

Several weeks after Julian and Amy began corresponding, Kayla drove him from Los Angeles to Ruben’s Fresno home for his first remembered meeting with the Alvarez family. They met at Ruben’s house rather than in a restaurant because Julian wanted the reunion to remain private. Anxious about the visit, Julian took his prescribed as-needed anti-anxiety medication and slept during the drive. Ruben’s cool, guarded, and stern manner contrasted with Julian’s quiet, soft-spoken approach. Ruben was nauseated, and the strain of the meeting made his replies shorter than usual; he did not want to tell Julian he felt unwell and interrupt the visit after Julian had come from Los Angeles. Seeing his grandson in person brought Ruben grief despite his reserve. The meeting ended the separation imposed during Julian’s childhood.

When Julian asked Ruben for a memory of Zeek, Ruben recalled finding the young father at his kitchen table during the period Zeek stayed in the Alvarez home. Zeek held infant Julian against his shoulder while trying to record Julian’s feeding and reflux in a notebook with his free hand. Ruben offered to hold the baby, but Zeek declined because Julian had just settled and he knew how to keep him upright after he spit up. Ruben resented the refusal despite having offered help, and Zeek apologized. Ruben made breakfast the next morning rather than discussing the exchange. At their reunion, he told Julian he regretted not making himself easier for Zeek to talk to.

Julian showed Ruben a photograph of one of Zeek’s health-note pages, including the entry “Kept him up after. Better.” Ruben recognized the note and asked to see more of Zeek’s writing later. When Julian suggested that Zeek had understood Ruben’s wish to help, Ruben answered, “You don’t know that.” Seeing Julian recoil, he clarified, “I’m not calling you a liar. I’m saying I don’t know what he understood from me. I should’ve asked him.” Ruben also remembered that Julian had wanted to ask about Ashley, and Julian asked what she had called him when he was little.

When Amy brought out sandwiches during the visit, both Ruben and Julian were reluctant to eat. Their difficulty with the meal led them to learn about each other’s illnesses. Ruben’s obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was new family medical history for Julian, whose own recurrent fainting had not been fully explained by POTS; the disclosure did not establish a diagnosis for Julian.

Ruben gave Julian the information the medical examiner had released after Zeek’s death. It did not identify a definitive cause or resolve whether an arrhythmia or aspiration killed Zeek, but it gave Julian part of the official record he had not received while growing up.

Julian bonded with the wider family and became particularly close to Ruben. Most people knew Ruben for his gruffness; Amy, Jack, and Jonathan already knew how much he cared for his family, and Julian and Kayla came to know that side of him as they spent time together. Their relationship gave Julian a living connection to Ashley’s family after years in which his paternal relatives had controlled his access to them. Julian loved his grandfather dearly, and the relationship remained active after their reunion.

Health and Family History

Ruben’s obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy also established a maternal family history of a potentially inherited cardiac condition. That history became medically relevant because Julian experienced recurrent syncope that was not considered fully explained by POTS. It did not establish that Julian had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or resolve the cause of his fainting.

Relationships Family Relationships Julian Reyes Ruben Alvarez