His actual birthdate is unknown. Per the 1910 U.S. census taken in the Cepeda Atiles home on April 30th of that year, Rafael was already two years old. His mother Leonor is listed as having five pregnancies with four of those children being alive as of the date of the census. Later archival documentation indicates, she was pregnant with Rafael’s younger brother Carmelo who was born that VERY summer on July 10, 1910. They were both registered with the government on August 24, 1910 by their father Modesto Cepeda Robles who indicated he was originally from Loiza. Carmelo was registered first, and Rafael was registered second. This is clear by the numbers on the birth registries with Carmelo entered as number 900 and Rafael as number 901, on the subsequent page in the same book. Per the 1910 U.S. census, it is recorded that (like most people of the time) Modesto could not read or write. This indicates that when he went to register his sons with the vital records office, someone else wrote down the information. Because the information is identical (save the children’s first names), it may be inferred that Modesto likely communicated that all the information was the same for both boys, and the recorder understood that to mean the birth dates as well (however erroneously).  [original article by Melanie Maldonado, 2018. Please expand or suggest edits below].

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