The Karabekian Family Exile

This thread traces the family’s escape from genocide, its forced migration, and the inherited loneliness that shapes Rabo’s identity.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

Survival in the Killing Fields

Parents Who Escape A Massacre Survived Rabo’s mother survives by pretending to be dead among the bodies, while his father hides in a privy as soldiers kill the people around them. Each carries a different memory of the catastrophe. A Future Purchased His mother gathers jewels from the dead, carefully leaving those still in an old woman’s mouth. The jewels become the means by which the couple can leave the region and seek a new life.

The False Promise

A Refugee’s Bargain A Fellow Survivor’s Offer In Cairo, Vartan Mamigonian poses as a protector and invents a prosperous Armenian community in San Ignacio. He offers a fabricated deed and the promise of teaching work in exchange for the jewels. A Life Diverted The parents accept the scheme and travel to California instead of joining the Armenian community in Paris. The fraud redirects their lives, but Rabo later recognizes that his father’s choices also helped keep the family isolated.

An Inherited Name

A Family’s Continuance Distant Descendants Rabo’s sons and grandchildren know little about the Armenian history that shaped their grandparents. His estrangement from them makes the family’s survival feel less like continuity than a fragile inheritance. A Condition for Inheritance Rabo stipulates that his descendants must restore the Karabekian name to inherit. The condition is an attempt to preserve the identity his mother wanted to endure, even though he cannot compel affection or cultural understanding.

During the Armenian Genocide, before Rabo’s birth

After the parents reach Cairo, before their voyage to America

In Rabo’s old age, as he revises his will