Carmen lived with both her parents in Washington DC until she is seven when her father moves to South Carolina. She and her mother live together in an Apartment near Wiscousin Street. Her father usually visited her two or three times a year, during Christmas. Carmen adores her father Al (Albert). Al re-marries when Carmen is fifteen to Lydia, a ordered, perfectionist and becomes step-father to Krista and Paul. Carmen adores and admires her father and hopes to get to Williams like him. She has his aptitude to maths. Carmen also has relations to her father's two sisters, often described as crazy.