Thirteen years have passed since the death of Alexis Perez Sanchez (El Gordo), a colleague and friend of the good ones who died suddenly when his professional maturity made him one of the best exponents of the Tunisian journalists; always with his criteria on his shoulder, always polemic.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- Despite the time it is still difficult, in the extreme, to accept that Alexis is no longer here, that he does not call me, that we do not see each other at the Casa de la Prensa or on the Radio. In the debate program Primer día, for example, for several years we were discussing thorny issues, and when we started to do the table test on the debate of the day, we had good discussions, because he was one of those who defended his criteria until the end.
At the end of July and the beginning of August 2010, we spent some very difficult days. Alexis had had chest pains and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Cardiology Department of the Ernesto Guevara General Teaching Hospital. Three days later he was transferred to Intermediate and I went to see him. There we talked for a long time about life, but above all about our exciting profession. He was anxious to return as soon as possible to the radio program, to journalism; he was one of those who exercised his judgment every day.
Two days later, thinking that he had been discharged, I called him at home and his son told me that he was in Intensive Care because he had suffered a heart attack, but even so, in serious condition, I was certain that he was not going to die. He overcame his ailment and again in the Intermediate ward, I was told that he would be taken to the Cardiocentro in the city of Santa Clara. As I could not go to see him the day before, I called him by telephone, and with much optimism he told me that he was well, calm, confident, that they would take him to do a coronography, to see the conduct to follow and to clean one of the valves of his heart. "I know I will go and come back well because my two little grandchildren are my life and they inspire me to live", he told me. So I encouraged him and replied that I was going with him, to which he replied, "And I carry you in my heart."
Three or four days later I called Elbita, his wife, to ask her if he had been tested and she happily told me that everything had gone well, that he was coming back that same Saturday afternoon; and when I called him that night he was happy and we arranged to meet the next day.
The following Sunday, after finishing my first day, I went to his house. After the hug, the first thing he asked me was about the subject, about the details. We talked for a long time, he told me about the careful attention at the Santa Clara Cardio Center, the excellence of Cuban medicine, the discharge he had received, his normal life after a rest, and about returning to the program as soon as possible, which we needed.
During the week we talked two or three times. On Friday night, El Gordo was on Facebook, and when he saw some pictures that his friend Yaciel Peña had posted of the beautiful little daughter of Yaimara Cruz, another of our panelists, Alexis wrote to Yaimara what might be the last thing he did on the social network: "Linda, muy linda... You must prepare her for Primer día. Kiss you both..." That program obsessed him, as he felt fulfilled denouncing what was badly done!
I went to bed after watching a movie and strangely I woke up in the early hours of the morning, without knowing the time, when I usually sleep the whole night, but I went back to sleep and the phone rang even at night.
As I was on vacation and it was Saturday, I had not set the automatic alarm clock. When I woke up, I immediately thought about it, I had the habit that when the phone rang at 5:30 in the morning I would pick up the receiver and hang it up immediately, so I realized that it was a call, and a call in the early morning almost always means bad news. I answered with my heart in my hand, and I knew the voice of Gerardo González Quesada, the then head of Information of the weekly 26, who asked me, "Migue, are you awake?", to tell me flatly: "Alexis has just passed away."
It was as if I had been given a current in my body. How was it possible if Alexis was well? No, it wasn't true, there had to be a mistake, but Gerardo confirmed that from what he heard he had had a heart attack and was still in the hospital.
It was 5:00 in the morning, and soon other calls from friends arrived to confirm the harsh reality: El Gordo had said goodbye to life without warning and later we learned that it was due to a sudden decompensation of diabetes that caused the cardiac arrest.
Thus, in this absurd, sad, cruel way, Alexis was leaving us, with his 58 years of enthusiasm and fortitude, during so many plans, so many dreams, and so many personal and professional goals.
Thus, my friend of more than 20 years, with whom I argued professionally and sometimes personally, but with whom I was united by an unbreakable brotherhood because the charismatic Gordo was an irremediably good, helpful, loyal friend.
And I end this sad story with the same thing I said that morning of Sunday, August 14, 2010, in Primer día, as a small tribute from the collective, when his lifeless body was still in the funeral home: "Not because you are gone your voice will die out; on the contrary, it will always be with us in the frank discussions, in the debate on the issues that concern the population."
