Bruce Lee
Last
Thursday, to great Gentlemen past away, Gabriel García Márquez and Cheo
Feliciano.
Gabriel
José de la Concordia García Márquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story
writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout
Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th
century, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature
and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. García Márquez started as a journalist,
and wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best known
for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), Autumn of the
Patriarch (1975) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved
significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably
for popularizing a literary style labeled as magic realism, which uses magical
elements and events in otherwise ordinary and realistic situations.
José
Luis Feliciano Vega, better known as Cheo Feliciano was a Puerto Rican composer
and singer of salsa and bolero music. As a young boy, his affinity for Bolero
music was evident, but it was his moved to Spanish Harlem where he got into
Salsa genre. He was the rare baritone among salsa singers, and his deep voice
and quick wit as an improviser made him a favorite among the Latino public. Having
overcome a heroin addiction, he became a vehement anti-drug spokesperson,
assisting in the rehabilitation of fellow salsa artists who fell prey to drug
addiction. He recorded fifteen albums for Fania Records Co. and participated in
the first Salsa Opera Hommy. His music had acquired an international following,
having him travel all over Europe, Japan, Africa, and South America.
These
were two simple men that chose to be more. They followed their dreams and their
passions against everything that life threw their way. They faced financial
downfalls, sickness, addictions, and even assassination attempts. And yet they
stood strong to their very last day, and did it with the same dignity and class
they always had. To you gentleman, I thank you for your legacies.
I
leave you know with one of Cheo’s great songs.
A farewell message to Garcia Marquez over at Good Men Project.
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