Dear Dad,
I now have been in Buenos Aires for 24 hours and have had time to digest the intense situation. The city is beautiful like it always has been, like you romanticized about your whole life. Children play soccer from rooftops and under freeways. Old people walk the streets thinking of days past. Women walk from butcher to grocer to get all the items for their evening meals. On the dinner tables across the whole country are bottles of red wine with old timey spritzer bottles of seltzer, warm rolls and tender meats. I even went to River Plate stadium yesterday , where as a boy, as a young man, you watched the players of your era fight it out on the grass for a chance at the cup. Soccer was your life breath, dad, and like every other boy in Argentina, you dreamed of one day showing your moves there, on that field.
We were supposed to travel together this time; you were to show me where you danced tango, where you went to grade school, where you played some of your most famous (infamous) pranks. Show me where you took the bus, those glorious brightly painted hulks of steel that barrel down the cobble stone roads with passengers hanging from the rails, to get to your grandmothers house. Tell me where you met mom, the night you saw her on the dance floor and knew she was 'the one'. Show me how you swept her off her feet with those subtle yet confident tango steps. Tell me what you said to her to convince her to spend a lifetime with you, indeed 54 years of marriage, move to a new world and raise 3 boys in the caring loving image of yourself. Tell me dad, I am listening.
Coming to this new world was a huge sacrifice for you. As a man of 29 years, you took your wife and eldest son and left the comfortable life you knew for a brave new world. It was 1964 and there was plenty of social unrest in America. You could have stayed home, and made your way like so many generations of Argentines before and after you. Your biggest regret: you would leave the teachings and prophecies of your dad, but more crippling to you, your mothers bosom. Your mother adored you, dare I say idolized you and you loved her deeply. You were her world and she was your rock. You knew the future was in America and with all the regrets and pain, you took that giant leap into the unknown.
Today, with my oldest son, I will carry out your final wish, the desire that you knew you could entrust to me. Dad, today I am going to the cemetery where your parents were laid to rest. After paying my respects to them, I will find an appropriate place and spread your ashes among their gravesite. You, in essence, will rest in peace with them, in perpetuity. Like a good son, you are going home. Dad, in a way, this is my final goodbye. My parting gift. You will be in my heart, in my soul, in the fabric of my daily life, forever. You did good, dad. You taught us all right from wrong. In your life, you also showed us that mistakes will be made, but there is always time to get it right. You got it right, dad.
Thanks for all the lessons, indeed, thanks for all the love. Every breath I take, you will be with me. Every sight I see, every sound I hear, every baby's sigh, moan, laugh and cry that I witness, you will witness with me. I love you dad and will never forget you or anything you said or did.
Johnny (el colorado)
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