Remembering Pedro

December 1st marked World AIDS Day (or month.) I've seen a lot of blog and social media posts in the last few days and I was inspired by a former FIU classmate to repost an old post I wrote about the late Pedro Zamora, who was my contemporary, a fellow gay Cuban-American from Miami whom I never got to meet in person but I admired his HIV awareness advocacy. He empowered the gay, Cuban, Latino, and HIV positive community. Even though I am HIV negative,  I have people in my life who are positive and I sympathize with them and support them with all my heart.

Here is what I wrote as an editorial about Pedro in The Miami Herald in April 1996 when I was a super, super young lad named... Johnny!)

A psychic once proclaimed that Pedro Zamora was born to save lives. I know many who can attest to that.

Pedro died in 1994 the day after the final episode of The Real World: San Francisco aired. He died from complications from AIDS after a three-year crusade to educate folks, especially young people, about the illness.

You don't hear much about Pedro anymore.

The years have passed. There was a street named after him in West Miami-Dade. A former clinic in Boston also carried his name. MTV no longer shows the reruns from his season.

Sometimes, I can't help but wonder what a positive role model Pedro would be today to a whole new generation of young people. He showed people that AIDS was everywhere. Young or old, gay or straight, it's there. And a few moments of pleasure could never be worth risking one's life. He also taught people how to avoid catching the virus - and how to deal with people who had it.

He made an impression on me right away when I was 20 because I saw a little of myself in him. We were both Miami Cubans, about the same age and gay and I was just beginning to embark on the real world of dating. (We also had the trademark thick dark eyebrows.)

When "The Real World" cameras highlighted his tight-knit and affectionate Cuban family, I saw some of my own family reflected in his. Pedro's thick Cuban accent was music to my ears, part of Miami's soundtrack. He was on"The Real World" when cast members had real stories to tell besides the I-got-drunk-and-hooked-up-with-so-and-so tales.

I always wished I could have met Pedro. If I had, I would have said "Gracias chico!" for educating me and so many of my fellow friends in Miami and beyond. 

5 Things I Love About My VW Golf GTI

This past summer, I belatedly treated myself for a big birthday (don't ask) with a new sleek black Volkswagen Golf GTI.  The car was also a reward for a mid-life breakthrough (the opposite of a mid-life crisis which I may write about at some point.)

Footnote here. For my loyal readers (all five of you) who have followed this blog since 2006, you may have noticed I tend to switch cars...on occasion. I diagnosed myself with cardiction and even had a blog about my love of cars. The salesmen know me at Deel VW in Coral Gables.

My passion addiction for cars has become a running joke in my family especially in Boston where I lived for 10 years, to the point that my dear cousin Michelle would joke that she would look out the window of her parent's house or her aunt's house every Thanksgiving to see what model of a car I would pull up in the driveway. (So I started parking farther away from the living room window to avoid the you-got-another-car!! conversation.)

As a longtime fan of reliable cute hatchbacks, I knew I wanted one that had power and that I could easily squeeze into any parking space (more on that below.) I also wanted something of a classic with a legacy and the GTI has been around since 1976. It's timeless. But there are many more things that I adore about my car. Here is my top 5 list.

THE DRIVE

The car has pep with its 2.0 turbo charged four-cylinder engine that produces 241 horsepower.  Just one tap of the pedal and the GTI takes off like the Turbo Boost in KITT from the popular 1980s NBC show "Knight Rider." (Yes, I'm dating myself.) I unleash the GTI's power when I hit I-95 to visit my buddy Eric B. in Wilton Manors. (He calls me Johnny D.) I punch the pedal, brace the steering wheel and zoom, I take off (within the speed limit.)

THE SEATS

The GTI seats feature intricate stitching, mine has red hues. The driver and passenger's seats also have GTI etched in red.  Que cool!

THE MIRRORS

One of the coolest features (at least to moi) is how the side mirrors open up when I unlock the car and then fold back in when I park and lock the doors with my remote key.  The mirrors are kind of like auto ears that pop out. (It doesn't take much to wow me.)  

ROOMY

The GTI is a cute and spacious hatchback that seats five people comfortably. I once fit 6 people (four adults including me, one teen boy and a tween girl) in my previous 2017 Pacific blue Golf for a road trip to the Everglades to ride the airboats. My new GTI basically has about the same dimensions but with a new body/lights. I recently was able to fit a bicycle, a red assembled chair from IKEA and a lamp (thank you again Alex.) 

The car is more than ample enough to seat a five-pound Pomeranian named Chuchy who loves to pasear (go for rides or sightseeing.) When he hears that magic word, his ears perk up, he grabs his leash and runs to the door waiting for you to take him outside. That’s him below riding shotgun as the AC blows his fluffy fur. 

IT'S VOCAL

Whether from the dashboard or via text messages on my VW app, the car alerts me when it’s low on gas and reminds me of how many miles I have left before reaching empty and when and where to fill up. The app also lets me know when I have left the car unlocked and I then remotely lock it with my phone.

Five Years at The New York Times

I can't believe that this week marks my fifth year at The New York Times. It feels like yesterday when I nervously walked into the colossal building at 620 Eighth Avenue in midtown New York City and attended my orientation where I got a free T-shirt, a tote bag along with a small notebook/journal for taking notes, which I did a lot of for the first few days.

This was taken by my buddy Eric shortly after I started working at the paper on Oct. 28, 2019.

In honor of my five years there, I decided to highlight one of my favorite articles from each year that I have been writing/reporting for the paper. It's no surprise that many of the stories involved animals.

During my first few weeks at the paper in New York City, I cowrote this wild and fun tale with my work desk buddy Aimee Ortiz about three cows that were thought to have been swept away during Hurricane Dorian in North Carolina but they actually had been enjoying life and grazing at a state park in the Outer Banks. The article was very popular among readers. Here is the story.

In 2020, after returning to work after my open heart surgery (which I shared with readers), I learned about Fat Bear Week in Alaska. It's an annual contest where people vote for their favorite fat bear as they pack on the pounds for winter by chowing down on fresh salmon. I had so much fun learning about the contest and about the bears at Katmai National Park. Here is my story. A runner up for my favorite story that year was an obituary I wrote about twin brothers in Texas who died hours apart in the same hospital (different floors) after contracting Covid in the early days of the pandemic. They lived together, worked together and slept in the same bed. They were literally inseparable. Here is that obituary.

In 2021 for LGBT pride month, I wrote a round up of Pride firsts, the first time an organization, a city and even the White House honored Pride such as the San Francisco Giants wearing rainbow-hued baseball caps and uniforms that season and young authors who published their first books about what it's like being gay, trans and nobinary. Here is my story.

In 2022, I wrote an obituary on Spanish trans actress Isabel Torres who found fame late in life for her portrayal of Cristina Ortiz Rodriguez, who was a beloved trans Spanish TV personality in the mid-1990s. I had watched Ms. Torres on the HBO Max Spanish series "Veneno" which chronicled the life of Ms. Rodriguez. I was so moved by Ms. Torres's acting, so strong and sympathetic in her portrayal of Ms. Rodriguez, that I offered to write the obituary which is here.

In 2023, I teamed up with my colleague Lauren McCarthy to track down some of the 400 beagles that had been rescued from a facility in Virginia where they were locked in cages and used for breeding and research. The beagles have found happy homes where they are thriving and discovering what it's like to live outside a cage and the freedom of taking walks and running around a backyard. Here is the story. 

My favorite story of 2024 so far focused on the late Desi Arnaz, beloved star of the sitcom "I Love Lucy." My story was about how the city of Miami Beach was honoring the entertainer for his early years in the city where he learned English at St. Patrick Catholic School and became a musician. At the Park Avenue nightclub/restaurant, he popularized the Conga which was his first brush with fame before Broadway and Hollywood and his wife Lucille Ball. I had no idea Mr. Arnaz had so many local connections in Miami Beach where I grew up. Here is my story.

The photo below was taken in June after I returned to the newsroom in NYC for a week to reconnect with my colleagues, reporters and editors. A tourist was kind enough to take the photo for me.

Miami Beach Honors Desi Arnaz of "I Love Lucy"

Growing up in Miami Beach, I was very familiar with St. Patrick Catholic School. Although I attended a public school (North Beach Elementary a few blocks away,) my upstairs neighbors Katheline and Jennifer Cortes, attended the St. Patrick's and I attended their events at the school.  I also took CCD classes there for my communion and confirmation. 

So I was surprised to learn that Desi Arnaz, best known as the hunky Cuban-American bandleader and for playing the devoted husband Ricky Ricardo on the beloved "I Love Lucy" sitcom, graduated from St. Patrick's. Not just that, he learned English there, became a musician and had his early brush with fame when he started to perform the conga at the Park Avenue restaurant and nightclub before making it big on Broadway and Hollywood.

via The New York Times / Library of Congress

This week, the city of Miami Beach honored the entertainer's early years in Miami and Miami Beach after he left Cuba as a teenager.  I wrote a story for paper, The New York Times, about Mr. Arnaz's journey from Cuba to Miami and Hollywood. The marker sits outside the Miami City Ball, near where the Park Avenue nightclub stood by Collins Avenue.

photo by Johnny Diaz 

Remembering Drake Hogestyn/John Black from "Days of Our Lives"

Growing up in Miami Beach as a geeky, curly-haired TV nerd who was sometimes confused as a girl (no joke)  who wore corduroy pants from Sears to school even in the endless year-round summer heat and humidity, I was always drawn to soap operas for some reason (part of it may be because I would only see my friends in school, rarely outside the classroom, and these fictional characters kept me company.) 

From "The Young and The Restless" and "As The World Turns" to "General Hospital" and "Days of Our Lives," I would tune in each day after school in elementary and junior high to learn the latest plot twists involving perpetual lovebirds Holden and Lily on ATWT or the enduring drama between the wealthy Quartermaines and nurses and doctors at the fictional GH hospital in Port Charles.

But when I got older (in my late teens in college and early to mid 20s) I also discovered the Los Angeles fashionistas on "The Bold and The Beautiful" on CBS and then the Midwestern characters on "Days of Our Lives" on NBC which aired the show right after the former.  I immediately got hooked and desperately wanted to know what was happening in the fictional town of Salem.

Photo via New York Times via Getty Images.

I loved following the adventures and loves and tribulations of the town's residents including the never-ending love story between John Black and Dr. Marlena Evans, played respectfully by Drake Hogestyn and Diedre Hall. 

For years, I committed to the show in the mid to late 1990s and 2000s and the 2010s and gasped on Friday afternoons for the weekly cliffhanger (a storyline once involved Marlena's alien offspring.)  So when I learned that Mr. Hogestyn, who played the brawny, hairy-chested (can you tell I am gay?), cool and debonair John Black who would raise an eyebrow whenever he suspected something amiss in Salem, had passed away at the young age of 70, I volunteered to write his obituary. 

I knew enough about his character and the show that I could write the story using my ingrained institutional knowledge. But during my research, I was surprised to learn that Mr. Hogestyn had early dreams of being a professional baseball player and had played for the minor leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals and then New York Yankees, his favorite team. 

After an injury, he pivoted to acting which eventually led to his portrayal of John Black/Roman Brady and thus forever changed the landscape of daytime TV.

Anyways, this is a long way of saying, here is my New York Times obituary on Mr. Hogestyn.

Remembering Luna

This weekend marks the second anniversary of the death of Luna, the sweet and funny Fox terrier mix who was in my life for 10 years and was my companion (or assistant) for many years as I worked from home. She made me a better human being. (The photo below was taken in Islamorada. She loved the Keyes.)

She had a good life of 17 years and one month. A lover of sushi on Friday nights and chicken anytime, she was the best loving dog I have ever known and she taught me so much about taking care of a dog, which has helped me with Chuchy, the Pomerarian that belongs to my sister but I care for as needed. Luna witnessed and experienced so much of my personal history over 10.5 years before she died.

She got to meet and know my late parents and even took rides with us to Publix. When her other papi was away in Costa Rica, she slept in my childhood bedroom in Miami Beach, my rental apartment in Coral Gables and then my studio condo in Coral Gables where for some reason, she enjoyed sleeping on my head. (I never understood that but she would race up the stairs as soon as we got out of my car.)  The place was super quiet which she appreciated.

When I had my two bladder cancer surgeries, she snuggled up to me and never left my side. She sensed what I was going through and I remember just being able to hold her for comfort. I was her second papi.

The same goes for my heart surgery recovery. She was there keeping me company and supported me in her own sweet way, just by being there and sitting next to me.  Even after I took her for short walks because my body was still recovering and I was out of breath, she was still in my face literally. :) (See video below.)

When I temporarily moved to New York, she visited me twice and enjoyed sitting on my old blue sofa (from Coral Gables) and running around Central Park (she sprinted for at least a mile and I couldn't keep up with her.)

Here she is taking a stroll in the Upper West Side with her other daddy for Thanksgiving week.

Luna even inspired the character of Amiga in my last novel "Six Neckties" with her unique black-spotted butt and funny personality. She was also so patient when I sketched her and she gave into me (or indulged me) when I snapped a photo of her next to the portrait. We were glued to the hip. We were a team.  I knew her and she knew me.

I never knew my heart could expand with so much love, thanks to Luna. I will always miss her. I was her Johnny or "Gnocchi" as I was referred to.

This video was the last I took of her two days before she departed the earth. (In the background, I was rewatching "Brothers and Sisters" from ABC and she was snuggling up next to me, as always.)

My Miami Vice Family Ties

I spotted my Uncle “Tio” Agustin playing an extra in the Miami Vice episode “Nobody Lives Forever” from season one episode 21 on Peacock from 1985. He is wearing the light blue suit. In the scene, he passes a package under the table to another guy, a bookie, and walks away.

My uncle was my dad Juanito's older brother. Both of them worked for decades at Puerto Sagua restaurant in South Beach. My uncle had the morning and early afternoon shift and my dad had the afternoon and evening shift. They looked enough alike that people confused them.

I accidentally found my uncle because I have been binge-watching all the episodes of "Miami Vice" on the Peacock streaming service. I was nostalgic to see the Miami of my childhood and so I embarked on watching a few episodes a day. I'm currently on season four which took place from 1987 to 1988.

Growing up in Miami Beach in the 1980s, "Miami Vice" became a regular fixture on city streets, especially Ocean Drive, Biscayne Boulevard and in Key Biscayne. A lot of the shoots were at night and residents and tourists would see big white trailers parked along a street which signaled that the show was shooting nearby.

I remember one time, maybe 1989, they were shooting the show in an estate on Pine Tree Drive around the block from my parent's house. I remember seeing the production trucks parked along the street as I tried to get a view of the action from a bridge that overlooked the waterfront house where they were filming. Some trees obsecured my view but I was so excited to see something that I would watch on Friday nights on NBC to be so close to home.

Some of my observations from rewatching "Miami Vice" these past few weeks.

Sonny (Don Johnson) and Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) always seemed to get involved with a woman who was somehow connected to their current investigation (or a past case) which complicated things. You would think they would have learned this after the first season.

In their undercover work, Gina (Saundra Santiago) and Trudy (Olivia Brown) mostly played hookers.

To my surprise, I have heard of some unsavory language which would probably not make it on air in today's standards. In one scene, a boxer calls his crime thug boss "maricon." In another episode, a thug called a hooker "puta sucia."

The crime bosses were mostly Latinos with names like "El Gato" and "Cinco" and "Rivas" and "Calderone."

The show featured a lot of stars before they became huge stars. They included Liam Neeson, Bill Paxton, Wesley Snipes, Annette Bening and Melanie Griffith (who would later have her daughter Dakota Johnson with Don Johnson.)

From the Heart, One Year Later

It’s been a year since I had my open surgery to remove an aortic aneurysm. It’s been a l-o-n-g emotional and physical journey, with some ups and downs. I'm happy to report that the scar is fading. It's almost gone. I am healing and overall, I am thankful .

The top photo is of me now. I gained some color (and a little weight.) The second photo was taken a few days after surgery last year. I looked pretty pale and felt awful from the chest pain and limited mobility. I tried to recreate the shot. It’s the same Old Navy shirt and wall background.

Here is my New York Times article that I wrote about the journey that led to the surgery and my immediate recovery.

And here are my previous blog entries in order (From the Heart, More From the Heart and From the Heart, Part 3.)