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.)

Breakthrough Covid Infections: It happened in my household

My partner had gone to two birthday parties among close friends on different weekends in late May. I didn't want to go because even though I am vaccinated for Covid-19, I did not want to be around big crowds and increase my chances of an infection. (I am also a bit of an introvert and don't like big crowds anyways but that's another story.)

But a few days after the last party, my partner began to present symptoms that included congestion and fatigue. He also lost his sense of smell and tase.  He found out that a little boy at the party had similar symptoms and tested positive for Covid-19. That prompted my partner to get a rapid test. The result was positive. I got the same test at CVS. My results were negative.

To be absolutely sure, we drove down to Cutler Ridge (about 25 minutes south of Miami) and got our noses swabbed during a drive-through test offered by the county. A day and a half later, my test came back negative. But my partner was still positive and another test he took a few days later also came back positive.

It was a scary experience. At that point, I didn't know anyone personally or in my immediate family who had Covid and here it was, in my home. We began wearing masks in the house and I slept in a separate bed temporarily.  I didn't get infected (thank God). I felt that my vaccine, the Johnson and Johnson shot I had received in March, protected me.

Inspired by the incident which left me with a lot of nagging questions, I wrote a story, an explainer in my paper, The New York Times, on what vaccinated people should do if they become infected with Covid-19.  The story was published in June and yet, we are seeing more and more of these breakthrough infections especially among the high profile set (athletes, senators, celebrities, etc.) as the new Delta variant envelopes the country.

Celebrating LGBTQ Pride in New Ways

Pride celebrations have been around since 1970, a year after the violent Stonewall uprising in Greenwich village which sparked the modern gay rights movement. But five decades later, there are new ways cities, groups and people are celebrating Pride this year. 

I wrote a story that looks at these Pride firsts which include the San Francisco Giants marking June with the team's first Pride logos on uniforms and Vice President Kamala Harris being the first sitting vice president to participate in a Pride event.

Closer to home, the Miami Police Department unveiled its first Pride patrol car last month to showcase its inclusivity.