Elis Pacheco and Mrs. María Elena de Pacheco, son and widow of world-renowned Dominican musician Johnny Pacheco, who died on February 15, recounted the last moments of the salsa maker as he died with them and other family members in a hospital in New York. Sweater.
“We watched the football game and he couldn’t breathe properly,” said the son.
“I had a lot of fluid in my throat,” he added.
He said he was very proud of his father, who was a legend. “He always put things into perspective, was humble and reserved with his private life and lived with his achievements.”
He added that some unfortunately realized all his achievements as a musician after his death.
“I’m proud to be recognized,” Elis added.
For her part, the widow said that her last moments with her husband were very peaceful thanks to God.
“I had the pleasure of being with him, talking to him, kissing and hugging him, asking him not to leave my side,” he said.
“I also asked him to guide me and let me know what he wanted, but I think everything is still very much alive,” he said.
Pacheco’s decades-old friend and promoter in the salsa media, the Dominican Eugenio Pérez, recalled that during his lifetime the teacher asked him to bury him like potatoes, wearing his shoes on after he died.
“He also told me that he wanted us to write in his epitaph: Here is Johnny Pacheco, against his will,” added Pérez.
The son and widow spoke about Pacheco’s last moments with the Dominican reporter of the Univisión program Primer Impacto Daneida Polanco during a vigil in memory of the deceased on Sunday at Plaza Las Américas in Upper Manhattan and on Tuesday while the remains of the deceased at Frank Campbell Funeral Home & Crematory Services in downtown Manhattan.