Alfredo, the cool lad

My mom's youngest brother was for me and still is the ultimate rebel... at least in my family.

His life could be the center story of any series like Californication, a guy that after being the picture of sucess, in the normal and regulated world, his life crumbled down into this reality where he lives in a tiny room, remembering his sorrows every night accompanied by a bottle of Jack Daniels, praying that it helps him sleep.

In that dull slumber, he often dreams of a tiny house of mud walls on the beach, where he lives with the wife he couldn't keep, and the dream that slipped away. My uncle, the rebel, has this sting of sadness in his voice that peeks thru the happiness when he speaks to me every 6 months, and tells me of his life in New York City, and how he has lived there for 10 years now and still struggles to speak english.

In 2004, I graduated and my aunt, his sister, bought me a ticket to go to NYC and see him again. Since 1998, we handn't seen each other, my uncle, the cool lad, and the minute I saw him, I remembered all the times that the neighbors called the police 'cause it was 3:20 am and he was playing the most beautiful songs in his way too loud piano, and his heartbroken voice sang these profound lyrics that got to your soul.

I cleaned my back ups this past week and found a cd he gave me in that trip. It had been so long since I had last heard him sing, that now, much maturer and had lived myself my own very sad stories, brought tears to my eyes and made me think how we all live in complicated lives, miles apart, but inches away.

This song he dedicated to me. The name "Eres una en un millón" translates into "You're one in a million" a cover from the venezuelan songwriter and composer, Ilan Chester. My Uncles name is Alfredo Mata... and I miss him a whole lot.


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