Antonio Pera (to the left), with Josefa Bracero and Manolo Ortega. (Design: Gilberto González)
Some people go through life, leaving behind an inextinguishable shining trace. Some others, on the other hand, are like shooting stars, which means, they shine only some seconds, like comets that as time passes, dispel.
Some of these people deserved to be remembered with more frequency and intensity, but sometimes, we forget them. This chronicle tries to reflect Antonio Pera’s life.
In this city, Antonio Victor Pera Quintana was born on November 22, 1923, and died on July 25, exactly the same day Santiago turns years of foundation.
His name is worthy of a chronicle. Old Cuban people remember him well because he was a TV worker. In 1939, he started his professional life in CMKC, a radio broadcasting station in Santiago de Cuba. Antonio had to work as a speaker, an operator of the transmitters, and controller of the cabin.When the station signed off, he had to give the keys back to the owner. If the phone rang, he put on a long-play record, so as to answer the phone calls.
He also worked in the Cadena Oriental de Radio, whose main plant was CMKW. As time passed he came to live in Havana. At the beginning, he was a sports commentator in a newsreel. In fact, he did not know much about sport, but with the help of newspaper clippings, seemed to be an expert commentator.
In 1954, already in Havana, he simultaneously worked in the Cuban National Circuit (today Radio Rebelde), as a narrator of soap operas. He worked also as an actor together with great figures with the Cuban radio and television, where he started working in 1958. He was one of the founders of Channel 12.
At the triumph of the Revolution, he worked together with Eddy Martin, as a speaker in the Independent Front of Free Broadcasting Stations. He was also one of the founders of the National Newsreel on Television, together with Manolo Ortega. Besides his work in front of the microphones and the TV cameras, he was a professor.
Even though, he retired, he was active as far as he could, when sickness did not allow him to keep on. He rested forever on July 25, 2004.
(Translated by Reinaldo Fernández)
