The Godfather

One of the benefits of having attended Belen Jesuit in Miami is that I made friends for a lifetime. Of the 80-some-odd of us that graduated in 1987 more than 60 of us stay in touch through a Yahoo group. Before that we had an email list serve since the late 90s' Among our class are executives, attorneys, police officers, doctors, etc. Two of my closest friends to this day were in my 7th grade homeroom. That's about 27 years folks.

Anyway one of those two very close friends is Pep. Pep is like a brother to me. In fact when we were in college, I joined a fraternity at the University of Florida and he helped establish the same fraternity at FIU, so we became fraternity brothers.

When Pep's son (the oldest of his four children) was born I was honored that he asked me to be the Godfather.

When I was down on my luck after a failed first marriage, a failed business and being diagnosed with Wilson's disease, Pep reached out to me and got me my first job in advertising.

In 1998, Pep was my best man at my wedding.

I worked for him and with him from 1996 to 2006. Then one of those things that happens in corporate America happened and our team was split up. I ended up with my present employer, where I am very happy.

Pep joined forces with some others and made a go at starting a new ad agency. Eventually, for reasons that aren't really important, that business was dissolved. I should mention that Pep is a senior executive in our industry and jobs at his level don't grow on trees. Pep recently took an offer to join one of the premier ad agencies in our specialty (Hispanic marketing), but the job is in Houston.

Earlier this year Pep became the Godfather to my son, George Henry.

George Henry and his Padrino

I should note that Pep is part of the extended Babalu family. He's a frequent reader of the blog and his father, nicknamed "El Gallego" (who is like a father to me) and I often talk about Cuban issues. Pep handled the media relations work for two of our BUCL.org campaigns (the two that were most successful).

Now Pep and his family are in Houston. We're going to miss them. I just wanted to acknowledge him and let him know how much I value his friendship. Hopefully this blog will be a connection to Miami for him like it is to so many other Cuban-Americans spread about the fruited plain.

Thanks bro.

Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at August 18, 2008 10:29 PM

Comments

Posted by: Cucuruchu at August 19, 2008 12:38 AM

Posted by: Henry Louis Gomez at August 19, 2008 12:40 AM

Posted by: CubanKeyRat at August 19, 2008 08:06 AM

Posted by: Pepon at August 19, 2008 10:29 AM