The life and times of Oscar Marcos Perez-Cytron. Born Thanksgiving Day 11/22/01.   Archives << current   If you want to add something to Oscar's baby-blog, send an email to megan@alpha60.com and we can set it up so you can post...

oscar's life   Thursday, July 01, 2004 1:53 PM posted by Oscar   I´m sitting in an internet cafe in Madrid... The past weeks have been a mix of melancholy, excitement, back-breaking work, sweat, dirt, goodbyes, and mourning. The day we left Washington, June 29th, Lolo died. I had a strange premonition months ago that this would happen. So we felt very conflicted as we left, but knew that he would want us to go. Actually, he was very clear about this before he died. He called me and told me with more emotion than I had ever heard in his voice that he would kick Christian´s butt if we didn´t go. Of course he didn´t really use the words "kick butt" he had a much more poetic and powerful way of saying it that escapes me at the moment. We will miss him so much. He was such a special person. He shared so much of his thinking, culture, dignity--but always in a way that was "suave." I know he´ll always be a part of the family, even if he can´t physically be here with us. I had been telling Oscar that Lolo was sick and that this made us sad (he said "I sad too"). We talked about the cicadas and how short their lives are. After Lolo died, I sat him down and told him that Lolo had died and that he wasn't in this world anymore (no esta en este mundo). He got quiet for a minute and then said with a sigh "I know" and without missing a beat "I'm hungry". And that's just how life is, I suppose. Here are two articles written about Lolo. It's nice to know how much he touched other people's lives... Good Life Bounded By Work, Respect By JOSH POLTILOVE and SHEENA FOSTER The Tampa Tribune Published: Jun 30, 2004 TAMPA - Louis H. Perez, former maitre d' and manager for one of Ybor City's top restaurants, died Tuesday of complications from cancer. He was 81. The son of immigrant cigarmakers from Spain, Perez spent about 20 years working for Las Novedades on Seventh Avenue. Charlie Miranda, a former city councilman, worked alongside Perez as a teenager. He said Perez was a hardworking part of the city's fabric, ``one of the individuals that really put Tampa on the map.'' Rudy Mendoza worked with Perez for three years as a busboy. ``He was a real professional man. He had a lot of respect for everyone, and everybody respected him,'' Mendoza said. Perez was born in Tampa in 1922. His childhood friends in Ybor teasingly called him ``Bicicleta,'' or ``Bicycle,'' after a woman named Louisa who biked through the neighborhood. The nickname stuck. Many of Perez's longtime friends didn't know his real name, his son Louis ``Skip'' Perez said. The elder Perez was an optimist. As a teen, he was hit in the right eye by a baseball and was blind in that eye within a year. About two weeks ago, Perez told his son he had lived ``a good life.'' When his son asked why, Perez said, ``I lived for 66 years with one eye, and I never went blind.'' Perez never held a grudge, friends say. ``I was the one who threw the baseball ... and it hit Louis in the eye. He got up blaming nobody,'' Joe Benito said. ``I never saw him angry at any time. Always smiling.'' Perez left Las Novedades shortly before the business was sold in 1970, becoming manager for Banana Trading Co. at the old city docks. When that business was sold to Del Monte Fruit, he became office manager in Port Manatee. He retired in 1989. The Hillsborough High graduate, who helped build bombers during World War II, enjoyed smoking cigars and playing dominoes with friends at Centro Asturiano. ``He was an extremely hardworking man with an amazing personality,'' Skip Perez said. Supporting locals; a notable life Tampa columnist HOOPER -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail: Click here -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive By ERNEST HOOPER, Times Columnist Published June 30, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REMEMBERING LOUIS PEREZ The businesses and restaurants that define Tampa are important, but so are its people. For decades, Louis Perez helped define Ybor City. Old-time Ybor City. Former City Council member Charlie Miranda knew him as "Bicicleta," Spanish for bicycle. Perez was one of the few kids with a bicycle when they were kids, and that's how it was in Ybor. People knew you by defining characteristics instead of names. Miranda's father was known as El Cubano, so he was El Hijo del Cubano (son of the Cuban). But Miranda said what really made Louis Perez special was the way he worked to better the lives of his children. This is the legacy of all the people who came to this city to labor in cigar factories and restaurants. "Like everyone, he worked very hard for his kids and daughters and relatives to get an education," Miranda said. "With education, you could work yourself out of any hole. There was no TV during that era, no air conditioning during that era. All they knew how to do was one thing, work." The lifelong Tampa resident had two careers: first as manager and maitre d' of the popular Ybor restaurant Las Novedades, and second as a bookkeeper and city docks terminal manager for the Banana Trading Co. A veteran of World War II, Perez counted Miranda and Judge E.J. Salcines among his acquaintances and knew Monsignor Laurence Higgins when he was just "Father." When the friends he would meet for dominoes every Saturday learned he was battling cancer, they staged a tournament for him. Of course, Louis won. Yet if his four children (Skip, Pat, Kathy and Anthony) are his legacy, then I owe Louis Perez a personal debt of gratitude. Eighteen years ago, his son Anthony gave me my first job out of college, offering firm but fair guidance through those infant days at a small paper in Leesburg. Now Anthony and I are both working at the Times, hoping to do what his father did, make a better life for our kids. Said Miranda: "Individuals like Louis Perez, and there are very few left, were a part of the foundation of the city of Tampa." Louis Perez died Tuesday morning at his home. Visitation will be 10 a.m. Friday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help (1711 E 11th Ave.) followed by a funeral Mass at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Lifepath Hospice of Tampa.