PhoTortul 2712
“Hugo Bagnasco, for 50 years of medicine”
punch 66
December 20, 2022
This December 21, in the middle of the summer solstice, a very special inhabitant of this Villa-City is preparing to celebrate his 50th birthday with the profession he passionately embraced: that of a doctor.
I ring the bell in his office and read the majolica that is attached to the wall:
Punilla 66. Dr. Hugo Bagnasco
…and a ‘drawing’ of its emblem element.
He attends me with a serene smile and the same emblem element hanging from his neck.
Photo rooms:
Click… click…
And a talk comes out, long, intense, deep, varied… at times humorous, in some passages very emotional… and it is recorded on video, as I always do, for another time.
Hugo Oscar Bagnasco was born 70-odd years ago in San Martín, in the first ring of the suburbs, outside General Paz (with which he does not accept being called Buenos Aires), but at 10 pirulos he was doing mischief with his gang for these mountainous and wild lares.
He is a well-traveled and educated guy, with plenty of destinations in his passport, which is why he takes more courage when he tells me; “Villa Carlos Paz is the best place in the world to live and develop”.
A quick review of his school life, he says that, from the white coat of the Carlos Paz school, he went to ‘La Secu’ in the ‘Hache’ Porto, at the dawn of the IES (with an S) and from there to the UNC to study medicine. Specialty in cardiology.
50 years is a lot. I tell him and add, when he tells me his age, that I see him as ‘cromadazo’, as they say in Córdoba. Perhaps it is the healthy life and the glass of malbec (which he assures me as Favaloro) that is more than allowed by ‘giorno’.
“All the pleasures of life are allowed, in their fair dose.” (Sic)
He formed, Don Hugo, a beautiful Family with the well-remembered Alicia Gigli, with whom he had Roberto, ‘His son the doctor’, and his daddy’s little jewels, Carolina and Alicia.
From time to time Life hits hard and One even wants to get angry with God, for the injustice of losing what is dearest to them.
Years following the terrible loss of his wife…
“The saddest moment of my Life”… Love knocked on the door once more, but it sounded ‘in English’. When he was taking conversation lessons with Claudia Pasquetti, Shakespeare’s language bonded with them like his famous Verona lovebirds. From those ‘conversations’, to going to the movies in English… and beyond… to unite his life with Claudia’s and with Ella’s three children: Agostina, Julieta and Gonzalo.
A lover of the Villa, he knows its history and recounts its defects as if he were a patient. He analyzes the social and the political with acuteness… perhaps learning something from Ñato Gigli, although without getting involved in party lists. He recognizes his colleagues, analyzes Public Health, his beloved Funes Hospital, Sayago, the San Roque clinic, the beloved Dazza & Mantegazza pairing… the ‘Negro’ Conde… his doctor’s son and colleague… and so much more .
I ask him if love is found in the heart… and he, who knows so much regarding that muscle, sarcastically eludes me. He makes me say ‘THIRTY THREE’, he takes my pulse… and he smiles at me once more.
That December 21, 1972, he went to take a test with his friends Sergio Metrebián, and Rubén Bagur in the Fiat 600, and although the exam date was officially the 26th (or 27th)… They brought things forward, before the bread sweet of that Christmas. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t match the diploma on the wall. Does not matter.
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It’s 50 years of medical. A ball of time. Shall I tell him once more?!?
Doc Bagnasco… it’s chrome!!!