2023-08-19 01:59:12
The heart of the north of Neuquén was squeezed this Friday.
Of pain.
Now, at 9:00 p.m., here in Las Ovejas, the municipal Sports Center, more than 400 neighbors greet each other, hug and cry near the coffin where the remains of the mayor Vicente Godoy, who was 50 years old, rest.
There are all the mayors of the neighboring towns, all of them. Also from Zapala, Picún Leufú, Chos Malal. Plus the governor of the province Omar Gutiérrez; the provincial director of Tourism, Marisa Focarazzo and more officials.
Tradition indicates in these parts that it will be watched over all night. “There are still neighbors in the fields who are just finding out and want to come and say goodbye to him,” a neighbor told “Río Negro”.
She, a retired teacher and friend of Godoy’s family, shares that beyond the political differences she had with Godoy “he was my great friend.”
“I am a friend of his wife, I taught his children, I shared a thousand hours talking regarding life with him. He lived as he wanted and died in his law. As a leader we never had anyone like him. It leaves a void that today shakes us to the point of anguish, ”he says.
“The people are very sorry. We can’t believe it,” says Luis Fuente, who has lived here for six years. Rodolfo Sepúlveda, also present at this wake, agrees and adds that “I don’t know how we are going to overcome this dismay. It will be difficult. He represented our expectations.”
Antolín Muñoz, a close friend of Godoy, cries. An older man remembers that “he always gave me gifts. Bah, you didn’t just do them to me, he did them to everyone. When he traveled across the country or abroad he would always bring a gift to each of us. He was 50 years old but he was like a father to us.
“I have a house thanks to him”, points out another present in this space where many remain seated, crying in solitude.
In 2019 Godoy had a pre-infarction and might be treated on time. And in 2021 his friend Waldo Medel died, which according to tonight’s testimonies “affected him deeply.”
Even so, they emphasize that he took care of himself, that he did sports, that he ate healthy. That he was unstoppable. “He was in all the details of each one of us,” they insist on remarking. He was an enthusiast of management and public affairs, they say.
This weekend he was going to lead the Sabores de la Cordillera del Viento event, with his town as the main stage; In this way, oil the engines for a great gastronomic meeting for next October of a binational nature. She had already gone to Chile to interview chefs to bring them to this scene.
At the same time, he was refining the search for financing to build a Center for Culture and Theater and a hotel for the grandparents. He did not like the word geriatric and since loneliness and the sorrows of the elderly worried him, he was determined to create a hotel on a 5-hectare property, where the residents might continue farming and doing the things they had done all their lives. .
Dora Muñoz was the last neighbor that Godoy spoke to this Friday. “Since yesterday was my birthday and she mightn’t come to greet me, she did it today at 8 in the morning, before going to see her mother,” she talks to “Río Negro” as best she can. Dora is a cheese producer and Godoy had invited her to participate in “Flavors of the Cordillera del Viento”: they fine-tuned details for her presentation and incidentally she asked him for some coriander to cook at the event.
They chatted for a long time and immediately the president returned to his office.
He did not feel quite well and asked for mate cocido from one of his assistants.
Then what is already known happened.
“If something ever happens to me, you put on the best clothes, you know,” he told María Luisa, his wife, who along with their children received hugs from their neighbors throughout the day. And she complied: she put on the most beautiful coat and did not move a step away from her life partner.
The night is cold. The moon illuminates everything. And although the heart of the north of Neuquén does not give more than how squeezed it is, the crowd of Las Ovejas claimed that “we will honor, starting tomorrow, the legacy that Vicente left us.”
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