Elis Pacheco and Mrs. Maria Elena de Pacheco, son and widow of the world-famous Dominican musician Johnny Pacheco, who died on February 15, narrated the last moments of the creator of the sauce while dying next to them. and other relatives in a New Jersey hospital.
“We were watching the football playoff game and he couldn’t breathe well,” the son recounted.
“He had a lot of fluid in his throat,” he added.
He said he is very proud of his father who was a legend. “He always put things in perspective, humble and reserved with his private life and lived with his successes.”
He added that unfortunately after his death is when some have realized all his successes as a musician.
“I’m proud to be recognized,” Elis added.
For her part, the widow said that her last moments with her husband were very quiet thanks to God.
“I was lucky to be able to be with him, talk to him, kiss him and hug him, asking him not to leave my side,” he narrated.
“I also asked him to guide me and let me know that was what he wanted, but I think everything has come very alive,” he said.
Pacheco’s friend for decades and promoter in the media of the sauce, the Dominican Eugenio Pérez, recalled that the master asked him in life that when he died he be buried like the popes, with his shoes on.
“He also told me that in his epitaph he wanted us to write: here lies Johnny Pacheco, against his will,” Perez added.
The son and widow talked about Pacheco’s last moments with Dominican reporter on Univision’s First Impact program Daneida Polanco during a vigil in memory of the victim on Sunday in Plaza Les Americas in Upper Manhattan and yesterday Tuesday while they buried the remains of the deceased at the Frank Campbell Funeral & Crematory Services in midtown Manhattan.