MIAMI.- The graphic artist Cuban Victor Alfonso -creator of the character Yesapin Garcia and the series Dany and the Club of the boars, among other works of animation – died this Monday – July 8 – in MiamiThe unfortunate event was confirmed by Alfonso’s wife and local media on the island.
“A lot of light for your soul. Love, you were my companion, my love and my friend. I love you,” wrote Claudia Elizabeth Ruz Garcia on Facebook, showing a black background as a sign of mourning.
In accordance with CiberCuba, Victor Alfonso died in Miami where he was undergoing treatment for cancer that he had been suffering from for several years.
“Victor, who was not only a prominent audiovisual producer but also a member of the 27-N movement, arrived in Miami thanks to a humanitarian visa to undergo treatment for chondrosarcoma, a type of cancer that was diagnosed in 2018 in Cuba. The filmmaker underwent a grade three hemipelvectomy and radiotherapy, but despite radical treatments, the cancer returned at the beginning of 2021 and, in March, he underwent another operation, this time with complex reconstructions again due to surgical accidents,” he explained in an interview upon his arrival in the United States,” the media published on its website.
In an interview I gave to Cubanet From his home on the island, Victor Alfonso explained how he was diagnosed with the terminal illness.
“I feel like a presence, a bulge that is growing, pushing the internal organs. The danger is when the tumor goes to grade four and begins to metastasize, that is, to other organs, and then it would no longer be just a tumor in that location, which is the pelvis, but I would have to deal with several tumors,” said the artist in 2021.
“My illness was diagnosed in 2018. I had been showing symptoms since 2017, I went to hospitals for tests, no one knew what was happening, but they found out what it was in 2018 and that same year I underwent my first operation… I went through the recovery stage,” he added.
About Victor Alfonso
Born in the province of Cienfuegos (southern coast of Cuba), Victor Alfonso Cedeo was one of the most unique Cuban animators of recent generations. His work in the comics and animation industry began at a very young age when he was serving in the military on the island.
“I started making comics in Cienfuegos, I’m from the province of Cienfuegos. While I was in the military, I collaborated making comics for a political newspaper that came out every three months. I ended up publishing a comic book and then I realized that I felt a little limited (because) I needed to get the stories out more frequently, I felt that I wanted to move to another format, the audiovisual. From the comic I began to develop these characters at school, based a bit on personal experiences and experiences of friendships, with very Cuban situations and what happens to teenagers in schools,” said the artist in the interview for Cubanet.
“The hardest part is that you have the desire to do things, but you’re alone; so, you have to go door to door, asking friends for advice, learning here, learning there. It’s a project that belongs to you, a project that others don’t identify with, you have to win them over, get them to join in, but when you start to reach a certain level of professionalism, it’s difficult to find people to work with you because they all have different visions,” added Victor Alfonso.