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Ecuadorian Immigrant Celebrated his 100th Birthday in NYC
October 25, 2021
Posted by Spectrum Noticias NY1
This Friday was a very special day for Alejandro Gomez, an Ecuadorian immigrant who celebrated his 100th birthday and, for that, he was given a very special cake. “I feel happy and content because I am in this country and you are so kind, everyone,” commented the centenarian celebrant.
Despite his age, he still has the ability to play the guitar, sing, play dominoes and even walk fast.
Alejandro was born in the Pearl of the Pacific: Guayaquil in Ecuador and emigrated to the United States in 1967: “I traveled with $15 dollars in my pocket. I arrived in Florida, I came on a company called Aerial Ecuadorian”.
Now he comes three days a week to the Guild Care Manhattan senior care program at the Lighthouse Guild. Here, seniors receive care for five hours. That’s why today about 30 seniors toasted with him and celebrated, because Alejandro has become an inspiration.
“I feel happy, because I am surrounded by ladies and gentlemen, young and old, who I see appreciate me and I appreciate them all,” says Gómez.
And between smiles, Alejandro says that the secret of his longevity is the change in his life that his faith in God brought about, because he says that it rescued him from a life of excesses. Today he continues to preach in a church: “If I earned $100 sucres, at night I would disappear from my pocket: drinking and dancing. I stopped drinking, I stopped going to cabarets, I stopped hanging out with women here and there”.
Alejandro takes out of his shirt pocket, next to his heart, the photo of his wife, his companion of more than 50 years in the United States. They both worked in a textile company and today he spends much of his time taking care of her, because she is in poor health.
Patricia Rincón, the director of the Senior Program at the Lighthouse Guild in Manhattan, comments: “Imagine a man who needs so much, having to go home and now take care of someone else who is sick. But he is so dedicated and loves her so much that it touches my heart, he is such a role model. And on this special day, Gomez says he would like to be like his grandparents: “My grandfather died at 118 years old. With 24 teeth in his jaw, and he never wore glasses until that age.”
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