EXITO Magazine, Nov.
28, 1997
By Santiago
Aroca
In a weak, breathless voice, Jorge Mas Canosa spoke his last words to his eldest son. Typically, the words of the man who had done so much to try to make Cuba free again were an exhortation for the future:
''Forward, forward, forward,'' he said. Mas Canosa, chairman of the influential Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), and a self-made multimillionaire, died at 1:46 p.m. on Sunday. He had been suffering from cancer and Paget's disease.
Mas Canosa remained in stable condition and conscious until Friday morning, when he took a final turn for the worse. His doctor Alberto Hernández told the family there was nothing more that could be done other than keep him strongly sedated and wait until the end, a source close to the family said. ''In a way, the collapse was unexpected,'' said the source, who did not wish to be identified. ''He had been doing fairly well. He was very weak, but he was conscious and he loved it when they brought the grandchildren to see him.''
Toward the end, very few outside the family saw Mas Canosa. One exception was José (Pepe) Hernández, a longtime friend and colleague who is the president of the Foundation. Last December, Mas Canosa started experiencing strong pains in his hip and difficulty walking. Shortly before Christmas, he started undergoing tests at Miami's Pan-American Hospital. In January, Hernández advised Mas Canosa to consult with the best specialists in the country, including those at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
By Spring, Mas Canosa started suffering intense pain in his joints, a condition which stopped only with his death. His doctors advised him to give up on public activities and concentrate on following his treatment. However, Mas Canosa managed a few more public appearances. During a meeting of the Radio Martí Advisory Committee, he told journalists he had Paget's disease, a degenerative disease of the bones.
On May 20, Cuban Independence Day, Mas Canosa attended a CANF meeting in Miami. Although he gave some TV interviews, he seemed more distant on that occasion. Mas Canosa gave his last public address shortly thereafter in Palm Beach, at the CANF Congress. There, he also told a small group of associates that someone might have to take his place. He noted that, in his absence, it was the responsibility of CANF vice-chairman Alberto Hernández to act as chairman, said one of the participants in the meeting.
Mas Canosa's Palm Beach appearance exhausted him. He started feeling very ill and had to be rushed back to Miami. His doctors then started an aggressive course of treatment to try to stop the spread of his cancer. Mas Canosa experienced a slight improvement as his family spent hours every day praying for his recovery. They had done the same when Mas Canosa's grandson, the son of his son Juan Carlos, had been born with a serious illness, and they believed their prayers had saved the baby.
Acompanying the Mas Canosa family in their prayers was Jorge Raul Rodríguez, a Benedictine monk who had been helped by Mas Canosa with some personal problems years before. Now a grateful Rodríguez spent hours praying with Irma Santos, Mas Canosa's wife. In the summer, Mas Canosa appeared to be responding to the treatment and his family felt more hopeful. ''We all hoped he would get better until October, when the worst came,'' said the source.
Alberto Hernández and Roberto Martín Pérez, another member of CANF, were in Chicago in October, participating in a meeting with the local branch of the Foundation when they received an urgent call from José Hernández. He told them Mas Canosa had suffered a serious relapse and had fallen into a state of semiconsciousness. Mas Canosa was taken to Pan-American Hospital, where he rallied briefly. However, Dr. Hernández told the family to prepare for the worst. After a few days, Mas Canosa started asking to be taken home.
During the last few weeks, he had to be heavily medicated to relieve his intense suffering. The cancer had already spread to his vital organs and his lungs and kidneys were bearing an ever increasing burden. At the end, his body weighed only 85 pounds.
Early last week, José Hernández conferred by phone with Jorge Mas Jr., who was in Spain on business. Given the circumstances, should CANF's annual Thanksgiving dinner go on or be cancelled, Hernández wanted to know. ''The story in The Miami Herald accusing Cuban exiles in Miami of paying for bomb attacks in Cuba had a lot to do with Mas Jr.'s decision to go on with the dinner,'' said a source close to the Mas family. ''That was the last drop in the bucket for him.'' On Friday, Mas Canosa sank into a final coma.
On Saturday at the Omni Hotel, the CANF Thanksgiving dinner went on as it had for the last 10 years, attended by some 1,000 CANF members and sympathizers. CANF spokeswoman and radio reporter Ninoska Pérez Castellón, dressed in black and teary-eyed, introduced the evening's speakers, Jorge Mas Jr., Alberto Hernández, José Hernández, and U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli, Democrat from New Jersey.
While a documentary about Mas Canosa was being shown, copies of a little book containing many of his sayings was distributed among the guests. As soon as the dinner was over, Mas Jr. hurried to his father's home and remained at his side until he died at 1:46 p.m. on Sunday. As he drove to a funeral home with two family friends to make arrangements, he could hear Cubans from all walks of life lament on the radio the death of his father, the man who had done so much to try to make Cuba free again.
Jorge Mas Canosa in Exito
Over the years, Jorge Mas Canosa granted several interviews to Exito. These are some of the things he said to us: ''I do not pay and will not pay to have Fidel Castro killed.'' ''A lot of people don't like the fact that Cubans are winners.'' ''I've always earned my living by working.'' ''Yes, it's true I was a milkman and that I sold shoes and that I worked in a hotel in Miami Beach. Fidel Castro laughs a lot because he has never worked in his life.''
''Our victory in the suit against The New Republic is a triumph against those who engaqge in witch hunts, against those who attack freedom of expression.'' ''I don't agree with Jimmy Carter but I went to Atlanta to speak to him because I like to talk about Cuba with intelligent people.'' ''Fidel Castro's propaganda apparatus has copied the tactics of Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. They repeat a lie a thousand times thinking that will make it true.''
''I debated with Ricardo Alarcón on television because I have absolutely no fear of talking to them. By now, the Cuban authorities are covered by a thick coat of blood, repression and misery. What could they say?'' ''Until I set foot on a free Cuba, my greatest joy is to hold my grandchildren in my arms.'' ''Money is important, of course, but it's better to be married to a woman who adores you. The best thing in my life is my wife.''
''When I was in the middle of the stock exchange, ringing the bell that starts the trading day to announce that Mastec stock was being traded, I said to myself: ''Thank-you God for letting Cubans come so far in this country.'' ''It's very simple. The Cuba I want is a nation with democracy in which everyone will be able to pray to his God in complete freedom. I don't think that's asking too much.''
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