Javier Firpo
01/16/2021 2:34 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 01/16/2021 15:01
Virginia Pérez surprised locals and strangers when her face became known exactly twelve months ago.
The young woman, then 17 years old, went to help Fernando Báez Sosa, who was lying on the sidewalk, seriously injured after a cowardly beating suffered at the exit of the Le Brique disco.
He gave him heart massages and chest compressions to try to revive him
, while desperately exclaiming "Go crazy, go, go, wake up, go, don't leave us, che, go!".
In that early morning of January 18 in Villa Gesell, Virginia's physical effort for endless twenty minutes was in vain.
Fernando's important build, added to
the prevailing tension and her own nerves, left her exhausted, powerless
.
However, from that moment, his figure gained such public notoriety that, as the weeks passed, that experience to the limit and the media exposure
ended up taking its toll
.
"For a year that
my life changed in every way
. From my mood, through stressful situations, panic attacks, even fear of going out on the street. I noticed my physical and psychological changes in raw flesh, but I also felt upset and obsessive.
I did not recognize myself, I was alert and very paranoid
that nothing would happen to anyone on the street, "describes Virginia, who in November 2019 had taken the first aid course at the Red Cross.
Virginia Pérez (18).
After the experience with what happened to Fernando "I began to notice my physical and psychological changes, but I also felt upset and obsessive. I did not recognize myself, I was alert and very paranoid."
After that January 18 and dozens of interviews, Virginia asked her mother Flavia to return to Buenos Aires.
The family planned to stay until the end of the month, but "the situation was becoming unbearable,
Fernando's face, all injured, appeared to me asleep and awake,
" so they returned three days after the murder.
Needing to count and do catharsis, the interviews continued on different television channels.
Pérez says that in February, before the pandemic was declared, on a birthday, he witnessed the discomfort of a friend, some stomach upset.
"I became alert, I reacted quickly, I went to his aid and
took from my backpack latex gloves and a first aid kit.
Of course, it was too much for the smaller picture ... and I was the object of laughter and ridicule. No one understood how and why I had the gloves and the medicine cabinet in my backpack ".
That situation led her to start a therapy that continues to this day
.
After the media raid, Virginia emphasizes that
she felt very harassed on the networks
, a channel where she was accused of "wanting to gain fame by going to all the programs" and "
that I had made a mistake when it came to attending Fernando
, questioning what I had done wrong and had hurt him. "
There were too many shocks for a 17-year-old girl who saw the fight from in front of the disco Le Brique and who came out quickly to help.
The environment had her between eyebrows "what had me destroyed, I
did not eat, I vomited, I felt guilty
because I believed I was doing everything wrong".
Since she went through the experience of doing CPR on Fernando in Villa Gesell, Virginia has carried latex gloves and a first-aid kit in her backpack.
Virginia was involved in doubts but explains that she accepted the interviews to spread her message:
the importance of young people taking the first aid course.
A year later, Virginia accepted this hand in hand with
Clarín
- to whom she had given her first testimony - but assures that she will not be exposed again
.
"As I had been criticized so much for the way I helped Fernando, I did
a new cardiopulmonary resuscitation course and added another one as a lifeguard.
I told the specialists what I had experienced and how I had acted with Fernando and they told me that I had perfect state, which returned my soul to my body. "
Weeks passed after the crime and Virginia decided to silence herself, have a more introspective attitude and try to resume her life as best she could.
She was determined to start a law degree at the UBA in 2020, but three days after the debut of the virtual classes, she took a radical turn and enrolled at the UADE but
to study audiovisual production
.
"As I would like to live abroad in the future, I sensed that the legal profession would retain me longer than I would like."
And suddenly that unexpected click found her back on her axis, enjoying the study and
finding acting work almost without trying
.
How?
"When they invited me to some programs, while I was waiting to go on the air I was amazed by the exciting life behind the scenes. I couldn't believe everything that happened there, it was another world, and to myself
I was thinking about wanting to do something related to that activity.
That's why I started to study but I also got in touch with people from the environment ".
Virginia made a 180 degree turn, switched advocacy to audiovisual production and is making her first steps in acting, with small roles in two series.
Those contacts paid off and a few months ago he
began to act as an extra, have qualified bowling and even small roles
in "Sessions" and the second season of "Little Victoria", two of the very few series that are being produced in times of coronavirus .
"The work is exhausting, twelve hours a day, but I am very grateful to be taking these first steps. I am discovering that I like acting,
I love the environment and I had a couple of encounters with China Suárez
(protagonist of 'Sesiones') , a lovely girl, super containing ".
Virginia does not hesitate that all this unexpected turn has its genesis on January 18, 2020. "Of course, all this revelation is from Fernando and the strange thing is that I started to feel terrible and
wondered how I was living a moment of well-being
from all this. I got angry with myself, cried, insulted me because I had found something positive in the middle of the drama, with which
I felt guilty, a bad person and it seemed unforgivable
. I told my psychologist and her He told me that mine was a clear example of resilience. "
Virginia Pérez a year ago, in Villa Gesell, with her mother Flavia Antonelli Photo: Fernando de la Orden
Walking steadily again, feeling convinced of this new life was giving her back the not-so-distant security that Virginia always had, however,
the arrival of the first anniversary of the murder makes her stumble
.
"I can't believe it is about to be a year, when I go back to that dreadful night, it seems to me that it was a few days ago. Everything is fresh, from the fight inside the bowling alley, where I was, until the continuation on the sidewalk", review.
If this year has served him well, Virginia wonders, it is being able to confirm and ratify his correct attitude, which could have been another.
"
As one more curious of the many there were at that moment
, taking a photo and leaving as if nothing had happened, but what was happening was not indifferent to me. And many times
I wondered if what I had done was enough,
because doubts They tortured me, they wouldn't let me sleep. I remember holding Fer's hand, he wasn't breathing, I took his pulse and I couldn't tell if I felt him or if it was mine, I was nervous. "
When the ambulance arrived, which took about half an hour, they asked Virginia if she was a nurse, she said no and asked her to leave.
"When I crossed Avenida 3 and I saw that Fernando was lying down, there was one of the friends who tried to help him but
shouted for someone who knew first aid.
I was determined but the friend's desperation encouraged me," explains this neighbor from Coghlan who lives with her mother, grandmother and sister.
Gaunt and exhausted, this is how Virginia Pérez was two days after the murder of Fernando Báez Sosa in Villa Gesell Photo: Fernando de la Orden
From that moment, Virginia not only began to be part of the news but also became involved and with the passage of time she followed with a magnifying glass each progress of the investigation and what the situation of the accused rugbiers was like.
"The social pressure was tremendous and I think that and the insistence of the media led to those guys being quickly imprisoned.
For me, all ten are guilty or accomplices, because there they were all hitting or haranguing
. I only ask that they have the punishment that they deserve, because they never expressed regret; what's more, they tried to dirty another person (Pablo Ventura) without caring about anything ".
He regrets not having had the opportunity to hug Graciela and Silvino, Fernando's parents, but at least he could do it with Julieta Rossi, the girlfriend, who on January 21 sent a tweet to a then troubled Virginia.
"
I know what you did, one day I'll thank you
."
And they met on February 18 in Congress, when the first month of the assassination was completed.
"I was very nervous,
I did not know what to say to him, he had even written me a script so as not to screw up
... We finally hugged and no more was needed."
Everything I experienced was like a tsunami, Virginia graphs, who reflects: "He finished training me as a person, I
matured suddenly and brought me a lot of collateral effects that I am trying to overcome,
" he sums up the consequences of witnessing such an aberration.
"Many times I wonder
what would have happened to me if I did not go to Le Brique that night
or if I had not left the bowling alley. How would my relationship with the Fernando case be? I have no answers, what I do know is that Fernando did I will have it in my retinas for life and I will always carry it in my heart ".
GS
