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Nelson Castro and his thousand lives: witness to the fall of the Twin Towers, pianist in the war in Ukraine and seller of cannelloni in the US.

2023-03-21T15:52:09.116Z


At the age of 67, the host of 'Telenoche', TN and Radio Rivadavia reviews his years as a doctor, his decision to be a journalist and his love for soccer and cooking.


Nelson Castro is the one man band, in more ways than one.

And he has the ability to make his day seem like a thousand hours:

he plays between 45 and 50 minutes of piano daily

, since January he took on the challenge of hosting the legendary Telenoche with Dominique Metzger for thirteen (the most important challenge of his career), all in the afternoons he is on

Radio Rivadavia

and on Saturday nights he continues with

El corresponsal, 

on TN.

He is a journalist (specialized in sports and politics), radio and television host, neurologist (has not practiced since '94) and musician.

Also, among other things,

he cooks, does the shopping and writes books

.

Owner of a prodigious memory, everything for him is a story that deserves to be told.

-He graduated as a journalist before being a doctor and he worked first as a sports journalist, but he is also a musician and could have been a conductor.

-Yes, I could... I was a concert guitarist.

Nelson Castro is a journalist, doctor and musician, among many other things.

Photo: Andres D'Elia

Why did you finally choose journalism?

I've always liked it, ever since I was a kid.

I went to the Nuestra Señora de Luján Institute, in Villa Pueyrredón, and there was a school magazine called

Surcos

, which was edited by Professor José Rómulo Álvarez, and that's where I started.

Do you remember what was the first thing you wrote?

-Yes, when I was 11 years old I wrote a note, not about sports, but

about the school year that we had finished

.

He had been chosen as a flag bearer and then I told how my year had been.

Later, as I really liked sports, I started with articles on school sports activities;

I did it all through high school until I was 17 years old.

- Do you think that your destiny was already defined, even though you decided to study Medicine at the same time?

Nelson Castro, with his teacher of First Superior, Mr. Opeso, Nuestra Señora de Luján school, Villa Pueyrredón, year 1962.

-When I was a boy

I had my vocations very defined, fortunately

.

He already knew that he was going to study journalism and medicine, which always generated the: "How are you going to do two careers?"

And, in that sense, both my mom and dad always supported me and trusted that I was going to be able to face that effort.

The choice of journalism

-But, what is it that decides you to stay alone in journalism, after working for many years also as a doctor?

-The evolution of life.

There was a time when the journalistic career took off and the possibility of continuing to practice medicine was very difficult.

-Because you were already famous?

-

Notoriety contaminates the practice of medicine

and I observed that people came to see the famous, really.

The episode that changed my life, from a medical-journalistic point of view, was Menem's illness.

- The carotid?

Nelson Castro, as a doctor, watching a case with Dr. Roberto Herrera

-Yes, the carotid, about which I had very good information because the person who operated on Menem, Professor Juan Carlos Parodi, had been my instructor when I was doing the neurological specialty in Cleveland.

That allowed me to know what was going on in full detail.

And it had an enormous impact, because it also happened on the day that he was going to

Hora key ,

Mariano Grondona

's program

, which was at its peak, and having given the precise information minutes before the president's doctor Alejandro Tfeli left to Saying that what I had said had happened made my request for a medical consultation increase fivefold in a matter of months.

-Both in your office and in the hospital?

-Yeah.

I was in the Syrian Lebanese hospital and in Santojanni and people asked about me: “Does Castro work here?”

And that created an awkward situation.

A great teacher of medicine, Professor Nicolás Lavalle, told me: “

Nelson, you will not be able to continue with both careers

;

you do political journalism and that generates controversies.

One day you are going to have a difficult medical issue, you are going to make a mistake like everyone else and they are going to use it against you”.

It was sage advice I received in 1994, almost 30 years ago.

-What a strong decision, it is difficult to give up passions.

-Yes, but I am still studying medicine, I am still very up-to-date and if they ask me to see a patient to give an opinion of support or guidance from time to time, I do so.

Supportive Parents and the Twin Towers

Nelson Castro, receiving an international award for the first time at the New York Festival, in 1992.

His parents were middle class...

-Yeah.

My dad, a carpenter;

and my mom, a housewife.

-Beyond the fact that you were proud of your journalistic achievements, how did you make your decision to give up medicine, taking into account the "M'hijo el dotor" thing?

-They understood my decision and in the context that I made it, and what came after gave meaning to all of that.

Because

they got to see my entire career

.

Both died in 2018, they left together, in the sense that one's life ended and the other's ended.

60 years of marriage!

So go figure.

And I thank life that allowed me to take care of them until the last minute of their lives.

-What was the most shocking news you gave or the one that moved you the most?

-From the point of view of the impact of being faced with something unthinkable, the attack on the Twin Towers, on September 11, 2001. I was twenty blocks away... I had gone to give a conference and the first call I received from The radio (La Red) went to tell me that there was a fire in one of the towers.

Between that call and my going on the air, twenty minutes passed;

That's why

I broadcast the crash of the second plane live

.

Impact like that, of an unexpected thing, is the maximum.

Now,

impact as a dramatic, tragic and cruel event, the coverage of Ukraine

, without a doubt.

Nelson Castro, in the coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.

-And in the middle, the beauty of music with you playing the piano on the border.

-Yes... Today when I see it, it gives me a double emotion and seeing the emotion that it generated in the people of that moment, is one of the things that moves me the most.

That and the message that Magdalena

(Ruiz Guiñazú)

sent me : "I'm looking at you and I'm crying."

It happened spontaneously.

There was a piano and I played it.

-Didn't you do it unconsciously thinking about the news show, playing the piano before the refugees in Medyka, the Polish city closest to the Ukraine?

-No, I did it because I felt like playing the piano.

I see the piano and the boy who had brought it (the German pianist Davide Martello) and I asked him: "Will you let me play?"

"Yes, with pleasure", he told me.

And then people began to gather and I didn't even know they were filming me, so much so that a team from Canal 12 from Córdoba films it, not my colleagues, so I was far from imagining what that would generate.

-What pieces did you choose to play?

-At the border I touched a miniature by Scharwenka and a work by Schumann.

And in the destroyed house, when I returned for Christmas, Chopin's Prelude Number 20.

A young Nelson Castro, next to his piano.

He plays 45-50 minutes a day.

-Sings?

-No, I'm bad at singing.

I sang in choirs and I would love to study, because I have a good record, but I don't have time right now.

-And the guitar?

-I play less than I should and would like to, but I do play the piano every day, 45 or 50 minutes.

It is an irrepressible need that I have...

I

don't do therapy

, but sometimes before starting the programs or the news, for two or three minutes I remember some of the orchestra conducting works that I study and I conduct it mentally.

That relaxes me in a positive way.

So the guys always see me go through the motions and they'll say, "What's this one doing?"

Football and sports journalism

Nelson Castro interviewing Diego Maradona

-What other hobbies do you have or can you afford?

-Read fiction, the last one was

La tabla de Flandes

, by

Pérez Reverte

.

And I love watching soccer, although I no longer go to the pitch in Argentina.

I am a very soccer fan and obviously I saw the World Cup, but without any cabal;

I was convinced that we were going to win.

I am no longer one of suffering from matches, I did suffer when I was a boy.

I am from Independiente and the last time I suffered was at 15, on July 27, 1970, when Independiente won the Metropolitan Championship in a dramatic match, 3-2 against Racing.

I never knew why I'm from Independiente

, because there was no one in my family, we didn't even live in Avellaneda and my dad was from Chacarita.

The last time I went to a court in Argentina was on December 27, 1983 with him.

It was also the last game I played as a sports journalist, the day Chacarita was promoted to Primera A.

How were you doing as a sports journalist?

-Very good, and I liked it a lot, but I understood that it was a complete cycle that began on March 11, 1975 on radio Del Pueblo, with Horacio Irañeta, Ricardo Arias, Carlos Parnisari and Edgardo Gilabert, first-class people.

I was lucky to work with Fioravanti, Yiyo Arangio, Ricardo Arias, Raúl Fernández... Great journalists and excellent people, they opened the first door for me.

Your references

Nelson Castro, together with one of his journalistic references, Magdalena Ruiz Guiñazú, and the actress Martha Bianchi.

-Those are your references in sports journalism, what are they in politics?

-It was always Magdalena (Ruiz Guiñazú), a great friend and a great advisor.

Mariano Grondona

was also very generous with me.

-Which are your references in music?

-So many... Of course among the people who taught me a lot: my teacher Roberto Imbroggiano, Ferruccio Marzan and José Carli, I learned so much music with him: composition, counterpoint, harmony.

And

Daniel Barenboim

taught me conceptual things about music in its philosophical dimension, as well as his artistic talent.

-And in medicine?

-I had three teachers, the professors Nicolás Lavalle, Horacio Ronco and José Carlos Fernández.

Not only did they know a lot about medicine, but they gave

a humanistic approach to the profession, responsibility,

patient care, application to study, obsessive work in order to see and experience the patient's problem.

The man who sold his cannelloni

Nelson Castro now lives in Recoleta, but continues to shop in Villa Urquiza, his neighborhood.

Photo: Andrés D'Elia

-In that neighborhood live?

-Now in Recoleta, but I lived in Villa Urquiza for many years, and

I go to the neighborhood to do the shopping at the businesses that I always went to

.

I don't give up on that or crazy.

Firstly, because journalistically it is very useful to see what is happening on the street, and secondly, because it prevents one from locking into character.

-He does the shopping.

Do you know how to cook?

-And very good!

I don't have time to do it, but I cook homemade pasta.

-Noodles, ravioli, gnocchi...?

-Yes, I do everything myself, my mother taught me and I thank her because she cooked wonderfully.

She also

taught me to wash, iron and sew, and I do it with great pleasure

.

-He's the perfect candidate!

In the hypothetical case that he invited me to eat, what would he surprise me with?

-With cannelloni!

I make the pancakes and then the filling with chard or spinach, white cheese, Parmeggiano, minced meat, a little aubergine, pepper, pâté and ricotta.

It's my mom's original recipe.

-Didn't Nelson put the touch on it?

Nelson Castro and Dominique Metzger, his partner in conducting Telenoche.

-No.

And it was very funny because when I lived in the United States, I once cooked in a house and liked it so much that there was word of mouth and they began to order me.

So every 15 days I cooked and I earned a few dollars!

-Nelson cannelloni!

-Yeah!

And with white sauce.

Is there an entry for that?

-The entrance can be very classic cooked or raw ham with cheese and carrot pudding with broccoli comes out very well.

And for dessert: homemade flan, bread pudding or pastafrola.

-If he had proposed it, today he would also be a columnist in a cooking program.

-Could!

Ha ha ha.

What fun!

-I read that he was about to marry a doctor in the United States.

-Yes, but she wasn't a doctor, she was an accountant, and I was about to get married, yes, of course.

Nelson Castro likes to cook.

He came to sell cannelloni in the US without meaning to, just because his friends liked them.

Photo: Andres D'Elia

Have you ever regretted it?

-I would have loved it.

She also worked as an economic journalist, that's how we met.

But she didn't show up, they are things in life... We continue to see each other as friends, I met her husband and her family... She died of Covid.

How is your family made up today?

-My brother Daniel Guillermo, is a carpenter like my father, and my two nephews: Yamila, is 37 years old and is an accountant, and Daniel Federico, 32, who was a soccer player, came to play in the River reserves, but later he had injuries and I can't go on

-Did you also try out in a club?

-Yeah.

I played soccer at school and when I was 12 we won an internal championship and they offered me a tryout.

-Was he the best?

-Mmm, that's what I thought because I scored a lot of goals.

They called me for a test where Parque Sarmiento is now;

I played in a team for 15 minutes and after the person in charge saw me he told me: “Kid, that's it, yours is like this: from the lime line to the outside as far as possible”.

The one who saw me was right!

It was a tremendous kick.

Ha ha ha.

Nelson Castro, the night he won his Martín Fierro de oro for his journalistic work on cable, in 2016.

-Besides this, what other important things went wrong?

-

We all have things that didn't work out for us

.

In '93 when I was about to sign my first television contract, the manager of that channel saw me in the meeting room and told me: "No, dear, you cannot work in television with those scars, forget it."

And he broke the contract.

And life wanted that the following year that same person hired me.

And I tell it not to have a superhero attitude, but to encourage others: we all have failures.

Success is precisely in overcoming failure.

-You returned between quotes from death when you were a baby.

Did your parents experience this in such a way that it influenced the way they treat you or how you are raised?

-No.

I had a life like any other boy, despite the fact that

the first years of my childhood were hard

(he had gangrenous erysipelas),

I have seven operations, five were within 15 days of being born to five years

.

My mom and dad were exceptional and I thank them, because they didn't take me as handicapped, they didn't try to overprotect me and they allowed me to be free.

Telenoche driving

Nelson Castro and Dominique Metzger, the host couple of Telenoche.

-When you were called to host

Telenoche

, what went through your head?

-It was shocking, because I had just arrived from Ukraine and I was going to be the replacement for Diego Leuco and Luciana Geuna with Dominique (Metzger) in January, so I didn't know anything about what had happened, Diego's resignation and then Luciana's .

I still remember the conversation with them on the last day of the war, when they told me: "Nelson, run because we see flashes of a missile behind you."

So it was a surprising thing, but demonstrative that one in life has to be open to challenges, always thinking that life can surprise you.

Why did you say yes?

-And why say no?

It really was a huge challenge and it would have been against my nature to say no to challenges.

When

Telenoche

came out , there were other projects that we were working on with the channel, which of course were put on hold.

-He was born in the media as a radio bug and although today he is a TV man he never left his first love.

-I'm happy on the radio!

(Rivadavia) And I am very happy with the team that accompanies me in

Chronicle of an announced afternoon

: Ignacio Ortelli, Amelia Troisi, Ariel Tarico, Alejandra Gallo, Leticia Funes, very good people, aside from good professionals.

Sometimes in this medium he is in the stereotype that everything is screaming, hysteria... That is finished as such and it is very good.

You have to create teams, where those of us with the greatest responsibility show the other that we are interested in what he does and what happens to him.

-He's like a doctor.

-You never lose that, you know?

-April 5 turns 68 years old, what do you want?

-Health and to be able to continue living with my life as up to now, for new dreams that I have and many.

Nelson's five missions (and a yapa)

Nelson Castro in Chernobyl, one of the journalistic coverages that impacted him the most.

“Sin duda Ucrania, las dos veces que fui están en la cabeza. Después está Chernóbil (lo pronuncia así), fue en el 2019 y fue movilizante por el impacto de la gente y por lo que el ser humano le puede hacer al otro. Las dos coberturas en Venezuela, también en el 2019, fueron muy difíciles, porque entrar y salir fue muy difícil y trabajar fue peligroso... Ecuador, ese mismo año", rememora Nelson.

Y sigue: "Por supuesto, la cobertura de las Torres Gemelas, eso me abrió el camino, porque además la ciudad se cerró y terminé siendo el único periodista argentino de radio y televisión en el lugar, y eso fue muy fuerte”.

-¿Alguna vez temió por su vida?

-No.

I am very believer.

And I feel that God protects me, I feel it.

No one goes to those places against his will.

And I am not brave, and it does not mean that I am not cautious, but

at no time was I afraid

.

Nelson Castro delivers his book "The Health of the Popes" to Pope Francis, in the Vatican, in 2021. Photo Víctor Sokolowicz

-Among so many correspondent missions, do you remember any that are a little more pleasant?

-The 50 years of the arrival of man on the moon, that was fun.

And pleasantly afterwards (he thinks, drums his fingers on the table) the papal trips were a very nice experience, with the Pope we went to Rio Janeiro, Israel, Palestine, Cuba and the United States.

WD

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All news articles on 2023-03-21

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