Making Hernan’s story go viral

In our own villages, towns and cities we all have a Hernan, or someone like him, but in the rush of everyday life, keep passing them by. The blind man with the tin cup, the homeless huddled in raggedy blankets, over city grates, the lost, lonely and the forlorn are sadly only fleeting moments in the lives of the perpetually purposeful and busy.

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Someone else will try to find out if there is any way to bring them in from the streets... won’t they? Thanks to Mickey Keats, a professor from the United States teaching in Panama, at least 13,700 to date now know about Hernan, who spends his days hoping for a few coins from passersby in Panama City. “If you have spent an extended amount of time in Panama City you eventually notice some of the characters that make up where we live. The paralyzed man on Via Veneto, the man with a limp that tries to sell you a rose on Via Brasil, the mother that sits with her cerebral palsy daughter on Via Israel, the man with a severe skin disease in Obarrio, just to name a few,” Mickey explains in a YouTube that Panama City resident and Canada Free Press friend Kathy Mattson hopes will go viral.

“When I see these people I always wonder how they got the way they are – what their story is – why they spend everyday in the street. Sometimes I give them my spare change or look ahead and say “no puedo hoy”. And then I keep walking, forgetting about them until our next encounter.”

Hernan’s heartrending story first grabbed Mickey’s attention in his Facebook newsfeed after a friend posted it there. “I immediately recognized the guy in the photo because I’ve seen him several time times in El Carmen. But I didn’t know anything about him,” Mickey explained. Among the countless tragedies that go by in fleeting moments on the streets of the hometowns of the world, Hernan’s is one that stands out unforgettably. Hernan stands out, not because of the way he must hover on the ground to get about, but because of a winning positive attitude that motivates him to be an inspiration to others with physical hardships to overcome. Hernan doesn’t see having to depend on the generosity of passing motorists as a reason to give up on life, but as the only way to keep food on the table for the wife, he identifies to any and all as a “beautiful woman”. Watching him at work in this YouTube makes us all want to try harder in getting by in the Vale of Tears we call life on Earth. “I didn’t know his name was Hernan, that his difficulties started from a fever when he was only two, that he came to Panama from Venezuela in 1996, and fell in love with a woman named Marquelda five years ago,” says Mickey. Hernan almost made it into the public eye a few years ago. “A few years ago someone asked Hernan if they could if they could film an interview with him and after they did, they disappeared and he was really disappointed.” So now Mickey wants to share Herman’s story through the making of a documentary: “I promised Hernan that I would do everything I could to help make a film about his life so that many people could see him and hear his motivational story. I truly believe that this will change his life and allow him to leave the streets. I am committed to making that happen.” Mickey found award winning producer/director, Frank Calo, who is committed to the project and making Hernan’s documentary a reality! They have budgeted an amount of $60,000 to write, script, shoot and edit a quality documentary on Hernan. “Hernan’s story is motivational and I believe it should be made into a documentary. Despite his circumstances he has an amazing outlook on life and wants to be an inspiration to others with physical hardships to overcome. It’s also a chance to help out one of the good characters around us in Panama City,” says Mickey, who has turned to crowd-funding to get Hernan’s story out to the world.   In this week before Holy Week, the source coming from crowd-funding may be generous. ‘And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40) If you would like to support Hernan’s documentary being made, visit THIS LINK to make a contribution. Godspeed Hernan’s story going viral on the Internet.