Álvaro does not speak but he does communicate. He does it with his eyes and through his tablet, to which his speech therapist has installed a voice assistant program that allows him to talk with his family and friends and answer all the questions necessary to know and tell his story, a story of overcoming and fighting marked by a physical and mental disability that has not prevented him from achieving his dreams. And he also listens carefully to the words that other people say around him and he refutes them, agrees or adds what he deems necessary.
Álvaro Israel Álvarez Estévez is 30 years old and is a native of Llano del Moro, a neighborhood divided between the municipalities of El Rosario and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. At birth, he suffered anoxia, a lack of oxygen that affected the motor part of his body and his speech and led to West syndrome – it owes its name to William James West, the doctor who discovered it – a rare type of epilepsy .
“My arrival in the family was hard because they did not know the world of disability. My parents’ life changed completely because they had a daughter without disabilities and it was all new for them ”. This is how he presents himself through his tablet, in which he responds quickly by typing with his left hand, because he is left-handed.
He says that Estrella, his sister, seven years older, wanted to play with him and could not because he spent a lot of time in hospitals and got angry because he did not want to be left there. She took her barbies and waited for Álvaro to finish his rehab sessions.
It was his family, and especially his mother, Loly Contreras, who moved heaven and earth in addition to hundreds of papers to school him in a special education center where he only spent six months. The psychologist advised him to change him to a primary school with boys and girls his age because his ability was greater than what he appeared to be.
Álvaro arrived until second year of ESO, then he obtained the title of administrative assistant and did a business internship at the El Rosario City Council for 15 days to demonstrate what he had learned. An experience that he does not have exactly good memories of because of how some of his co-workers treated him.
After going through an association in which he carried out workshops, outings and in which he made good friends, he spent six years in a day center which he managed to enter after facing many bureaucratic obstacles and from which he decided to leave a few months ago “because I needed something else ”.
It was there that he was asked for a job that led to the publication of his first short story La puerta silverada, edited by Punto Rojo, a mystery story that tells the journey of a family to a town that their little daughter had dreamed of but which finally did not turn out as expected. The first edition was one hundred copies and it is already on the second, which has increased to 200 copies due to demand.
He wrote it in record time: four hours the first part and the second, in two days “in which he did not get up from the computer.” He always liked to read and write and his references are Javier del Castillo and Lola Suárez, one of his teachers.
The title was the brainchild of his mother, who is tremendously proud of her son for having overcome dozens of barriers and is always trying new things. It was he who sought out the publisher and registered the story in the Intellectual Property Registry. She was taken by surprise when they contacted her from Red Point because she had given them her phone number.
Loly has taught and encouraged him to be independent and to fight for his rights. “It has not been easy because with a child parents always have fears that also hinder them,” he confesses.
Thanks to her and her husband, Álvaro always pulls forward and is not afraid of anything. His disability does not prevent him from painting in oils, training in a gym, running the Bluetrail, fluent in social media, hanging out with his friends, traveling alone and being part of the Ni Fú Ni Fá Afilarmonica. For some time now, all his efforts have been focused on futsal. On Wednesday he travels to Cartagena, Murcia, to play his first game at the national level with Dispacint, the club that he has been part of for a month although he had already been in another.
It was the coach of the previous team who proposed it. An offer that also caught her mother by surprise and which she found out when her president called her on the phone. The same thing happened with the director of the Ni Fú-Ni Fá, whom the young man met while running the Bluetrail and then contacted through social networks. He offered to be part of the murga and he did not hesitate because he always liked it. He does not miss any rehearsal.
He tells it with passion, laughing and showing the bracelet that he wears on his right wrist with the name of the group. In Carnivals he goes to bed at dawn because he watches and enjoys all the competitions.
Álvaro is in good health, as he confirmed when he received a medical examination for the federation. He has not had epileptic seizures for 25 years and the only medication he takes on a daily basis is an asthma pill.
It is completely independent. He showers, cleans and dresses himself. His family makes these daily tasks easier for him by removing added complications. Thus, instead of garters, your tennis shoes have elastic bands, just like your pants, so that you can raise and lower them more easily. He loves coffee and can drink up to seven small bars a day. In the cafeteria that we meet, they know his tastes and how he wants it: with a straw, since he cannot make the turn with the spoon although he uses the fork without problem.
In addition, he does not want to help him in anything, he wants to do everything alone. “He never wanted to be treated like a child and we do him as what he is, a 30-year-old man, with his disability and his limits, that he knows them and that is why he has no complexes,” emphasizes his mother.
His family is his great support. He is proud of his sister and his two nieces, Elena and Andrea, whose initials he has tattooed on his left arm. Also from his friends, who come to pick him up on weekends to go out, and his sports coaches, who support him in all the initiatives he undertakes. It was one of them who accompanied him on the Bluetrail. In 2019 he did two kilometers, this year four in just 20 minutes, and the next he intends to run eight. To achieve this, he trains in a gym and especially works his legs.
His greatest desire is to have a job and finish the two years until graduating from ESO. Last week he told his parents that he wanted to be a Red Cross volunteer since there I was able to work with the computer registering people. Her mother suggested that she wait, she has a too busy schedule. “Sometimes I have to put a stop to it, not because I don’t want to, but because there are many things and I am running all day,” says Loly, who has her full schedule, not only with Álvaro’s activities but with that of her two granddaughters. and book orders.
But not everything has been a bed of roses. In the middle there was some love disappointment, people who offered him their friendship to later take advantage of him and some mockery at work. However, Álvaro has managed to close those doors and as in his story, he has opened others that have allowed him to discover more pleasant things, wonderful people and defeat his disability with will, effort and without words.
