Johnny was the personification of the friend who always opened the door for you, no matter the time or the circumstances.
HAVANA.- I met Juan González Febles —Johnny, as we all called him—more than fifteen years ago. I arrived at his house accompanied by my dear friend, now deceased, the poet and independent journalist Rogelio Fabio Hurtado.
My first experience in journalism was thanks to Digital Springthe publication Johnny created and ran. I had his guidance and the valuable help of his wife, Ana Torricella, who served as webmaster of the site, and Luis Cinothe editor.
Digital Spring He had dozens of collaborators—more than forty—among them José Antonio Fornaris and his wife Amarilys Rey, Frank Cosme, Frank Correa, Osmar Laffita, Manuel Morejón, Jorge Olivera, Victor Manuel Dominguez and Julio Aleaga, among many others. Some are no longer with us; others emigrated. For several, I do not know if they still remain in Cuba or what their fate was.
Johnny was the personification of the friend who always opened the door for you, no matter the time or the circumstances. It was amazing how, in the small space of his modest apartment in Lawton, so many of us could get together on Saturdays, when we carried our work for the weekly on flash drives. There was always a makeshift seat and a cup of coffee waiting for us.
In those meetings, everyone defended their point of view, and Johnny, with his firm character and sometimes controversial ideas, always maintained respect and listening. Digital Spring It was financed for a time by a Swedish NGO, which allowed Johnny and Ana to go weekly to the browsing room of the Swedish Embassy to upload content to the internet. They even arranged for several collaborators to have access to that room, at a time when connecting to the network was almost impossible in Cuba.
When funding ceased in 2014, Digital Spring It didn’t stop. For several years it continued to leave punctually every week, sustained by the will of its members. However, internal discrepancies ended up causing its closure.
Johnny was a leader in independent Cuban journalism. Just search for his articles on the internet to see the depth and rigor of his work. Thanks to his efforts—and Ana’s—, Digital Spring It became the first independent digital media created within Cuba, an enormous feat considering the limited resources and repressive context of those years.
For many of us, Johnny marked us forever. In my case, thanks to Digital Spring I found my way in journalism. There I met Luis Cino, head of the editorial board, who today continues to be my guide in this profession. The best thing about working with Johnny was his openness: he allowed any topic to be broached, even if it didn’t agree with the opinions expressed.
I sincerely believe that the illness that affected him in his last years—senile dementia—was a consequence of the emotional blow he suffered when he lost the support to continue his project. Seeing him afterwards, speaking incoherently, was painful. That brilliant and lucid man was fading little by little. Sometimes Febles remembered names and faces; other times, nothing. He got lost several times: once he was found inside a military unit in Santiago de las Vegas, and another time he was found in San Antonio de los Baños, dehydrated and confused.
Until the last moment, Ana Torricella was by his side. She was his wife, his friend, his inseparable companion, and without a doubt, the other indispensable half of Digital Spring.
