Journalist Gerardo Alfaro Passes Away

Host of the show La oreja (Televisa), Gerardo Alfaro, passed away Monday afternoon after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage caused by the lymphatic cancer that took him away from the small screen a few months ago. He was 34.

The Mexican reporter was undergoing chemotherapy, and had just a few days ago received encouraging test results that indicated he was getting better. According to Mexican newspaper El Universal, Alfaro learned that he had cancer after being diagnosed as anemic, the result of his dietary efforts to look good in front of the cameras.

Many Mexican celebrities attended Alfaro's wake in Mexico City. “If anyone wanted him to get cured it was me, because my son couldn't overcome this damn illness,” actress Carmen Salinas told Televisa Espactáculos.

His colleague Claudia Lizaldi expressed what she learned from the journalist: “I'm thankful to Gerardo for a lot, especially everything he learned during these last days and taught to us. You can always reflect on what you do and change, think differently and make yourself better. And I hold on to that, to an embrace he gave us on Friday.”

Alfaro began his career as a scriptwriter and reporter for FM Núcleo Radio Mil in Mexico City. He worked for TV Azteca as a reporter on programs like El ojo del huracán, Con un nudo en la garganta and Caiga quien caiga. He later joined Televisa as the host of shows like Con todo, La oreja and the radio show Por la oreja.