“I realized that I had dedicated myself so much my whole life to doing: I finished one thing and wanted to do something else. Now, I dedicate myself to being and discovering myself,” he says. Donald Clifton McCloskey (79), tuning a guitar, one of the musical instruments he has at his home in San Isidro. The artist, son of the legendary Don Dean, an American jazz musician who played alongside greats such as Louis Armstrong and Argentine Leila Suarez Howard, is the one who provided the voice for the song “Teritando,” which He hits Which became the theme song for a memorable late 1960s cigarette commercial starring Liliana Caldini. Not only did Donald write and sing a host of songs that continue to this day: all with clever onomatopoeia – like sucundum, checkendengue, poponsh or rakatakatá – and all of them so catchy that they make you want to dance and put a smile on your face.
Donald was a television host and starred in comedies and musicals. At the age of 53, he graduated as a lawyer, and in 1999, he was an advisor at a live gala in San Isidro. In recent years, he realized that he was a writer: he started talking about his shows on social networks and ended up publishing donald, Artist has no expiration date (Editorial Galerna), a book in which he spoke as never before about his childhood, his successful career and the amazing family he built with Veronica Zemborin, the girl who fell in love with him when he was 20 (she was 18) and with whom he had his four children: Melody (50, producer and singer), Marina (49, mother), Patrick (45, translator) and Mickey (42, gardener and sound technician) and nine years old. Grandchildren: Victoria, Damian, Anna, Isabella, Augusto, Nahuel, Kai, Okan and Mikala.
It was “Mr. Parkinson” – as he called the disease with which he was officially diagnosed in 2022, when he was 75 – who gave him the impetus, in this new phase of his life, to continue that unique bond that has bound him to people for decades.
– How did you react when you learned that you had Parkinson’s disease?
– During the pandemic, I was deeply saddened by the death of my younger sister Patricia (the older brothers are Alex and Buddy, members of Mac Ke Mac’s, a popular band in the 1950s. Patricia also rose to prominence as a singer). She lived alone, and because she was afraid to go out for fear of infection, she did not even go out to go to the supermarket. Stop eating. After that news, I sat in an armchair. literally. During those days, I discovered that one of my fingers was trembling. I went to the neurologist, and without hesitation, he said it was Parkinson’s disease. At the train station, when I returned home, I knelt on the platform and prayed to God: “I’m not asking you to take away my illness; I’m asking you to give me back my joy,” I asked.
-Were you a believer?
– Until the pandemic, God was a little story for me. Except for a few years in a secular school, I attended religious institutions; I finished high school at Cardinal Newman. At home, they were very faithful. I was 8 months old when my brother Billy, who was two years older than me, died: the babysitter who took him for a walk got distracted on the train bridge that passed near our house, in Figueroa Alcorta and Tagle, in Barrio Parque. When the train passed, he pulled Billy out of her arms. That first major tragedy marked my family, which had always been very happy. My siblings and I were raised by our grandmother, whom we called “Mama,” in Small hotelL of Pereira Lucena Street…. My mother and father lived a period of mourning that lasted almost five years: they closed themselves in; Especially my mother, who barely left her room. Except on Sundays, when he looked for me to go to Mass; At night he came to pray with me. In a way, God has always been there. After a car accident in 1972, I had a revealing dream: God said three words to me: “Keep going.”
–Have you faced illness in this situation?
I admit that at first I considered the diagnosis to be a divine punishment. Symptoms include not only tremors and imbalance, but also stiffness; It is created in the form of paralysis. And I’ve been so troubled my whole life! But living means accepting what you have. Staying complaining forever is useless. From my father, I inherited an attitude of gratitude. He was a brave and cheerful man who went through very difficult things: he wanted to do some work and they scammed him. Adding to the tragedy of my brother Billy’s death was the family’s bankruptcy. Overnight, I went from being a rich kid with all the tastes, to being left on the street. I was 15 years old. That’s when I made the decision to move forward without the melodrama. I poured that positive spirit into my songs. Although it’s my joke that it comes from the Latin word for “second” (secundum), to me, “sucundum” means that everything is fine.
– In Parkinson’s disease, there is a deficiency in the production of dopamine, the happiness hormone…
– Yes, but levodopa (a metabolic substance) replaces it artificially. I accompany the medicine that relieves tremors and stiffness with my personal formula: joy over sadness. I fight the disease without ever giving up. In the books I read, I found wisdom and peace. I eat well, do kinesiology, and take cold showers (I adopted the Wim Hof method: start the shower with hot water and in the last minutes, turn on the cold water). You know? I never caught a cold again! With this attitude, I faced the three operations for a hernia in my spine that later developed cancer.
-How did you get this other diagnosis?
– I backed away a little. It was November 2024: After the third operation, the doctors saw something strange. It was colon cancer. I did chemo and radiation until mid-February this year. I am cured of cancer and I will be cured of Parkinson’s disease: I am confident that five years from now, science will find a cure. Before they said cancer was incurable…but just as I initially felt the disease as a divine punishment, I later viewed it as a blessing. The most important thing is that he made me learn.
-What did you learn?
-I discovered that I have more friends than I thought. I have hundreds of friends, thousands! I have learned to appreciate my family more than ever. My father said something that I have embraced as well: “There is nothing more important than family.” It’s like this. After the pandemic, we traveled to Hawaii, where two of Marina and Mike’s children live. And with the waves and the wind, and with my children and grandchildren, I started to get better. Everyone provided me with support and inclusion. The joy began to return. Since the beginning of my career, I have had the advantage of having a united family. When I signed my contracts – to work on the beach, or in ski resorts, or in the United States, where we live – the first thing I arranged was for everyone to come with me. We had so much fun. Veronica has always been my teammate. She is the love of my life. When I saw her for the first time, I said to myself: I will marry this girl. We got married after a stalemate that lasted nine years and an engagement that lasted five months. His father thought that our lives would not last because he was famous. But I never believed it; I’ve always had a low profile. We’ve been together for fifty-two years! He was there for me, always steady. She took care of our children while I worked; He took care of our grandchildren and now he takes care of me. Being sick made me appreciate being alive.
– And you have many projects: you continue to work with Las Sucundum (the band formed by your eldest daughter Melody: in the shows, they sing Donald’s songs) and this month you will present your book Donald, an artist without an expiration date in Mar del Plata (co-written with journalist Diego Borinski).
– I am looking for a return to this special situation, of limited movements, with creativity and good behavior, a legacy from my parents without religion. After the farewell tour on stage (the conclusion was last year at the Teatro Colón in Mar de Plata), a new phase has begun: although I no longer perform any live shows, I make recordings in the studio with different artists and songs for advertising. Projects give energy and enthusiasm. I’m so excited to be giving guitar lessons to Isabella, one of my granddaughters. She is the daughter of Melody (her eldest daughter, musical heiress, and manager) and has an incredible voice; I’m excited for him to start singing. Doing the Camino de Santiago with Vero is a big desire, but first I decided to walk to Luján. I’ll do it slowly, at my own pace. And I’m already starting a new book. I already have the title. He will be called Help yourself.
Makeup and hair: Joaquina Espínola (@joaquinamakeupartist)