Gone too soon…Erron Golanche, dead at twenty-five
Erron Golanche
A funeral service for twenty-five year old Erron Golanche was held today at the Ephesus Seventh Day Adventist Church in Belize City. Golanche was killed in a traffic accident last Friday in Orange Walk Town, he was knocked down by a foreign national, who it is believed has absconded across the border evading the police. Golanche’s death is a loss to the artistic world and today, Duane Moody, found out more about the life of the graphic designer.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Sometime around eleven p.m. on Independence eve, the artistic world lost one of its budding, multitalented youths in a fatal road traffic accident in Orange Walk. Twenty-five year old Erron Golanche was on a motorbike with his brother-in-law when a white pickup truck knocked both of them off the cycle; Erron landed to his death on the pavement, while his brother-in-law was badly injured and hospitalized. The driver, identified as Freddy Hernan Villada, stopped a good distance away from where accident occurred. But, instead of rendering aid, he fled the scene and remains still on the lam.
Jerrilyn Flowers, Mother of Deceased [File: September 23rd, 2013]
Jerrilyn Flowers
“I was given a call approximately eleven o’clock on Friday night that Erron was involved in a fatal traffic accident by a member of his household where he lived. I never had any reaction at the time because, you know, you’re just processing the whole thing to make sure that it’s true and it’s correct and everything. I had to go and see the site where the accident occurred and two ladies that were on the scene said that they were driving in a white minivan and they saw the person coming behind them crossing the street from one side to the other. So what they did, they pulled aside in order to let the guy pass but even after they pulled themselves to the side of the street to allow him to pass he still swerved across the street and hit Erron off the cycle where he was waiting to take the curve to cross to his home. After hitting Erron, Erron landed to the middle of the street. The young man behind him fell to the side with blood pouring from his mouth. They took the child to the hospital but they never took Erron because they said that when they checked him he never had any pulse, any movements. Immediately after they hit him he gave one gasp for breath and that was it. The driver, after hitting them, he continued driving.”
Erron was an artist, also known as Night-Owl. He was known for his spoken words, his participation in graffiti art competitions as well as a videographer, painter and graphic designer. He was a multitalented youth who refused to become a statistic of societal ills.
Gilvano Swasey
Gilvano Swasey, Friend of Deceased
“What struck the most to me about Erron was his dedication—if you give him a project, he does not leave that project—and then his eagerness to learn. When he first came to the gallery, he came as a visual artist—drawing and so forth. And I tried to discourage him not just to stay there because it is a challenge to be an artist in Belize. So Erron moved from that into an era of graphic design, then we gave him the camera and then he eventually started to do vide; then he started to edit and eventually he even came into his own productions. So Erron drove himself like many other young people, he could have fallen apart and become a statistic, but he drove himself to the limit where he became self-employed, self-sustainable and he was at a level where nobody would have thought he would have gotten there. We couldn’t go into the Channel Five space until after the news—eight nine dah night—and he is a night man so we first worked on the new news set. We first worked on that and Erron helped me with the concept design. I had what I wanted but Erron visually—we took a shot of the space, superimposed the color, the shape of the table, the distance of the camera and so forth. So whenever I was going to sell the idea to Aunt Amalia, she could have seen perfectly how it would have looked. And then we moved to the Grace Cooking Show set. Again he worked with the concept with me and literally put the pieces together. He also did several unique logos that some people might not be familiar with. He did the Mega Bingo Logo, he did that from scratch. We did a logo for Toys for Tots. We did logos for National Aids Commission, we did logos for NICH; we did logos for many people where you wouldn’t have known who would have done it. And the good thing about Erron, he had a very clean finish to everything. So many people thought these things were done outside or they were imported, but these were all local talent and it was this young, black person from the edge of society who made these things look on a modern level.”
For the past year, Erron was a graphic designer with Nokturnal Studio in Orange Walk, where he lived. Former co-worker and friend, Alfred Ayuso, says that just hours before his untimely death, they spent the whole afternoon working together. Erron was the life of the business.
Alfred Ayuso
Alfred Ayuso, Former Coworker of Deceased
“He started last year September. Since then, ever since he came in, I expected a lot from him. I knew he would bring a lot to the business and everyone that worked with us. As for what he did there, he was my graphic designer and my motion artist so we worked closely together to produce a lot of commercials. In that span of a year, we did a lot of work for a lot of really big companies and stuff.”
Among his many talents, Erron previewed to the entire country and the world, his musical aptitude as a beat-boxer with singing sensations the Acafellas during the last season of Channel Five’s Be The Next Superstar.
[Highlights of Erron Golanche performing on Be the Next Superstar Season Two…]
And today, as he was laid to rest, his past co-workers…his friends spoke of how they will remember Erron the most.
Gilvano Swasey
“I think Erron, and I know he know he knew that people valued his work. Dah noh di classic wait till the man dead fi tell ahn he ih good. Erron knew that. I think his mom was very proud of him—where he was driven—and his mom was the center of his life. And he made sure that, from what I saw, whenever he made any money, it went back to home.”
Alfred Ayuso
“He was honestly just very happy; in a very good mood. I would just like for everyone to know that up until that day, he was just very happy and very contended. The only thing that makes me feel bad is that I knew that he had a lot he wanted to do; he had a lot he wanted to accomplish; he had a lot of dreams.”
Gone too soon…Erron Golanche, dead at twenty-five. Duane Moody for News Five.
