May 27, 1948 – February 2, 2012
One year ago, Rene, linguist, Gay Games gold medalist, and 30-year HIV survivor, died after increasingly difficult bouts of mental anguish. He was born in Havana, Cuba and battled discrimination after being expelled from university and employment for being gay. He came to the U.S. in 1980 in the Mariel boatlift and battled further discrimination by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which sought to deny his citizenship when he admitted to them he was gay. After a lengthy court fight he won his citizenship in 1989.
He quickly found work in the burgeoning IT world and began his career as a computational linguist. He won several awards from Microsoft for his work in developing spelling and grammar checks in a host of languages. He spoke seven languages including Esperanto and could get along in at least six others. He was a handsome and sexy man who loved to sing and was the life of any group.
He began a long-distance relationship with his partner Alan Lessik in 2000 and finally moved to their Bernal Heights home in 2010. He is also missed by his twin sons, Sandor and Franco, his aunt Helga Engelhardt, former partners, relatives, and friends around the world.