English Translation for "The Headless Man"

This is my English translation of

The Headless Man

shown on January 21, 2009 on the Spanish channel "Univision". (there is a short commercial before the video)
More creative translation ideas are welcome!


What Happened to the Headless Man?

Reporter: Alvaro Escobar is tired of being “The man without a head” from his town. That is why he now spends half the day praying to God the He would return his head to its right place. The neighbors insist that Alvaro lost his head from the times when he used to work as a gravedigger in a cemetery in the city of Santa Marta, on the shores of the Caribbean.

Jefferson Velez, Neighbor: A lot of people say that it was like a curse, a bad curse that a witch or some other person placed on him. But I don’t believe in that; because it is a natural condition that happened to him.

Gilda Rosso Altamar, Neighbor: He was not like that. He was a normal person, and correct. He was a spectacular gentleman. Not crippled like now.

Reporter: The neighbors say that they’ve seen him cry in secret every time travelers that come through the town treat him as if he were a circus attraction.

Dr. Karen Chamarro, Town Doctor: What happens to us always, those that come from the outside take him like that, like the town attraction, like a hundred people that say “I saw that monster” if they see him. So it’s like a lot of people are just enjoying the morbid. But in reality, nobody says “We are going to help him.”

Reporter: Alvaro lives from the little that his older brother is able to scrape together who in addition has to provide for a family of 12 children.

Adriana Villamarin, Univision Reporter: In spite of his painful case, and Alvaro’s dramatic situation, it has not managed to awaken the solidarity of the local nor national authorities. This man continues to walk the streets of his town, Tenerife, in absolute poverty.

Reporter: The people of the town say, that since a short time ago, their Alvaro talks less, forgets things quickly, and now even if he wanted to, cannot eat. It looks as though the deformation of his neck does not allow oxygen to flow freely to his brain, and even less, for food to pass through his throat.

Gilda Rosso Altamar, Neighbor: He is not the same anymore, to eat a fish like he used to do, only liquids now, because he doesn’t eat anymore.

Reporter: And that is why not one day goes by that Alvaro doesn’t walk through the streets asking for a little something to alleviate his hunger a little bit.

Interviewer: “Do you want money?”
Alvaro: “Yes”
Interviewer: “What for?”
Alvaro: “To buy… nothing (material). Soup. To buy soup.”

Reporter: The doctors know what condition Alvaro has.

Dr. Nancy Ramos, Tenerife Hospital Doctor: It’s an acquired malformation because he was not born that way. The malformation we believe has to do with a problem with the membranes and muscular weaviture of his neck.

Reporter: But Alvaro doesn’t have anybody in the world that wants to help him no longer be “The man without a head” that scares the children of Tenerife.

Edwin Camargo, Neighbor: The caregivers, above all, are the family. And they have left him alone. The children don’t live here, and he doesn’t have a wife.

Reporter: The authorities of this town that is getting poorer and poorer, and that remains out of communication with the rest of Colombia because of torrential rains, recognize that they have kept their arms crossed while Alvaro dies from sadness and hunger. And that is why he cannot eat like others.

Jorge Cursio, Mayoral Representative : Alvaro hasn’t gone to a doctor; probably because of some negligence by the family; and probably, not so much by the family as perhaps by the whole town of Tenerife.

Reporter: ... who can count on the fact that Alvaro will be walking daily between the cemetery and the church. And they can only hope that the prayers of this man will reach a good place and will be finally heard.