Does Help Me Henry have an expiration date? The journalist, already retired by the employer, tells how the space was born and his commitments to the channel

When Henry Dueñas, the host of the “Help me, Henry” segment of the news contact at dawncame to ecuavisa At the age of 19, he did it as a camera assistant. Her mother, worried because he worked in the South Market of Guayaquil as a vendor and had begun to have alcoholism problems, begged him to go to the Canal del Cerro, where there was a job opportunity that she saw as a lifeline.

Thus begins a 34-year career. Today, Henry is one of the most recognized community journalists in Ecuador. Although he is retired from the channel, every morning he enters the homes of his viewers, to whom he informs; he recriminates the authorities and demands to attend to the needs of the sector that he visits; He brings a smile to everyone with his traditional bear hug at the end of each appearance.

For Henry, the best bear hug ever received is from his mother. He maintains that he reads 20 books a year, distracts himself by playing with his two dogs, doing gymnastics and sowing in the field to which he promised to return, which today is fulfilling a community project. What is the community for him? “We are all”, answers the popular communicator, who this week answers the 35 questions of EL UNIVERSO and defines himself as a montuvio; therefore, the cap that identifies him in his coverage. He confesses that he has 50 hats given away.

1.- What is your full name?

Henry Alfredo Duenas Velez.

2.- How is it defined?

Loyal.

3.- Where does it come from?

Manabi, Ecuador

4.- What is Pichincha (canton where you grew up) for you?

The scent of my people.

5.- Where are you going?

To the scent of my people.

6.- Why did you decide on journalism?

He wanted to be a soldier, he wanted to be a priest. My mother knelt down: she didn’t want me to be a trader in the South Market. And he was an altar boy with Father Fernando Amores, who did the program MessageSunday masses in TC Television. And one day the opportunity for a job in ecuavisa34 years ago, on May 10, 1989.

7.- What should I do in ecuavisa?

Do whatever. My mother wanted to get me out of the South Market, which was a violent place, with gangs, strong problems. I was already in alcoholism. So, she considered that maybe moving to another place would give me a different opportunity.

8.- What did you do at the South Market?

He did everything. I sold chickens, birds of all kinds: ducks, turkeys, Australian birds, whatever came to market; green…

9.- What was your first job in ecuavisa?

Assistant camera.

10.- How did you get to the screen?

I demonstrated in ecuavisa that he had spirit. I was already writing poems then; I have five books that I don’t want to publish; I always check them and come back to change something. It’s like I become very strict despite the time. So, I was already writing and I ended up staying there. Fernando Artieda became a good friend of mine; Alberto Borges, too, for commercial reasons at the beginning, because Alberto liked old weapons and I knew where to find those things in the Bay. So, there we were related. And to him one day I say: “Do you think there is an opportunity here for more?”; and he answers me: “Yes, you have much more to do; you are going to get very high”. So I tell him: “I’m going to study cameramanship”; and he answered me: “No, you have to study Journalism. Go now, they’re going to wait for you at the Facso”. So it was.

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11.- And when did you start working as a journalist in front of the camera?

Ah, well, from there it happens that I start making cameras; I started recording the fires at night; I received several notifications of applause for the work done. From there, then, I began to do a job that nobody in the country did: it’s called videographer. I took the camera, set up the tripod, took my screenshot, did everything; he was a total journalist. I did research with several journalists; some are no longer there; The one you find is María Cecilia Largacha, a woman who taught me a lot. And in that process I did the best investigations, I think: we did the Restrepo case, the Civil Registry problems and some other things.

12.- Is there someone you can call your guide on this path?

There are three. Carlos Armansa, wonderful; he is the father of many journalists in the country. Fernando Artieda, the one who gives me this style and tells me not to change it, to be original. And don Alberto Borges, who urges me not to stay, to continue fighting.

Despite the fact that someone one day said in the company that I wasn’t going to be a cameraman, I’m here, well, with a segment called “Help me, Henry”.

13.- Are you satisfied with what you have done?

With what God has given me, a lot. My job now is to serve.

14.- How long have you been getting up early?

Like 20 years.

15.- What time do you wake up?

Four o’clock. I sleep between four and five hours.

16.- Have you thought about retirement?

I am already retired by the channel.

17.- But it is still linked to ecuavisa…

Yeah.

18.- How was “Help me, Henry” born?

The owner of ecuavisa Back then I wanted someone who didn’t have like that link to public relations. I was a researcher, there were some things that we were doing, and he considered that he needed someone who would come closer to the community, but who would stay in ecuavisano what ecuavisa catapulted him to later say: “Hey, they called me from such a channel and they are paying me more.” I made him a proposal, but I tell them that the segment has to be called “Help me, Henry”, and they accept it. And that commitment to them and my loyalty to them leads me to stay in the channel as long as I want to.

19.- What did you guarantee to ecuavisa that you would not go to the competition or the public sector?

I am a montuvio of word. In our land they say that the word of a gallero is a word, and I have that word. If I tell you that I am with them, it is because I am with them. It doesn’t matter if a channel is going to pay me a million dollars, it doesn’t matter; as in politics: they have offered me thousands of dollars to be a politician; I will not accept them. I have already given my word, and it is my directors who have the decision to leave or stay.

20.- Does “Help me, Henry” have an expiration date?

I don’t know; God knows that and the owners of the channel know it.

21.- What is your best experience?

There are many… When you help someone who was about to die, a child who is not cared for by the health system… For me, until they solve a sewage problem, it fills me with happiness.

22.- And the worst experience?

Whoa! I was kidnapped in Esmeraldas, beaten. And, for the first time, today I was also beaten (I collided with a police officer while I was on a live broadcast on February 1, 2023, the day of this interview). The first brush I have at 34 years of career. I had never had a problem of this nature. There is a brush with a person, blows and, well, that.

23.- Has journalism left you friends?

I have friends everywhere, all over the country. I have people who love me very much, but the most important are my family.

24.- And enemies?

I don’t know how many, but God is strong, he is my bodyguard.

25.- How do you see yourself in ten years?

No hair (laughs).

26.- What seduces you?

Whoa! My mother, my wife, my children.

27.- Your greatest ambition?

Whoa! My field, where I am now.

28.- What do you ask God not to lose?

Look, if God, like right now, is about to take my mother away, that’s fine. But if someone attacks them, they’re going to mess with a demon.

29.- What advice from your mother stuck in your heart?

I believe that she is part of the fact that I have stayed in ecuavisa, because he knelt down and said: “You have to go.” Because the salary was very small compared to what I earned on the streets: it was 30,000 sucres, for the 200,000 sucres that I earned on the streets. When I saw that check, I didn’t know what to do. But then I found myself in ecuavisa other business; So I sold them clothes and I already solved the problem (laughs).

30.- What inspires you?

The eyes of my wife. I am inspired by sunsets, hugs from my children.

31.- What disappoints you?

Corruption and the politicians who are currently candidates and who have generated corruption.

32.- When you are alone, what memories invade you?

The rain. When I was a child, in my town, he would wet me. I looked like one of those little pigs wallowing in the mud, and now that it’s raining in Casa Vieja (his farm) I do it again.

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33.- Do you enjoy nature?

I believe that human beings are forgetting what gives them life, and that is connecting with God. God gave you this house; you have to sweep, clean and take care of it; if you don’t, then you are not with God. Although I am not the only one who is contributing with this seed, we are many, I think we need many more who are aware. Unfortunately, in Latin America and part of Europe there is a brutal, disastrous tendency to continue bombarding what life gives us.

34.- What are you doing now to contribute to life?

cultivating. I am directing a teaching project for peasants who are very poor and who are asking the governments, when things can be done from scratch. And we can go back to the fields, tell the young people that a journalist, an architect, anyone can return to sow the land.

35.- You define yourself as a montuvio. Generally, in the fields of Ecuador nicknames are given: do you have one?

oh! They gave me some. She will laugh: when I got here they told me bobo chicken; later they nicknamed me he crazy henry; and in my family they call me kid henry.

How was the kidnapping that Henry Dueñas mentions as the worst experience of his life? How did he manage to escape from his captors. Our subscribers can read it by clicking here.