The Boy Who Showed Us That Reading Is Medicine

This article is a small tribute to Rubén Darío Àvalos, a boy from Paraguay who died at the age of 12 due to a strange condition called histiocytosis. This little angel twisted stories and read Plato to try to forget his illness. In fact, Rubén’s existence was a miracle that was always on the lips of health workers and volunteers at the Spanish Association Against Cancer , which provides support to children and families. His whole life testifies that reading is medicine.

Rubén published four books with stories and a historical short story: Meetings with Rubén (2015), Sense of Purity (2015), Letters and Other Unpredictable Stories (2016), Mästarmedicinen (2016) and Tiaran (2017) . As Rubén Darío Àvalos lacked a body defense, he found refuge in his books.

After Rubén’s death, I believe that it is not only other children in his situation who will benefit from his fantastic story, but also young people and adults who go through a similar experience. Rubén fought against all adversity by reading books, writing and having enthusiasm to learn.

During an interview in 2015, Rubén talked about how reading has saved him. In an interview, he explained how reading and writing were a refuge for him so that he could manage his illness. When this disease was discovered late, it became chronic, and he had to undergo chemotherapy throughout his life.

Rubén considered reading to be medicine. The books he loved most were “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “Platero and I”, “Pascual Duarte’s Family”, “The President”, “The Metamorphosis”, “Treasure Island”, “Son of Man”, “Fictions”, “Around the World” in 80 days ” and “ War of the Worlds ” . Due to this variation in his reading, his own short stories and stories do not have a specific style. Every story he came up with is completely different.

He enjoyed reading so much that he managed to sink into other worlds. In these worlds he traveled to other places and other times, and got to know other people and new friends. He compiled stories that he had written at different ages, from 2 to 12 years of age. He did not have to grow up to be amazing. The legacy of his words and strength will remain in his books.

To create his characters, Rubén found inspiration in the people he encountered. He met them in his dreams, the books he read or simply had in his imagination. He always tried to give them a very well-defined personality and make their life a message. He also generally showed both their virtues and their flaws. He also showed that we can work with these defects to make them part of our virtues. He fed the self-esteem of brave people and gave them a determination to live this way.

The historical short story he skewed was about animal cruelty and bullying. His favorite work was “The Best Medicine of All”. He considered reading to be medicine for the soul and that is why the book was given this name. The stories in the book were written at different ages (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) and each idea was therefore presented in a different way than the previous ones.

He used the proceeds from these books to pay for his treatment in Seville. His life philosophy was that we should always see the positive side of things. No matter how bad the situation is, it is our job to find the positive side and be grateful for it. Remember that reading is medicine.